ECPaul
Contributor
Hotel: El Presidente
A nice hotel, with nice architecture and decorations, but too expensive. The cleaning service took a long time, and the food wasn't great. But good snorkeling right off of the beach. We went snorkeling right out from the hotel many times. You can walk right into the ocean and it is lined off with bouys so you don't go to far or run into the boats coming in. About 20 feet out from shore in 10 feet of water is a small wreck of a boat. There isn't much coral growing around it, but plenty of fish hang around. THere are severeal little patches of coral and the depth is only about 10-15 feet, so it makes for great snorkeling and also a refresher dive. Most of the marine life we saw were flounders, angelfish, jacks, silversides, moray eels, stingrays, blue tangs, other small fish, and parrotfish. THe parrotfish were very colorful and there were severeal types. A few times when we went out, mostly in the late afternoon, we saw some giant parrotfish about 3 feet long!!! Also, Paradise Reef was so close to the hotel that you could swim to it.
DIVES:
Tormentos (drift) - A great dive. This was the fastest of the drift dives, but excellent. Alot of marine life and a variety of corals. Many big creatures, such as barracuda, eels, groupers.
Palancar Gardens (twice) - Visibility was so so. Lots of pinnacles and swim throughs with a variety of corals. Saw a sea turtle.
Yucab (drift)(twice) - Very lovely. All of the coral was right under you, so it was very easy. Many little critters under ledges.
San Francisco Wall (drift) - San Francisco was an amazing dive. We went down to about 60 feet on the side of the wall, hanging over the edge. The wall was so lush with coral and colors!!! It was a moderate drift dive, and pretty easy. There were thousands of fish, and it was a great dive to start the week off with. Highly recommended.
Las Palmas Drop Off (drift)- Las Palmas was great. It was a very relaxing dive, and the coral was colorful, purples, oranges, greens. Lots of barrels sponges, and angelfish.
Paradise (night)- This was the last dive we did, after an afternoon dive at Tormentos. The boat was full, with about 8 people, due to mix ups. The water was flat, and probably 79 degrees. This was our first night dive, so we were all pretty nervous. But after we got our lights and rolled into the water, we were fine. Immediately we saw fish, some sleeping, and coral below us. It was odd and relaxing diving at night...the darkness had a positive mellow effect. We were at about 30 feet for 40 minutes. There, we saw our first octopus, scorpionfish, and king crabs, along with a couple of lovely splendid toadfish and a huge moray eel, who swam out of his hole and was probably 10 feet long!!! It was neat to see all of the sleeping fish tucked away, and small fish glowing in the night. This was definately the best place for a night dive.
MARINE LIFE:
-Green Sea Turtle (2)
-Queen Angelfish
-Gray Angelfish (huge!)
-French Angelfish
-Scrawled Filefish
-Black Durgon
-Reef Butterflyfish
-Sergeant Major
-Foureye Butterflyfish
-Rock Beauty
-Spotted Drum (Saw a couple large ones, and many teeny juveniles)
-Blue Chromis
-Blue Tang (Many)
-Yellowhead Wrasse
-Bluehead Wrasse
-Smooth Trunkfish (cute!)
-Trumpetfish
-Fairy Basslet
-Squirrel fish (Many)
-Stoplight Parrotfish (Many different kinds of Parrotfish, we saw giant 3 footers also!)
-Black Grouper (Many on Tormentos)
-Bar Jack
-Bluestriped Grunt
-Grey Snapper
-Graysby
-Yellowtail Snapper
-Octopus (A very colorful one on Paradise night dive)
-Sea Cucumbers
-King Crab ( A few huge ones. on Paradise night dive)
-Spiny Lobster (Many)
-Silversides
-Splendid Toadfish (Saw plenty!!! Very cool!!!)
-Spotted Moray Eel (Many)
-Green Moray Eel
-Scorpionfish (Paradise night dive)
-Brain Coral
-Tube Sponge
-Barrel Sponge (HUGE)
-Fire Coral
-Star Coral
-Sea Fans
-Flamingo Tounges
EATS:
La Choza- ~Mexican Food~ A bit busy, but nothing to complain about. It was a nice atmosphere, with a mariachi band who played at your table if you wished. The fajitas and margaritas were delicious. ****
Prima- ~Italian Food~ The restraunt was on the top floor, overlooking downtown. The meals were a good price, and alot of food. ****
Casa Denis- ~Mexican Food~ This is the oldest resturaunt in Coz. A nice, family run resturaunt, with limited seating. The food was excellent ****
Pancho's Backyard- ~Mexican Food~ You have to walk through a store to get to this, but thats ok. It had a beautiful atmosphere, with decorations, and plants everywhere. The food was delicious, and the ice cream is highly recommended. *****
La Mission- ~Italian Food~ Pretty busy, and a little touristy, but nice. Very good dinner and dessert. ***
Rock N Java- Even though we decided to walk from Blue Angel in the sweltering hot to get to it, this was great. Its a small resturaunt, and they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had a faboulous breakfast, and everything was inexpensive.*****
Presidente- not worth it *
OTHER:
Downtown was nice, but extremely crowded and touristy in most places. It was $7 to get to town in a taxi. There were usually 4-5 enourmous cruise ships at the pier, which was the cause for most of the crowd. We tried to stay away from the "cruise ship" places, such as Punta Langosta. We did do some inexpensive souveneir shopping, mainly shirts and small gifts. Most of the shops you will have to bargain with someone to get a good price, and people will try to sell you everything. There is a very inexpensive store, called the Cozumel Mart, in the center of town, with everything from a pharmacy to grocereys to clothes to souveneirs.
We recommend a store called the Mayan Batik Factory, right next to the resturaunt La Mission. They make their own t shirts that are beautifully created. We bought 4 shirts, and got a good price. We also bought a silk hammock which was nice.
We had a magnificent time.
Anywho, we will be posting lovely pictures soon.
Adios!!!
A nice hotel, with nice architecture and decorations, but too expensive. The cleaning service took a long time, and the food wasn't great. But good snorkeling right off of the beach. We went snorkeling right out from the hotel many times. You can walk right into the ocean and it is lined off with bouys so you don't go to far or run into the boats coming in. About 20 feet out from shore in 10 feet of water is a small wreck of a boat. There isn't much coral growing around it, but plenty of fish hang around. THere are severeal little patches of coral and the depth is only about 10-15 feet, so it makes for great snorkeling and also a refresher dive. Most of the marine life we saw were flounders, angelfish, jacks, silversides, moray eels, stingrays, blue tangs, other small fish, and parrotfish. THe parrotfish were very colorful and there were severeal types. A few times when we went out, mostly in the late afternoon, we saw some giant parrotfish about 3 feet long!!! Also, Paradise Reef was so close to the hotel that you could swim to it.
DIVES:
Tormentos (drift) - A great dive. This was the fastest of the drift dives, but excellent. Alot of marine life and a variety of corals. Many big creatures, such as barracuda, eels, groupers.
Palancar Gardens (twice) - Visibility was so so. Lots of pinnacles and swim throughs with a variety of corals. Saw a sea turtle.
Yucab (drift)(twice) - Very lovely. All of the coral was right under you, so it was very easy. Many little critters under ledges.
San Francisco Wall (drift) - San Francisco was an amazing dive. We went down to about 60 feet on the side of the wall, hanging over the edge. The wall was so lush with coral and colors!!! It was a moderate drift dive, and pretty easy. There were thousands of fish, and it was a great dive to start the week off with. Highly recommended.
Las Palmas Drop Off (drift)- Las Palmas was great. It was a very relaxing dive, and the coral was colorful, purples, oranges, greens. Lots of barrels sponges, and angelfish.
Paradise (night)- This was the last dive we did, after an afternoon dive at Tormentos. The boat was full, with about 8 people, due to mix ups. The water was flat, and probably 79 degrees. This was our first night dive, so we were all pretty nervous. But after we got our lights and rolled into the water, we were fine. Immediately we saw fish, some sleeping, and coral below us. It was odd and relaxing diving at night...the darkness had a positive mellow effect. We were at about 30 feet for 40 minutes. There, we saw our first octopus, scorpionfish, and king crabs, along with a couple of lovely splendid toadfish and a huge moray eel, who swam out of his hole and was probably 10 feet long!!! It was neat to see all of the sleeping fish tucked away, and small fish glowing in the night. This was definately the best place for a night dive.
MARINE LIFE:
-Green Sea Turtle (2)
-Queen Angelfish
-Gray Angelfish (huge!)
-French Angelfish
-Scrawled Filefish
-Black Durgon
-Reef Butterflyfish
-Sergeant Major
-Foureye Butterflyfish
-Rock Beauty
-Spotted Drum (Saw a couple large ones, and many teeny juveniles)
-Blue Chromis
-Blue Tang (Many)
-Yellowhead Wrasse
-Bluehead Wrasse
-Smooth Trunkfish (cute!)
-Trumpetfish
-Fairy Basslet
-Squirrel fish (Many)
-Stoplight Parrotfish (Many different kinds of Parrotfish, we saw giant 3 footers also!)
-Black Grouper (Many on Tormentos)
-Bar Jack
-Bluestriped Grunt
-Grey Snapper
-Graysby
-Yellowtail Snapper
-Octopus (A very colorful one on Paradise night dive)
-Sea Cucumbers
-King Crab ( A few huge ones. on Paradise night dive)
-Spiny Lobster (Many)
-Silversides
-Splendid Toadfish (Saw plenty!!! Very cool!!!)
-Spotted Moray Eel (Many)
-Green Moray Eel
-Scorpionfish (Paradise night dive)
-Brain Coral
-Tube Sponge
-Barrel Sponge (HUGE)
-Fire Coral
-Star Coral
-Sea Fans
-Flamingo Tounges
EATS:
La Choza- ~Mexican Food~ A bit busy, but nothing to complain about. It was a nice atmosphere, with a mariachi band who played at your table if you wished. The fajitas and margaritas were delicious. ****
Prima- ~Italian Food~ The restraunt was on the top floor, overlooking downtown. The meals were a good price, and alot of food. ****
Casa Denis- ~Mexican Food~ This is the oldest resturaunt in Coz. A nice, family run resturaunt, with limited seating. The food was excellent ****
Pancho's Backyard- ~Mexican Food~ You have to walk through a store to get to this, but thats ok. It had a beautiful atmosphere, with decorations, and plants everywhere. The food was delicious, and the ice cream is highly recommended. *****
La Mission- ~Italian Food~ Pretty busy, and a little touristy, but nice. Very good dinner and dessert. ***
Rock N Java- Even though we decided to walk from Blue Angel in the sweltering hot to get to it, this was great. Its a small resturaunt, and they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had a faboulous breakfast, and everything was inexpensive.*****
Presidente- not worth it *
OTHER:
Downtown was nice, but extremely crowded and touristy in most places. It was $7 to get to town in a taxi. There were usually 4-5 enourmous cruise ships at the pier, which was the cause for most of the crowd. We tried to stay away from the "cruise ship" places, such as Punta Langosta. We did do some inexpensive souveneir shopping, mainly shirts and small gifts. Most of the shops you will have to bargain with someone to get a good price, and people will try to sell you everything. There is a very inexpensive store, called the Cozumel Mart, in the center of town, with everything from a pharmacy to grocereys to clothes to souveneirs.
We recommend a store called the Mayan Batik Factory, right next to the resturaunt La Mission. They make their own t shirts that are beautifully created. We bought 4 shirts, and got a good price. We also bought a silk hammock which was nice.
We had a magnificent time.
Anywho, we will be posting lovely pictures soon.
Adios!!!
