Report From The Island- 2/1/06

[Moodiejeff]

I was going to save this until tomorrow when I had a bit more info to put up but since it's 5 AM and I can't sleep I'll start now and add to it as the week progresses.

Just wanted to say that ggun's, diveborg's, redhatmama's (and others) reports have been spot on. There is obviously some hurricane damage still visible - the naval base, the dolphinarium & the Presidente are the most noticeable so far, but in town you would be hard pressed to notice. Greenery is slow to come back but is progressing nicely. It was a shock as we were coming in for a landing, it looked sooo different with less vegetation. I honestly can say that it just looks "different", not bad. Maybe farther south but we've only seen it from the boat.

I got in Monday afternoon so I haven't gone exploring too far yet. We are staying in town at Casa Mexicana. It's really a nice place, complimentary breakfast buffet is awesome!!! Rooms are nice and clean, it's readily apparent that this is a pretty new hotel. Best part, high speed connection in the room... great for insomnia!

Diving: Dive OP - Blue XT~Sea. We have only done 2 tanks so far... Palancar Bricks & Las Palmas. Except for a lack of sea fans, it was hard for me to spot hurricane damage.

Bricks: the major thing on Bricks that I did find was actually an enhancement rather than damage. There are some swimthroughs at the end that have been widened and deepened by a large margin. Pedro explained that they were there before but very small. Now it seemed that you could drive a car through them. OK, they weren't that big but you could easily navigate them and not fear bumping into anything. it was interesting to see the line where the sand had been washed away from the base of the coral. It was easily 5 feet if not more.

Las Palmas: Current had changed direction halfway through the dive so we only saw part of the site (twice!) but it seemed in good shape. It was never known for it's coral formations anyway, more for it's fish life and it didn't dissapoint... got to see an Eagle Ray along with eels, toadfish etc.

We did a surface interval (at Playa Palancar???) and the beach looked fine.

We have 3 tanks planned today, including a night dive, so I'll keep the updates coming.

Food: El Moro, Prima's & Casa Denis were all outstanding

Any Scubaboarders on the island with a spare OLY 5060 battery charger?...mine is on my kitchen counter along with my spare battery :34: Yep, I'm an idiot!

PM me if you can help. All is not lost, I do have Mia's camera to use which takes AAs.

 

[Wildcard]

Im here, same hotel and I have a 5060 charger I can share with you. PMing you

 

[scubawife]

When we were there in early Dec we didn't really know what to expect since there was so much conflicting info out there. We were very pleasantly surprised both above and below the water. Santa Rosa, Columbia and Punta Sur were in great shape. The shallower reefs, although there was some sand and lack of fans and sponges, were still teaming with life and I really loved seeing the newly budding sponges that seemed to have implanted themselves on broken coral.

We'll be back in 2 weeks and I'm really looking forward to seeing the changes since Dec. So I take it that surface intervals at the beach clubs have resumed? We missed that in Dec. Our SI's were spent with a very slow ride to the next site and some time on the boat once we got there. I hope business if picking up for everyone. Although it was nice to not have to share a dive site, it was sad to see so many boats not even leaving the Caleta.

 

[gdenny]

So you left your battery charger at home and you're rescued by someone staying at your same hotel... Some people have all the luck. I really don't understand why you unpack in the first place.

Glad to hear that you and Mia gave the Casa Mexicana a shot. I love the downtown location and the breakfast is tough to beat. If the reason you are up at 5AM has anything to do with the sound of dishes clinking and clanking, throw a towel on the floor by the door. It'll cut down on the noise quite a bit.

PM me when you guys get home. I wanna see some pics. Give Christi a hug for us and of course say hello to Pedro and Mago for us too. I'm soooo jealous but soooo excited too.

:babycrawl Due date is August. 4

Dive safe and enjoy your vacation!

 

[Divedoggie]

I hope business if picking up for everyone. Although it was nice to not have to share a dive site, it was sad to see so many boats not even leaving the Caleta.

I hope things are picking up, too! :balloon

However, I haven't seen ANY deals or promotions in leading dive magazines, web travel sites, or this board. The prices are about the same as ever. I have many back issues of dive mags for comparison.

If you want to re-establish clientel, do something special for them, have a sale.

That said, we can't be free until May, so even if there were some great deals right now, We wouldn't be able to take advantage of them.

In the meantime, I will live vicariously through the adventures of my friends, Jeff and Mia!

 

[scubawife]

I've gotten email specials from Sport Diver and Scuba Diving as well as directly from dive travel web sites. Guess it just depends what you're looking for. If you don't have a favorite dive operator and are just looking for a hotel & dive special, Island Dreams (www.divetrip.com), Bay Adventures (http://bayadventures.com/cozumel/specials.htm), Caradonna (www.caradonna.com/caradonna/specials.aspx) all have Cozumel specials on their websites.

Cozumel has had a rough time of it with two hurricanes and lots of expensive repairs. The bigger resorts and chain AI's may be able to afford deeper discounts, but for many of the small dive operations and the individual hotels it just won't be possible.

Both for Dec and for the middle of this month I got reasonable air fare (to Cancun), and on hotels in Cozumel. Both times I booked hotel specials online - Dec was w/ Travelocity and for this month w/ Expedia. They were pre-pay deals but well worth it. We've got a favorite dive op so I don't look for packages.

 

[Wildcard]

This is the deal I got. We are alone on the boat. Our DM stays 20 to 30 feet away and only bugs us when he sees something. We decide when we leave in the AM. It,s all our call and it,s cheap. Yesterday, we showed up, our gear was on the boat dry and set up. Two minutes later we left. Tomorrrow we will show up at our time, the boat and gear will be ready to take us where we want and we will have it to our selves.

What kind of deal could anybody ask for thats better than this...Stop your whinning and get down here and dive! These people are awsome!!!!!!
Diving with Sea Urchin divers BTW

 

[Moodiejeff]

:babycrawl Due date is August. 4

YAY!!! Congratulations!!! That is awesome news!

So you left your battery charger at home and you're rescued by someone staying at your same hotel... Some people have all the luck.

Luck huh? Try this one on... bought an SP-350 as a camera for Mia/back-up for me. Took that out today, did 3 dives... changed the batteries before the night dive. Camera floods but I don't notice 'til we get to the bottom. Now I remember why I don't use those damn dessicant packs!!! And why I don't like opening the housing on the boat. It just barely got caught under the O-ring.

Anyway, i still have my 5060. A BIG thanks goes out to Wildcard for being an all-around great guy!

OK, time to shower, then go eat. Had some awesome dives today that I will tell you about later. Of course the best one was the night dive... D'oh!!!

 

[Moodiejeff]

However, I haven't seen ANY deals or promotions in leading dive magazines, web travel sites, or this board. The prices are about the same as ever.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was a conscious decision by the hotel board to not discount. What the exact reason was I don't recall.

So I take it that surface intervals at the beach clubs have resumed? <snip> I hope business if picking up for everyone. Although it was nice to not have to share a dive site, it was sad to see so many boats not even leaving the Caleta.

We spent both SIs at Playa Palancar but only saw one other boat there each day, today was an afternoon dive though.

We've seen other boats and divers on our sites, but definitely not as many (not even close) as in the past. Funjet & Apple are kicking it in to high gear in a week or so, I think you'll see more people here later in Feb. That was one of the reasons why wecame when we did, we wanted to beat the "crowds"!

On a semi-related note: 2 cruise ships on Tues., 4 on Wed. Seemed like a lot of people in town when we arrived on Monday but didn't count the ships.

 

[Moodiejeff]

Colombia: Excellent visibility, awesome formations, a couple Black Tip Reef Sharks, a couple Turtles, a tiny pipefish etc.... a perfect dive. Vis was as good as it gets and absolutely no current. I couldn't see too much in the way of damage

Paso De Cedral: OK, my first real look at the damage... there was sand on some of the corals and a lack of standing fans or sponges. Sea life was great as per usual and highlights included a Spotted Eagle Ray, a Turtle and a large school of Jacks as we were doing our safety stop. It's going to take awhile for the sand to be blown off but it didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the dive.

Paradise (night): I had some trepidation about this dive... after reading some of the early reports about Paradise I was expecting the worst. Nothing could be further from the truth... in fact, I was hard pressed to see any damage. Of course it was night and it's hard to get the big picture but there were plenty of standing fans and soft corals. The sea life was out in full force too. I would have to say we saw at least 15 Octopus and maybe more. In addition we saw a LOT of Lobsters (The 3 S's - Spiny, Spanish & Slipper), Squid, Eels & Shrimp all over the place, you know, all the good stuff

The highlights were of course all the Octopus, a Splendid Toadfish out in the open, the Squid (always a rare treat), and a baby Black Spotted Eel.

Ooops, almost forgot the food from yesterday. During our SI Christi sent over some Shrimp Tacos from Camillo's... OH MY GOD! They were awesome! After our night dive we wanted something semi-light as we weren't too hungry. Andrew, Mia & I walked down to a new Sushi place next to the Neptuno disco. It was pretty good but there seemed to be cream cheese in just about every roll which got to be too much. I know what you're thinking - Sushi in Cozumel? Yeah... well, maybe not the best choice but it wasn't too bad.

OK, gotta go... time to dive!