June 18-30 Cozumel Dive Trip

[alohagal]

Diver Down,

I am meeting lots of lurkers to your thread that are here in Cozumel!! People enjoying your real time trip report.

Bless your pea pickin' heart for taking the time and putting forth the effort.

Mary

 

[DiverDownAZ]

Diver Down,

I am meeting lots of lurkers to your thread that are here in Cozumel!! People enjoying your real time trip report.

Bless your pea pickin' heart for taking the time and putting forth the effort.

Mary

Thanks for letting me know, a little encouragement goes a long way.

Did you ever get over to see the monkey?

 

[alohagal]

Thanks for letting me know, a little encouragement goes a long way.

Did you ever get over to see the monkey?

No, I never did make it to see the monkey. Yesterday I did several shore dives. I have been diving everyday since I got here...and time just slips away. Now I have to do the 'bag drag' today, over to Playa for a week. (but I am not complaining)

I will continue to look at your trip report. Along with other non-posting lurkers.

Mary

 

[DiverDownAZ]

Day 9

This was a lazy day, The wife slept until 8:30 we got up had our protein drink and mango went to the pool and read for awhile

then the wife did the water aerobics class. The wife took her shirt off for the class and decided to leave it off The spf 30 she put on must not have been water proof because she is now a nice bright red.

About 1 we headed to Los Chalangos ecinomica cochino for lunch. It is on 10th and 15th It was good home style Mexican food like your grandmother would make. I had the Pollo Pipil which is a a chicken cooked with achiote paste and sour orange juice. Very very good. The wife had what we thought was going to be fish but turned out to be a zucchini succotash.

That's the risk of going into a place like this with no Spanish. But she enjoyed it and that's all that matters. The plates were served with rice and beans, tortillias, pasta soup and a piture of Tamarindo juice. Total price 110 peso. Then we went for a walk not going any where just checking stuff out. There are some nice houses right by sergios dive shop on 20th. We found a lot of restaurants that look good but will have to wait for another trip. Then it was back to the pool to read some more talked with some friends about places to eat.

About 7 we headed down for the sunset then over to HC Monterrey.

We loved this place over in Playa and I was excited when I found it on “can do” map. But we couldn't find it, may be it closed already?? If anybody knows please let me know. So it was plan B for dinner which meant sitting down a bench pulling out one of the threads I printed out from christis FAQ about food, since we were almost there we decided on El Foco on 5th and 3rd. We had pork chop tacos, gringas tacos and a dish with beef, pablano peppers and onions sauteed together. It was all very good The gringas were not as good as Los Otates but the pork chop tacos are my favorite so far of any style. The beef dish had a good mild flavor. The price was a little high but we got a ton of food we should have only gotten 2 dishes but I wanted to try the various flavors.

As we get closer to leaving the temptation is getting stronger. Then it was back to the hotel and in bed by10.

Misc note:it must be bike week on cozumel or something there are bikers everywhere

 

[Diver Lori]

Diver Down,

I am meeting lots of lurkers to your thread that are here in Cozumel!! People enjoying your real time trip report.

Bless your pea pickin' heart for taking the time and putting forth the effort.

Mary

Well, poop! I was there June 19-23 and didn't get around to reading this thread due to spotty wifi. When I could get a good signal I was Skyping home to check on my father's status.

I wish I had checked out this thread while there....would have gotten some good dinner ideas! We did have the Can-Do map, so that helped.

 

[DiverDownAZ]

Day 10

We got up around 730 did our normal routine with protein drink for breakfast and headed over to the dive shop. There are some pretty bikes down here in the hotel parking lot. Get to the dive shop and find out it is almost a private dive today. Just me and one other couple, the wife wasn't feeling good so just went for a ride along, $45 for the ride along ouch. But it was nice having her there. We took the boat “aquarama”

today since it was a small group and the swordfish was following Sergios granddaughter on her swim from Cozumel to Cancun 16 hours of hard swimming and she is only 12. I requested Colombia deep at the recommendation of some people we met down here. It was a very pretty dive with nice formations and swim threw, but not a lot of animal life. Max depth was 111ft our deepest so far.

Anybody into astronomy should recognize this picture. First person to identify the correct astronomical location gets their next post free.

Came up for the surface interval and it was pouring down rain no wind to speak of though we did see very small white caps for a couple minutes, but then the wind died back and the surface was totally calm again. As we headed for tormentos we came out of the rain cell for a little sunshine. Tormentos was very enjoyable with decent coral formations and a lot of sea-life. We found a large lobster taking a stroll across the bottom maybe the cloud cover confused him into thinking it was night??? I had my video camera lens attacked by a vicious damsel fish, he/she made 5-6 strikes on it trying to drive the intruder out of his area, and it was all caught on video. Found a small spotted drum 2-3 inches long hiding in some plants. The dm managed to get a nice picture I'm not sure if I got any video yet. I need to get a wide angle lens for this video camera it has a max optical zoom of 42X and the minimum zoom is at least 3X. I'm doing better with framing and speed of moving the camera but still have a ways to go. need to make a handle system for the housing to hard to tell when its up right when its round.


The lobster is at about the 2 minute mark
[vimeo]5360337[/vimeo]

Back to the room after the dives, uploaded the previous days report looked at our photos, and started watching the video. Then the wife fell asleep so started doing research on video lights, filters and wide angle lenses. This video thing is going to be expensive even with the homemade housing.


Went down for the most beautiful sunset then walked down to 5th and 6th to Al Pie Del Carbon for dinner. On the way to dinner we stopped at Hot Dog stand on the water front and 7th. It opens 7-730 serving bacon wrapped and bacon cheese wrapped hot dogs. They are served on the mexican hot dog buns that I love with mayo grilled onions and ketchup. We split one dog with cheese for 13 peso. Not as good as The place we used to have back home but if you need a cheap meal his would do it.

Then it was back on our way to Al pie Del Carbon ,Wow this was incredible. It is a steakhouse with seafood the menu is in Spanish only and not in normal restaurant Spanish it is in fancy place Spanish. We went with what we could recognize on the menu she had Dorado/ mahi I had arrachera steak. Hers was only incredible mine was far better. It was probably the most tender flavorful steak I have had. They serve a loaf bread before dinner with 3 sauces a spicy, garlic butter and chimichury. Dinner is cooked over wood coal grill right by the front door So you can watch them. With the main coarse you get grilled vegetables and a grilled potato. I HIGHLY recommend this place. Total bill was 315 peso including XX and a bottle of water. Make sure you bring peso the bill was 315 peso or $30US.

On the waddle back to the hotel they had a boxing match going in the park we went and watched from behind the barriers or a little while, Someone came and gave us tickets to get in but we needed to get going so gave the tickets to someone else. The wife wanted to stay, she was enjoying critiquing the fighters. She is a going for her 3rd level black belt and 3 time state womens sparring champion. So she knows a little about fighting.

 

[MMM]

Los Chilangos is less than a block from my house but we don't get there often as I'm usually just coming back from diving when they close. Good value. EC Monterray is a couple of blocks from my house - it's on the east side of 5th just before you hit the cemetary. I've never been to that last steak place you mentioned. It will go on my list of places to try.

 

[DiverDownAZ]

We just found HC with the assistance several people. AND they are open on sunday so we will be going there tonight. WooHoo!!

 

[DiverDownAZ]

Day 11

I am finally get used to sleeping during the day slept until 5:30 and worked on the trip report while the wife slept to 9:30. Once she was up we moved our being lazy down to the pool. About 11 it started raining so we came back to the room they don't have umbrellas or palapas by the pool, just a thick collection of palm trees so they don't stop the rain just slow it down a little. About noon the rain stopped so we went to find some lunch. Went down by the square first looking for a shop to get another floppy hat as I had left mine at the restaurant last night. I did not want to eat at any of the places on the square and Casa Denis was closed so we walked down to 30th and found a Pollo Asado place that was open. A large grilled chicken was 80 peso it came with rice, tortilla, salsa, and pickled red onion. Very good chicken it reminded me of “chicken chicken” on grand cayman.

After lunch we continued our walk down 30th until we came to the grocery store on the east side of the street and it started pouring. So we ducked in to store for a while. When the rain let up we once again continued down 30th. We continued this walk duck under cover routine until we were back at the waterfront and the north end of town. It rained hard for a while with lightning that was way to close for comfort at times only a couple seconds away. So for “SAFETY” the wife goes into a souvenir shop. I was ready at this point to catch a cab back. And it would have been cheaper than going into another shop. This particular store was huge they even had maps to tell you where you were. The only good part about the store was they were giving out tequila samples and selling liquor, on Sunday. After we did our part to boost the economy and the rain had stopped we started our walk back to the hotel made it all the way to Chedraui before it opened up again, by this time our compact umbrella we had brought was shot from the wind constantly turning it inside out. We ducked under a business awning where a nice guy offered us a ride to the hotel. But since we were almost there we finished the walk ourselves. This almost could have been called adventurous.

We got back to the hotel just about the time to leave for dinner. The wife decided to start packing as the next day would be busy with diving and then a trip adviser get together. When she finished we headed to HC Monterrey. The top 3 things for a successful restaurant are “location,location,location” and this place did not have it on a back road by the cemetery. It is a bit difficult to find. I was very excited about this place as we had eaten at HC in Playa and it was one of our favorites. Unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations. The meat was very tender but didn't have a lot of flavor. I would recommend this restaurant but would recommend the one from last night (AL Pie Del Carbon) much more.

 

[DiverDownAZ]

Day 12

It is our last dive day today. We got up had our normal routine of mango and protein drink. Walked down to the dive shop. We met 2 nice couples that would be diving with us one from Australia living in the UK the other from the UK living in Maritious. It was a very interesting group to talk to. We dove Palancar Horseshoe first which was as beautiful as the first time, we saw a large grouper that actually let me take some pictures, a small turtle and a huge barracuda that posed for pictures. It was a great last deep dive. During the surface interval the crew were fishing and hooked a nice 3ft mahi mahi unfortunately it got away right at the back of the boat. Our second dive was at Chakanab, This was also a nice dive we saw a spotted eagle ray, the Atlantis submarine, didn't see a lot of spectacular things but it was a very nice final dive. Back at the hotel we had to clean our own gear for the first time since we had been here since the shop had been doing it for us.

Then we got cleaned up and and went down to the scuba board / trip adviser get together that deb had organized. It was a great turnout with about 20 people. Alohagal was there with her broken up finger from the sidewalk accident. It was nice meeting everyone the only other names I can remember are macado and marcus08. We hung out at the La Hach bar for a couple hours had some margaritas, chips and guacamole and pastor tacos. Total bill for the night was 175 peso. The bar is right across the street from villablanca and has only been open for 5 weeks. Sam (Samantha) and Alex the owners have obviously put a lot of work into the place and I wish them and there cute little girl all the best. We walked back to the hotel and found a dance show going on by the pool. We had planned on walking into town for our last ice cream but stayed to watch the show. It was pretty funny especially when they got some guys from the audience to do a Tango competition with the showgirls.

Final Day

We had most of the packing done last night so today we just had the scuba gear and a little final packing to do. We finished up and headed into town for a last meal. We went to Casa Denis for the lime soup and a couple empanadas. The soup was great again and the crust on the empanadas was very good, but the filling was pretty skimpy. The ones at Especias were definitely better.

After breakfast the wife wanted to do some last minute souvenir shopping and I walked down to Veronicas for a massage. I got a hour massage which is really more like 1.5 hours start to finish. I headed down and Veronica informed me that the wife was upstairs getting her own massage. That was cheating she was only supposed to get massage or shopping not both.

After waiting for her massage to finish. We headed back to the hotel, checked out about 1pm and caught a cab to the airport with a stop at Los Otates for some tacos to go. Got to the airport ate our tacos then waited in the worlds slowest check in line. From there to the worlds slackest security. No taking stuff out our bags, no taking off shoes very much pre-911 type security. Then when they started boarding they announced absolutely no liquids, creams or gels in our carry on luggage and there would be a 100% search of all carryon’s. People were livid about this. We slipped some cream type medicine in our pockets other people said screw it we aren’t getting on the plane. I turned out to be a non issue they just unzipped the bags glanced at them and sent us on our way.

The flight to Houston was uneventful other than a weather delay landing and the fact she was in row 17 and I was in 28. We had a 17 hour layover that we spent with Eileens sisters and were able to celebrate on of the nieces birthday while there.

Summary:
Cozumel: One of the friendliest, cleanest, safest tourist city's I have been to.

Aquatic Sports: A+++ dive op if you like the larger slower more laid back type of operation with exceptional service. Sergio and Alberto are incredible dive masters. If you are into photography or video Sergio will be happy to give pointers and tips.

Hotel Cozumel: OK hotel with great location, close enough to town to walk but not in town with the crowds and road noise.

Food:
Favorites: Al Pie Del Carbon, Especias, Los Otates, El Foco
Least Favorite. Dorados De Villa on the square.

Massage: Veronicas between Diamonds international and the rug store, was affordable 20 for ½ and 40 for an hour and they were definitely worth it.

Overall I would rate this vacation an 11

Summary:
Cozumel: One of the friendliest, cleanest, safest tourist city's I have been to.

Aquatic Sports: A+++ dive op if you like the larger slower more laid back type of operation with exceptional service. Sergio and Alberto are incredible dive masters. If you are into photography or video Sergio will be happy to give pointers and tips.

Hotel Cozumel: OK hotel with great location, close enough to town to walk but not in town with the crowds and road noise.

Food:
Favorites: Al Pie Del Carbon, Especias, Los Otates, El Foco
Least Favorite. Dorados De Villa on the square.

Massage: Veronicas between Diamonds international and the rug store, was affordable 20 for ½ and 40 for an hour and they were definitely worth it.

Overall I would rate this vacation an 11