Trip Report Tres Pelicanos/Casa Mexican Trip Report Sept. 2018

[ggunn]

The first link that Google gives me for "Sudafed Mexico" has the headline, "Kaysville woman jailed in Mexico over Sudafed pills". Now granted, this was a couple of years ago and it was in Puerto Vallarta, but why would you want to take that chance???

I have been to Cozumel 30-40 times and I have never had my luggage examined to the point where they would find a few pseudoephedrine tablets in my shaving kit or wherever.

 

[KathyV]

Excellent report as always @drrich2, thorough, intelligent, inclusive, and well-organized! We've been to Cozumel 4 times and we had great trips but we haven't been back for a while - but your photos are tempting!

Like you, I am not a huge fan of drift diving. My husband took to it easily but I float like a cork and I really struggled with it, and it wasn't as if we were total newbies, we had done several dive trips including a liveaboard before our first trip to Cozumel. I finally got better with it and we have done a number of drift dives over the years, including a couple of liveaboard drift dive trips like Baja - but it still isn't my favorite way to dive. IMO drift diving is nice when there is a gentle current but a whole lot less fun when the current is really ripping!

That's why I am always surprised when someone suggests Cozumel as a destination to a newbie looking for easy diving on a first trip abroad. Drift diving comes easily to some folks but not everyone. I think moored boat diving in a place with shallow reefs would be a better way for a newbie to start ocean diving. Of course they should eventually try drift diving a little later.

 

[WetInPortland]

... That's why I am always surprised when someone suggests Cozumel as a destination to a newbie looking for easy diving on a first trip abroad.

Like many things, "it depends". I did my Discover Scuba dive in Cozumel (cruise ship excursion). It was a shore dive to a 25' reef that was beautiful, and got my hooked on the hobby! I see people posting beautiful macro pictures from here, that you know couldn't have been done in much if any current. If you're here for a week on vacation, you're talking pot luck, but even on short stays, and especially for longer ones, ask the dive op about what the currents are doing and ask for dives where there is less current.

 

[RayfromTX]

Excellent report as always @drrich2, thorough, inclusive, and well-organized! We've been to Cozumel 4 times and we had great trips but we haven't been back for a while - but your photos are tempting!

Like you, I am not a huge fan of drift diving. My husband took to it easily but I float like a cork and I really struggled with it, and it wasn't as if we were total newbies, we had done several dive trips including a liveaboard before our first trip to Cozumel. I finally got better with it and we have done a number of drift dives over the years, including a couple of liveaboard drift dive trips like Cabo - but it still isn't my favorite way to dive. IMO drift diving is nice when there is a gentle current but a whole lot less fun when the current is really ripping!

That's why I am always surprised when someone suggests Cozumel as a destination to a newbie looking for easy diving on a first trip abroad. Drift diving comes easily to some folks but not everyone. I think moored boat diving in a place with shallow reefs would be a better way for a newbie to start ocean diving. Of course they should eventually try drift diving a little later.

It is interesting how different people's perceptions are. My discover scuba was in Cozumel and like an ignorant fool an hour later I had talked myself into doing a two tank boat dive without any more training and instruction than I could get on the boat ride out to the reef. It wasn't until I returned to the states that I started my training and found out how many ways that could have gone wrong.

What I loved about it was drifting along with the current and controlling my buoyancy with my lung capacity and dropping down behind the coral heads to hide from the current and rising up before an approaching mound of coral and timing it all with the delayed effect of buoyancy compensation. The drift was like a magical ride through the underwater fantasy world and one I could control if I just went with it and didn't fight it. I like things I have to figure out and it became like a game. My wife LOVES drift diving. It is her favorite from that first nutty escapade to 60' on Yucab reef. We really are all very different in what floats our dive boat.

 

[yle]

I believe the statement was that while he had requested 32% in the AL100 tank size all they had available was 36% in that size of tank. AL100's cleaned and set up for Nitrox are in limited supply.

Just curious, if anyone knows the details: why would they need to use clean tanks for 32 or 36? With an operation that size, wouldn't they be using banked nitrox and so could fill any tank (i.e. wouldn't need oxygen clean tanks)?

 

[drrich2]

Unless Tres Pelicanos mixes their own, I figured they probably picked up a mix of EAN 32% and EAN 36% tanks from the central supplier, and ran a bit short of the former a couple of times for whatever reason.

Richard.

 

[Saboteur]

Very nice report drrich2, enjoyed your excelent St. Croix piece as well. Just curious about the nitrox procedure with 3P. Do they provide analyzers? I've been on ops where they do and on one op where they don't where it is "trust us it's 32%".

 

[Snoweman]

Very nice report drrich2, enjoyed your excelent St. Croix piece as well. Just curious about the nitrox procedure with 3P. Do they provide analyzers? I've been on ops where they do and on one op where they don't where it is "trust us it's 32%".

They do provide an analyzer. I'm not nitrox certified (yet), but I watched others check their tanks with 3P's analyzer.

 

[CajunDiva]

Yes, there were nitrox analyzers on board. We used nitrox on both of our trips

 

[stronj1]

The triggerfish is a sargassum triggerfish. Great trip report! Thank you!