Scott101
Contributor
Well, I finally got over the effects of sand gravity and can give you a brief report on our trip.
Travel:
Everything went well on the trip down but the return was a mess. There had to be 100 planes (ok, maybe 3 or 4) worth of people trying to get through Customs in Houston. That in itself wasn't so bad unless you had a connecting flight that was less than an hour to take off. The airline reps had to keep coming around and pulling people to the front so that they could catch their flight. Then, once on the plane, they decided to turn the airport take off/ landing directions 180` so we ended up sitting in line to take off for over an hour.
Ok, enough whining, time for the good stuff.
Hotel:
We stayed at the OC Grand and all I can say is WOW! Everything, from the grounds to the staff to the food, was great. Yes, the room was a tad musty and the matress was hard but the place was great. One word of advice....the dress is a tad bit nicer than we expected. Think a little less than resort casual for any event after the sun goes down. Then if you go to any of the a la carte places, turn it up a notch or two from that. The food from the buffets was some of the best that we had ever sampled at an AI so we ate there the whole week. One down side, the pizza place. Bad...really bad but hey, this is Mexico, not Italy.
Diving:
What can I say...I was great!!! This was my first time using a 6-pack boat and diving with Papa Hog's and I was very happy I decided to try it. I ended up diving with two couples and the same DM (Tony) all week. The best part was that once Tony saw that we were decent divers, he let us dive our own dives with in reason while always being close to point out the critters or resolve a problem. Another great thing was that we dived our computers rather than being told that we would do x ft for y mins, regardless of air remaining.
I know that a lot of people like "going deep" but I would have to say that the best dive of the week was a shallow dive at Columbia which was 25' for 65 min! Talk about tons of fish and great bottom time.
I took some pictures that I will put a link to but keep in mind that it was my first time at underwater photography. Those darn fish refused to stay still!
One other cool thing was that on one dive, a lot of the sponges were spawning so we got to see the release of millions of larve.
And for the record....Sea lice suck!!!!! The last dive day (Thursday) I must have surfaced in a million of them because my neck and shoulders are still itching. Thanks to the board for posting info about them....I just wish I had read it BEFORE it went.
Link to the photo's of the OC Grand and the underwater pics I took.
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/frasure711
Travel:
Everything went well on the trip down but the return was a mess. There had to be 100 planes (ok, maybe 3 or 4) worth of people trying to get through Customs in Houston. That in itself wasn't so bad unless you had a connecting flight that was less than an hour to take off. The airline reps had to keep coming around and pulling people to the front so that they could catch their flight. Then, once on the plane, they decided to turn the airport take off/ landing directions 180` so we ended up sitting in line to take off for over an hour.
Ok, enough whining, time for the good stuff.
Hotel:
We stayed at the OC Grand and all I can say is WOW! Everything, from the grounds to the staff to the food, was great. Yes, the room was a tad musty and the matress was hard but the place was great. One word of advice....the dress is a tad bit nicer than we expected. Think a little less than resort casual for any event after the sun goes down. Then if you go to any of the a la carte places, turn it up a notch or two from that. The food from the buffets was some of the best that we had ever sampled at an AI so we ate there the whole week. One down side, the pizza place. Bad...really bad but hey, this is Mexico, not Italy.
Diving:
What can I say...I was great!!! This was my first time using a 6-pack boat and diving with Papa Hog's and I was very happy I decided to try it. I ended up diving with two couples and the same DM (Tony) all week. The best part was that once Tony saw that we were decent divers, he let us dive our own dives with in reason while always being close to point out the critters or resolve a problem. Another great thing was that we dived our computers rather than being told that we would do x ft for y mins, regardless of air remaining.
I know that a lot of people like "going deep" but I would have to say that the best dive of the week was a shallow dive at Columbia which was 25' for 65 min! Talk about tons of fish and great bottom time.
I took some pictures that I will put a link to but keep in mind that it was my first time at underwater photography. Those darn fish refused to stay still!
One other cool thing was that on one dive, a lot of the sponges were spawning so we got to see the release of millions of larve.
And for the record....Sea lice suck!!!!! The last dive day (Thursday) I must have surfaced in a million of them because my neck and shoulders are still itching. Thanks to the board for posting info about them....I just wish I had read it BEFORE it went.
Link to the photo's of the OC Grand and the underwater pics I took.
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/frasure711
