FiReaNG3L
Registered
So came back two weeks ago from Cozumel and I have to say the diving was really top notch (and by far the best part of the trip). 18 dives total with Dive Paradise, staying the whole time at Barracuda.
We arrived at like 9h30pm in Cancun (from Montreal) - from what I had read on the forum, we planned to take the bus to Playa and the last ferry to Coz at 11pm (yeah, timing was a little tight!). We went out of the terminal station, looking for some bus sign or something. Instead, we found... a shark! Not the 'in the water' kind, but the 'i want your money' kind - he lied to us, told us that the last bus was already gone, that our only option was a 70$ taxi ride to playa to catch the last ferry. His goal was to actually make us lose time so that his lie would become the truth. He even had an acolyte dressed as security (with a bright orange coat) that confirmed us that the last bus was gone. At some point we almost believed him (its late, time is going fast, no bus station in sight, girlfriend very tired) - the police even came behind his taxi for some reason, talked to him and went away, so we figured it was alright. I went inside the terminal again and asked employees - and it turns out that the bus station was in another terminal! The shark was very disappointed, tried to lie further ('the bus take 1h30 to get there, you think im not honest?') but we went away, took the bus, took the ferry (with 5 minutes to spare before the last one went away!) - found our hotel, and went to sleep!
Hotel Barracuda was a really nice choice - inexpensive, close to town, awesome dive shop, pier right outside the door, awesome snorkeling to do right next to the pier, helpful people, clean rooms (except for some ants), awesome view! I'll go there again no questions asked if I go back to Cozumel. We met some very nice people too - I even encountered some people from this board (Hi Freddy!).
For the diving (with Dive Paradise, the local shop at Barracuda), I took the slow boats every day. No hurry, its vacation time! It give more time to talk to the people on the boat, you get sunshade, the boat ride is more relaxing, etc. No need for the fast boats for me - especially for the first few days were there was a tropical storm around (and a lot of cold rain).
I had rental gear except my mask that I bought in Cozumel (frameless atomic, I love it) - I was looking to buy some fins too but it turns out that Mares Superchannel were impossible to find there. The rental BC and reg were fine but I really wish I had something else than the rental fins, especially went fighting against current. I also went bare (without a wetsuit) - did not experience cold in 18 dives (sometimes dove 4 times in a day, and at night) but I know some people went cold even with a wetsuit - I guess its my Canadian nature
The diving was really awesome - I all the major dive sites (some twice) - favorite one? Paradise and Columbia Shallow. I loved going in swimthroughs too (a first for me). The current was not that bad most of the time except for a few times, but was manageable - I never lost the group. Lots of turtles, sleeping sharks, one hunting shark (really nice, was digging in coral, we scared him away, we went to look in the hole, the fish was afraid but unharmed) - I took pictures on one day (rental camera) - check the links at the end. The night dive was really fun, if only for seeing some hunting octopi lobsters and crabs! It was a bit hard to manage a light, my buoyancy and a camera (I only have 2 hands after all). All the divemasters were really great and spotted interesting stuff on every dive - the only thing I didn't see were eagle rays and sea horses, but I did spot some scorpionfish, nudibranches and even a baby trunkfish (google it up, very funny to see, really small). The only downside was one diver that just hit the divemaster with his bottle by going down - I was told a few days later that he hit numerous people during the week, including a photographer which was very still trying to take a picture of something. He was acting really snob, too. 1 bad apple out of maybe 50... nothing is perfect!
The actual town however is a tourism abomination - the only good part was the restaurants, but aside from that, its only the same cheap souvenir shop cloned 200 times over along with some super expensive brand stores (Cartier, Chanel, etc). Not much to do in the town - we went on the mainland to find something cool to do (Xcaret and Chichen Itza were really, really nice). We did the island tour which was great. We were really disappointed that the only option to go on beaches was by taxi - the closest one was 10$ each way, farthest one 20$ each way, it adds up really fast after a few days. The whole thing is fueled by the cruise ships - I talked with some older divers that went to Cozumel 20 years ago and it's the small divers town anymore!
My girlfriend doesn't dive so she went snorkeling while I was diving - she was disappointed with the snorkeling tours as they don't go very far to interesting spots, they don't let you explore, they feed the fish so you can see them close (and its invariably the same ones that come) - it's geared toward the cruise ship people who just want to jump in the water, see some fishes so they can tell that they saw marine wildlife or something. After that she did another tour to Palancar which was more expensive (60$) but was worth it and snorkeled around the pier at Barracuda (this was much better than the 30$ tours - we even spotted 4 squids, got to observe them for a good 10 minutes, very nice!).
We did most restaurants on Christi's list (and some others) - some really good restaurants in Coz. Favorite ones were Costa Brava (cheap but good mexican food), Chi, Pepe's Grill, Le Chef. We were a bit disappointed by some shady billing tactics by one restaurant - they put up the prices in USD on the menu, use a 11 pesos to one dollar exchange rate and insist that they charge our credit card in pesos. The result is a 10-15% increase on the bill - not that bad, but still, if the price is only in USD on the menu, charge my credit card in USD!
Sadly, we were caught by another shark in Cozumel. To book a tour to Chichen Itza, we did business with one of the many little stands near the central place - Park Royal to name it. The guy was really friendly, nice english too - we booked for the next day, with deposit, had to be at the pier a 6h45am(!). We were there at 6h25. An hour later, the ferry was gone and no one came to give us our ticket - my girlfriend was really sad. To make a very long story short, to get my money back, I had to wait for the Park Royal representative a 8h30 - it was not the same one as the day before. He told us that the guy would be there at 9h30 - they at 10h30 - then that the manager would be there at 11h30 - then that the manager would personally get to our hotel at 2h30 to refund our money. At 3h30 I went to the tourism police. At 4h30 I had my money back. Lost one whole day, completely. I guess they were hoping that we would just give up and move on, but I'm really stubborn! After that we did business with the representative as Casa Mexicana (even if we weren't staying there) and has no problems at all. I wouldn't do any business with the little stands people if I was you!
Overall a very nice trip, but next time I go in Coz I'll go just for the diving and nothing else!
Pictures(including diving): Collection: Mexico 2008
We arrived at like 9h30pm in Cancun (from Montreal) - from what I had read on the forum, we planned to take the bus to Playa and the last ferry to Coz at 11pm (yeah, timing was a little tight!). We went out of the terminal station, looking for some bus sign or something. Instead, we found... a shark! Not the 'in the water' kind, but the 'i want your money' kind - he lied to us, told us that the last bus was already gone, that our only option was a 70$ taxi ride to playa to catch the last ferry. His goal was to actually make us lose time so that his lie would become the truth. He even had an acolyte dressed as security (with a bright orange coat) that confirmed us that the last bus was gone. At some point we almost believed him (its late, time is going fast, no bus station in sight, girlfriend very tired) - the police even came behind his taxi for some reason, talked to him and went away, so we figured it was alright. I went inside the terminal again and asked employees - and it turns out that the bus station was in another terminal! The shark was very disappointed, tried to lie further ('the bus take 1h30 to get there, you think im not honest?') but we went away, took the bus, took the ferry (with 5 minutes to spare before the last one went away!) - found our hotel, and went to sleep!
Hotel Barracuda was a really nice choice - inexpensive, close to town, awesome dive shop, pier right outside the door, awesome snorkeling to do right next to the pier, helpful people, clean rooms (except for some ants), awesome view! I'll go there again no questions asked if I go back to Cozumel. We met some very nice people too - I even encountered some people from this board (Hi Freddy!).
For the diving (with Dive Paradise, the local shop at Barracuda), I took the slow boats every day. No hurry, its vacation time! It give more time to talk to the people on the boat, you get sunshade, the boat ride is more relaxing, etc. No need for the fast boats for me - especially for the first few days were there was a tropical storm around (and a lot of cold rain).
I had rental gear except my mask that I bought in Cozumel (frameless atomic, I love it) - I was looking to buy some fins too but it turns out that Mares Superchannel were impossible to find there. The rental BC and reg were fine but I really wish I had something else than the rental fins, especially went fighting against current. I also went bare (without a wetsuit) - did not experience cold in 18 dives (sometimes dove 4 times in a day, and at night) but I know some people went cold even with a wetsuit - I guess its my Canadian nature
The diving was really awesome - I all the major dive sites (some twice) - favorite one? Paradise and Columbia Shallow. I loved going in swimthroughs too (a first for me). The current was not that bad most of the time except for a few times, but was manageable - I never lost the group. Lots of turtles, sleeping sharks, one hunting shark (really nice, was digging in coral, we scared him away, we went to look in the hole, the fish was afraid but unharmed) - I took pictures on one day (rental camera) - check the links at the end. The night dive was really fun, if only for seeing some hunting octopi lobsters and crabs! It was a bit hard to manage a light, my buoyancy and a camera (I only have 2 hands after all). All the divemasters were really great and spotted interesting stuff on every dive - the only thing I didn't see were eagle rays and sea horses, but I did spot some scorpionfish, nudibranches and even a baby trunkfish (google it up, very funny to see, really small). The only downside was one diver that just hit the divemaster with his bottle by going down - I was told a few days later that he hit numerous people during the week, including a photographer which was very still trying to take a picture of something. He was acting really snob, too. 1 bad apple out of maybe 50... nothing is perfect!
The actual town however is a tourism abomination - the only good part was the restaurants, but aside from that, its only the same cheap souvenir shop cloned 200 times over along with some super expensive brand stores (Cartier, Chanel, etc). Not much to do in the town - we went on the mainland to find something cool to do (Xcaret and Chichen Itza were really, really nice). We did the island tour which was great. We were really disappointed that the only option to go on beaches was by taxi - the closest one was 10$ each way, farthest one 20$ each way, it adds up really fast after a few days. The whole thing is fueled by the cruise ships - I talked with some older divers that went to Cozumel 20 years ago and it's the small divers town anymore!
My girlfriend doesn't dive so she went snorkeling while I was diving - she was disappointed with the snorkeling tours as they don't go very far to interesting spots, they don't let you explore, they feed the fish so you can see them close (and its invariably the same ones that come) - it's geared toward the cruise ship people who just want to jump in the water, see some fishes so they can tell that they saw marine wildlife or something. After that she did another tour to Palancar which was more expensive (60$) but was worth it and snorkeled around the pier at Barracuda (this was much better than the 30$ tours - we even spotted 4 squids, got to observe them for a good 10 minutes, very nice!).
We did most restaurants on Christi's list (and some others) - some really good restaurants in Coz. Favorite ones were Costa Brava (cheap but good mexican food), Chi, Pepe's Grill, Le Chef. We were a bit disappointed by some shady billing tactics by one restaurant - they put up the prices in USD on the menu, use a 11 pesos to one dollar exchange rate and insist that they charge our credit card in pesos. The result is a 10-15% increase on the bill - not that bad, but still, if the price is only in USD on the menu, charge my credit card in USD!
Sadly, we were caught by another shark in Cozumel. To book a tour to Chichen Itza, we did business with one of the many little stands near the central place - Park Royal to name it. The guy was really friendly, nice english too - we booked for the next day, with deposit, had to be at the pier a 6h45am(!). We were there at 6h25. An hour later, the ferry was gone and no one came to give us our ticket - my girlfriend was really sad. To make a very long story short, to get my money back, I had to wait for the Park Royal representative a 8h30 - it was not the same one as the day before. He told us that the guy would be there at 9h30 - they at 10h30 - then that the manager would be there at 11h30 - then that the manager would personally get to our hotel at 2h30 to refund our money. At 3h30 I went to the tourism police. At 4h30 I had my money back. Lost one whole day, completely. I guess they were hoping that we would just give up and move on, but I'm really stubborn! After that we did business with the representative as Casa Mexicana (even if we weren't staying there) and has no problems at all. I wouldn't do any business with the little stands people if I was you!
Overall a very nice trip, but next time I go in Coz I'll go just for the diving and nothing else!
Pictures(including diving): Collection: Mexico 2008
However we did went to central square 2 times to enjoy the live band!
