We just got back Sunday from our first trip to Coz. A group of us go on a trip once a year and the majority picked Cozumel. I am not big into drift diving so it was not my first choice however it turned out to be a great trip.
We stayed at Villa Aldora. This is a perfect place for groups. The rooms can be combined in various different ways to accomodate small to large. We took the bottom floor which is also the shore level. Fabulous views, outdoor showers, covered patio. The distance from the door of my room to the water is about 30 feet. Good snorkeling right out front and the boat dock is right there. We had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and two kitchens in our set up. The place is clean well decorated and the housekeeper and grounds keeper where great. The Villa is less than a mile from town, however we chose to take taxi's due to the heat. A taxi was $3.
We also dove with Aldora, who we were going to use from the beginning and having the Villa now was a plus. Small fast boats. Max 6 divers, there were 5 of us so we had one additonal diver with us on our dives.
I'm not going to go into the dives by individual sites. My favs were Devil's throat, Santa Rosa reef, and San Francisco. We saw some BIG fish on these dives, huge groupers, a couple of gigantic green morays and several large rays. Our average bottom time was about 75 minutes. Aldora uses 120lb steel tanks. These are great for divers that need the extra so that they can stay down with the group, but for divers that don't use much air it could be a little frustrating to come up every dive with 1500lbs or better on every dive. In our case it did not matter because we dive together as a group all the time so we pretty much know what to expect in the terms of bottom time.
During our surface intervals we went to one of the resorts to have lunch and relax. After the first day we learned to bring our own food. The resort restruants were very expensive and the food ranked right up there with Taco Bell.
I was a bit surprised at the sparsity of sea life on most of the dives and some of the shallower reefs were not in all that good of condition. The deeper walls were spectacular, although again, not as much sealife as I would have expected.
We did one night dive on Tormentos. The current was ripping. One of our group made the comment that it was like sitting in a train watching the outside scenery go zipping past. It was an experience worth doing once, not one that I would choose to do again.
We ate at La Mission - way overpriced, terrible service and mediocre food.
La Choza - very good food, good service, a bit pricey.
La Prima - what can I say, we went to an Itialian restruant in Mexico. I guess we deserved what we got.
Casa Denis - Big thumbs up. Great food, great service. Moderately priced. My only objection to this place is the fact that they sat two cigar smokers right next to us. None of us smoke and there was no breeze that night.
La Cerla - I can't say enough about this place. Fantastic food and service. This place is back on 30 st. Obviously a local hangout. We ate ourselves silly and the tab for all 5 of use was $26
There was another place that we ate that I can't remember the name. Memo from Aldora took us there. This is a small seafood place that is in front of the owners house. We had fried fish and ceviche.. I could have eaten there every day for lunch.
Of all the places that I have been diving, Bonaire is my favorite, so from the beginning I was comparing Cozumel to Bonaire. Every place has it's pro's and con's. I still prefer Bonaire for the following. Way more sealife, little to no current,very healthy reefs, freedom of diving, way less expensive in all respects than Cozumel, much more laid back and not nearly as busy with people and traffic.
Pro's of Cozumel - much more to do when not diving. The walls were spectacular, great food ( at the right places)
very friendly people. Much better grocery stores ( if that is important).
For years I had heard about how inexpensive Cozumel is. I realize that this is all a matter of perspective, but all in all this was one of the most expensive dive trips that I have been on in several years. Yes, Aldora has slightly higher prices than many of the other dive shops, but the difference there is negligable compared to the cost of diving on Bonare. Where most dive shops on Coz charge between $60 and $87 for a two tank dive. You can dive on Bonaire for $99 for the entire week, unlimited tanks. The food on Coz is more expensive than the food on Bonaire and the addtional taxes are more expensive. I'm not trying to paint a negative picture about Cozumel, this is just my observation and opinon. We had a great time and I think anyone who has not been to Coz should go at least once.
I am a little concerned about what the Cruise ship traffic and the extreme saturation of motor vehicles is going to do to this island in the years to come. When the cruise ships hit the docks down town looks like San Francisco during rush hour.
Guess that's it.
Jim
We stayed at Villa Aldora. This is a perfect place for groups. The rooms can be combined in various different ways to accomodate small to large. We took the bottom floor which is also the shore level. Fabulous views, outdoor showers, covered patio. The distance from the door of my room to the water is about 30 feet. Good snorkeling right out front and the boat dock is right there. We had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and two kitchens in our set up. The place is clean well decorated and the housekeeper and grounds keeper where great. The Villa is less than a mile from town, however we chose to take taxi's due to the heat. A taxi was $3.
We also dove with Aldora, who we were going to use from the beginning and having the Villa now was a plus. Small fast boats. Max 6 divers, there were 5 of us so we had one additonal diver with us on our dives.
I'm not going to go into the dives by individual sites. My favs were Devil's throat, Santa Rosa reef, and San Francisco. We saw some BIG fish on these dives, huge groupers, a couple of gigantic green morays and several large rays. Our average bottom time was about 75 minutes. Aldora uses 120lb steel tanks. These are great for divers that need the extra so that they can stay down with the group, but for divers that don't use much air it could be a little frustrating to come up every dive with 1500lbs or better on every dive. In our case it did not matter because we dive together as a group all the time so we pretty much know what to expect in the terms of bottom time.
During our surface intervals we went to one of the resorts to have lunch and relax. After the first day we learned to bring our own food. The resort restruants were very expensive and the food ranked right up there with Taco Bell.
I was a bit surprised at the sparsity of sea life on most of the dives and some of the shallower reefs were not in all that good of condition. The deeper walls were spectacular, although again, not as much sealife as I would have expected.
We did one night dive on Tormentos. The current was ripping. One of our group made the comment that it was like sitting in a train watching the outside scenery go zipping past. It was an experience worth doing once, not one that I would choose to do again.
We ate at La Mission - way overpriced, terrible service and mediocre food.
La Choza - very good food, good service, a bit pricey.
La Prima - what can I say, we went to an Itialian restruant in Mexico. I guess we deserved what we got.
Casa Denis - Big thumbs up. Great food, great service. Moderately priced. My only objection to this place is the fact that they sat two cigar smokers right next to us. None of us smoke and there was no breeze that night.
La Cerla - I can't say enough about this place. Fantastic food and service. This place is back on 30 st. Obviously a local hangout. We ate ourselves silly and the tab for all 5 of use was $26
There was another place that we ate that I can't remember the name. Memo from Aldora took us there. This is a small seafood place that is in front of the owners house. We had fried fish and ceviche.. I could have eaten there every day for lunch.
Of all the places that I have been diving, Bonaire is my favorite, so from the beginning I was comparing Cozumel to Bonaire. Every place has it's pro's and con's. I still prefer Bonaire for the following. Way more sealife, little to no current,very healthy reefs, freedom of diving, way less expensive in all respects than Cozumel, much more laid back and not nearly as busy with people and traffic.
Pro's of Cozumel - much more to do when not diving. The walls were spectacular, great food ( at the right places)
very friendly people. Much better grocery stores ( if that is important).
For years I had heard about how inexpensive Cozumel is. I realize that this is all a matter of perspective, but all in all this was one of the most expensive dive trips that I have been on in several years. Yes, Aldora has slightly higher prices than many of the other dive shops, but the difference there is negligable compared to the cost of diving on Bonare. Where most dive shops on Coz charge between $60 and $87 for a two tank dive. You can dive on Bonaire for $99 for the entire week, unlimited tanks. The food on Coz is more expensive than the food on Bonaire and the addtional taxes are more expensive. I'm not trying to paint a negative picture about Cozumel, this is just my observation and opinon. We had a great time and I think anyone who has not been to Coz should go at least once.
I am a little concerned about what the Cruise ship traffic and the extreme saturation of motor vehicles is going to do to this island in the years to come. When the cruise ships hit the docks down town looks like San Francisco during rush hour.
Guess that's it.
Jim
