Trip Report Cozumel Wt SingleDivers

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I'll let you read this trip report from a guest from SingleDivers...enjoy!

Well the gear has been cleaned and is hanging to dry and the clothes are washed drying… so I guess it’s time to share some thoughts on the trip with the Best of Mexico!!

I arrived on Thursday a couple of days early to add a couple extra days diving to the trip. I was still spinning from end of school year projects that always come up but started Friday morning with two dives. The dives were great and the company was good too – chatted with my boat mates and I discovered a group from my school district had come down the week before and were finishing up their diving days on Friday and Saturday. We dove Palancar Gardens and San Clemente. I especially liked the coral formations of Palancar Gardens.

Friday brought Jerrymxz, rkymtnwy, Deep Blue Dreams, ... er, and someone else I'm forgetting (Jang? Coral? both of you??) in for more early dives and we did Palancar Caves then Columbia Shallows. Both were terrific dives and I especially liked the shallows with big crabs and lobsters, turtles, eels, and rays. The rest of the early divers did a third dive but I called it an day to let my body do a bit of catching up.

Saturday brought the rest of our divers to the water except for catfish who arrived our last diving day in Cozumel. We had more great dives including another couple of passes at Palancar Gardens, Santa Rosa Wall, Yucab, Columbia Wall, and Delilah. Sunday’s third dive was Punta Tunich – um, it went by fast! LOL! We dropped in on no current only to find ourselves ripping along in current that gave us all quite a ride and our thrill seekers a fantastic time. We finished off our Cozumel dives Monday with another pass at Palancar and Delilah, and for those who did the third dive of the day a much more sedate dive at Chunkanaab with a very puppy-dog like mutton snapper.

Tuesday we headed out on the ferry and on to the Cenotes. While some of us dealt with equipment issues, we had some fantastic divemasters who took care of us so that we could do our two dives – Barbie Line and Bat Caves. Kudos especially went to my divemaster Jairo who handled both my SPG that was blowing a major amount of bubbles as well as another one of our divers who had an octo also blowing bubbles. The dives themselves were quite spectacular – stalactites and stalagmites and various formations were quite incredible to see in this unique environment. I’ve been in caves before but these cavern areas were quite fascinating especially being able to be much closer than you often are in a cave environment when you see the formations. The area where the bats make their homes was also fascinating.

Once we finished our Cenotes dives we headed north to Holbox. The island itself was beautiful with white sand beaches. Wednesday and Thursday brought opportunities to snorkel with the whalesharks and being so close to those animals was quite an incredible experience. Good food and a birthday celebration for Jerrymxz finished a great trip!! Wish you all were there!

 

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This is another trip report from Brenda, who went the Cozumel trip with SingleDivers

Just getting my land legs back after the trip to Cozumel, Cancun and Holbox Island. We had so much fun, my stomach still hurts from laughing. All of the accommodations made for us were wonderful, especially Holbox Dreams. One of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been on. We were only a few blocks from all the res...taraunts, our favorite was a place called Marakuy'a, The Spanish word for passion fruit, which, by the way, makes incredible margaritas! We had such a great group with us, some I know will always be friends. The diving in Cozumel was beautiful, lots of creatures, great water temp, and way too good food! This was my first trip with SingleDivers, but I know it will not be my last!

 

[SingleDivers.com]

Where to start!!

I'll second all the great comments on the dives, the people and the accommodations. I arrived in Cozumel on Friday about noon and took a van to Casa Del Mar where they greeted me like a long lost friend. Several people that work there remembered me from the trip in October with SD. I had a shore dive on Friday and then three a day Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The DM's and crew were great and allowed us run times over an hour in length. Our longest was an hour and 17minutes long. The sites are varied enough to keep me interested for a week. From the deep swim throughs and massive coral formations of Palancar and Columbia to the flatter sites with rock and roll high speed drift dives to shallow patch reefs great for macro photography.

On Wednesday we left Cozumel on the ferry to Playa and took vans to the town of Talum and Xibalba dive shop. They supplied the tanks and in water guides for our dives in dos Ojos cenote. The cenote is absolutely spectacular. The water is gin clear and just beautiful. At the cenote we split up into 4 person teams each with a guide. We were never more then 30 seconds from the surface but the dives were 40+ minutes in length with very little repeat passages. My team had two great dives, with good spacing and communication along with very good buoyancy and in water positioning. Our guide commented to us on that and on our second dive took us on a bit of an extended “not on the standard tour” excursion into an adjacent room off the gold line to see the Halocline where a submerged saltwater layer can be seen as light distortions in the water. very surreal. I have several cavern dives in Florida and after this I am now convinced I need to get my cave card!!!

After the cavern dives we got back in the vans and went to Holbox. Got a bit wet on the ferry ride to town but we took it all in stride. The town of Holbox was a great place to decompress. The shops, restaurants, bars and food were top shelf! The streets aren't paved only sand. There are a few (very few) small trucks and no cars on the island. the main mode of travel is by knobby tired golf carts. Several of us rented one on Friday to do a bit of exploring and general cavorting about. (the names are withheld to protect the innocent). On Thursday we snorkeled with the whale sharks. That was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The one I dropped in on was at least 30 feet long and it moved with the slowest most deliberate motions, displaying a conservation of energy I have never witnessed before. We dropped in front of them two at a time with a guide for about a 1 minute encounter. They move with effortless power and deceptive speed that made it hard to keep up with them even with just snorkel gear on.

Bright and early Saturday morning we loaded back up into the boats for another “bracing” boat ride to the mainland. At this point we split up into the group going to the airport in Cancun and the group doing the tour of the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. Pricilla, Brenda, Jang, Silvia, and I went on the tour and it was amazing! I knew of the pyramid and the ball court and some other buildings but I had not the least bit of an idea the scope of what is there and the level of preservation. The site covers 25 square miles. I am still in awe of what I saw there.

After the tour our guide took us to a resort near by for another great meal and another cenote that had been set up to swim in. It was 70 or so feet from the surface to the water in a huge cylindrical chamber with an overhanging roof above and long vine-like roots hanging down to get at the water. We were told the water is 150 feet deep and after looking around with a mask I don’t doubt it. There was not one place I could see any indication of a bottom. We then traveled back to Cancun for the night and then Sunday it was back to the real world.

I met people on this trip I will never forget. Thank you all for a spectacular trip and memories that will last a life time!!

Anyone who went on this trip and took pictures I'll trade a cd of my pictures for a cd of your pictures. all you have to do is ask

Jerry