Hola from Cozumel!

[Foo]

Hi everyone, Fooman and I arrived with our newbie diver friends on Friday, staying at Hotel Cozumel, good recommendation from those of you who said go for it. Went to the plaza that night, ate at Casa Denis, yummmm. Shrimp fajitas for me, mango margaritas all around. Paid many mariachis for music, enjoyed ourselves but turned in early since we were diving in the morning.

Did our first dives yesterday with Chucho Divers. Jesus is the divemaster/owner, he worked for Dive with Martin for a long time for those of you who may be familiar with that op. 1st dives yesterday, Palancar Gardens then Columbia Shallows (which i could do every dive there!) saw many tropicals, turtles and 3 good sized nurse sharks, very cool. Saw a huge turtle on the surface at the end of our dive, a 1st for me, very nice.

Met OkieDirtDiver and his wife on the boat, made plans for dinner with them, then i got sick in the afternoon, (hotel buffet probably wasn´t warmed to standards, ha) so our friends met them and went to Los Otates for dinner while Fooman and I stayed in, ate Ritz crackers and Sprite, very cheap meal.

Got up this morning, friends had already rented jeep and taken off by the time i could move around, went to Rockin´Java for breakfast, oatmeal helped a lot. Shopped since then and going to surprise my dive instructor in a minute by showing him my face, they have been here for a while but don´t know we are here too! Going to eat with oki diver, etc tonight and hit the sunday nite fiesta on the plaze. Wish you were all here, will keep you posted on our adventures!

 

[thevalkyry]

Foo - glad to hear that you are having fun. Missing Coz... although I did have 2 great dives with Robert on the Giant Stride Saturday AM despite the initial 'oh yeah, I cant see through this water.' Scored new sunglasses at Starnes

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Met OkieDirtDiver and his wife on the boat, made plans for dinner with them, then i got sick in the afternoon, (hotel buffet probably wasn´t warmed to standards, ha) so our friends met them and went to Los Otates for dinner while Fooman and I stayed in, ate Ritz crackers and Sprite, very cheap meal.

sounds like too many Mango Margaritas to me

 

[Guba]

Of course you know all about the water, right? But watch out for those ice cubes, too! And hopefully you found the "supermercado" a few blocks from Hotel Cozumel. It's the Walmart down there and will have everything you need at MUCH cheaper prices than the marketplace. (Just in case you need to superhydrate on purified water, resupply on "meds" or anything.)

Hope you're feeling better and enjoying some great dives. Wish I were in Coz!

 

[deadly_risk]

Sounds like a awesome trip overall so far. Enjoy the nice pretty water! Lake Travis misses you.

 

[Texas Torpedo]

Terry, hope your feeling 100% again soon and getting in lots of dives.. Look forward to hearing more from you and your trip!

David

 

[Foo]

Our other newbie diver couple friends arrived yesterday, so now our 6pack boat is full. Hooked up again with Okiedirtdiver and his wife and another dive boat friend for dinner at the plaza(casablanca) last night. it was delicious but very hot, no fans, as we were upstairs, ewww. We hung around the sunday night fiesta, enjoyed the music, and tried to take our friends to the diver´s fountain, but it wasn´t working, does anyone know what´s up with that? We love that fountain so we were disappointed not to be able to show it to our buds. Turned in about 11, got up and met the boat at 8:30 this morning, and started our dives at Palancar Bricks. It was beautiful, the swim thrus are challenging as it can get a little tight there, but it turned out fine. Did our surface interval at Palancar Beach, watched iguanas and sat under the coconut trees (boink!) in the shade, until leaving to dive Tormentos. I saw my first SEAHORSE!! Was a fairly swift current (always a pretty good current on that dive), but were plenty of tropicals around, including a huge parrotfish. (There were 3 huge parrotfish on our first dive the other day, they are so cool looking- they have lips!) We also had a video made of today´s dives, will receive it in about 3 wks, will share with my fellow swampdivers a CSSP soon if you want to see! After a nice lunch at RockinJave (again) we are taking an internet cafe break before returning to the resort for the all important afternoon nap. Will continue to keep you posted on our Mexican adventures, hope everyone is doing great!

 

[Centexbear]

Hi Foo! I LOVED Columbia Shallows too...maybe my favorite dive for it's ease and long bottom time, beautiful coral and so many fish.

Mmm, the mango margs are Denis were the bomb!

You're making me miss Cozumel more than I already do!

Have a great trip!

 

[scubashawn123]

Our other newbie diver couple friends arrived yesterday, so now our 6pack boat is full. Hooked up again with Okiedirtdiver and his wife and another dive boat friend for dinner at the plaza(casablanca) last night. it was delicious but very hot, no fans, as we were upstairs, ewww. We hung around the sunday night fiesta, enjoyed the music, and tried to take our friends to the diver´s fountain, but it wasn´t working, does anyone know what´s up with that? We love that fountain so we were disappointed not to be able to show it to our buds. Turned in about 11, got up and met the boat at 8:30 this morning, and started our dives at Palancar Bricks. It was beautiful, the swim thrus are challenging as it can get a little tight there, but it turned out fine. Did our surface interval at Palancar Beach, watched iguanas and sat under the coconut trees (boink!) in the shade, until leaving to dive Tormentos. I saw my first SEAHORSE!! Was a fairly swift current (always a pretty good current on that dive), but were plenty of tropicals around, including a huge parrotfish. (There were 3 huge parrotfish on our first dive the other day, they are so cool looking- they have lips!) We also had a video made of today´s dives, will receive it in about 3 wks, will share with my fellow swampdivers a CSSP soon if you want to see! After a nice lunch at RockinJave (again) we are taking an internet cafe break before returning to the resort for the all important afternoon nap. Will continue to keep you posted on our Mexican adventures, hope everyone is doing great!

Great trip reports from the island. I am counting down. 8 days to departure from the rat race to paradise and diving every day. I am so excited about the trip, and reading your adventures sends me out to the blue clear water. I have not been in the ocean since January and it is going to be great.

Have FUN and save a margarita for me and the wife.

 

[vam302]

I just got back last night. If you have a free day, you might think about taking the ferry over to Playa del Carmen, renting a vehicle, and cruising down through Tulum to Coba to see the Mayan city. On the way back, you can hit up all the cenotes...very cool to dive/snorkel in (plus you'll need to cool off after hiking up those 365 steps!). Just an idea...