Saxonjd
Contributor
Just returned from a week on the island and thought I'd share a bit about my trip! I have been coming to Cozumel for the past 5-6 years and got certified there about 2 1/2 years ago. Love diving here and since getting certified have been coming twice a year with 4-5 others. The friends I go with have been diving there for years and had always used Dive Paradise, but this spring, for a variety of reasons, we made the jump to ScubaTony (which is who I used to get certified).
One of the couples we travel with recently bought a condo on the north end of the island, so I stayed there with them, and the other couple also rented a condo in the building. I dove five days with ST and all five of those days had Israel as our dive master and Papo as our captain. Each morning we'd drive down to Fontaur Marina and meet the boat about 7:15 and always headed out by 7:30. ST uses the six pack boats so at most we'd have 1 other diver on the boat with us, and one day it was just us five. I really like that we are out at the dive sites and in the water before 8 AM as we stay ahead of the crowd a bit. A funny aside, as we were finishing up our first dive one day, it seemed like it was raining divers on us as Dressel was dumping a number of divers right on top of us.
Over the course of the five days we dove Palancar Caves, Bricks, Horseshoe, Gardens, La Francesa, Cedral, Punta Tunich, and Yucab, with some sites twice. Overall the current was pretty good, but on the second day we had a really strong current at Cedral and just ripped along with it. The rest of the days Israel would have some suggestions to go based on his thoughts of the currents for that day, and realistically, we weren't too picky where we went, so it didn't matter. We saw the usual assortment of sea life including a fair number of turtles (including a loggerhead!) morays, smaller eels, nurse sharks, some huge grouper, sting rays, and on the last day saw a big eagle ray!
For the rest of our time after diving we'd head back to the condo for lunch and a siesta and then into town for dinner. Ate at some of our usual favorites like Le Chef, Cielito Lindo, La Perlita (lionfish!) Sal d Mar, Cafe Cubano, and tried two new places for us; La Cocay and K'ooben Laab. Both were really good, though I wish we had gone to K'ooben Laab earlier in the trip as it's a definite revisit! I missed going to Mr. Taco as friends went the day before I arrived, so will have to do that when we return. Also had some drinks at the Pub, Palomar and La Monina (where we were overcharged a bit...but what the heck!).
In regards to ST, I love diving with them for a variety of reasons. I love the fast boats that are in really good condition, the ability to leave our gear with them, and the early departure times (and hence arrival back to the dock), so we can enjoy other aspects of Cozumel. I also love the personalized service that we get from Andrea to schedule our dives, and every day Adam and/or Tony was at the dock in the morning to greet us. Israel is an awesome dive master that my friends knew from the Dive Paradise days and I love diving with him (he certified me as well). He works hard in and out of the water to make sure we maximize our diving experience and is engaging during our surface intervals. Papo is fabulous too as he always had a smile for you in the morning and when you popped up to get back on the boat. I think he literally knows all the other boat captains and workers as everywhere we went people were saying hi to him!
I know there's a lot of great dive shops in Cozumel and I think ScubaTony is on that list as well. Am looking forward to heading down in the spring to dive with them again. It was a sad day today as I packed away all my gear until then, but this review helps ease that a bit.
This is my first review on Scuba Board, so hope I hit all the highlights for everyone!
One of the couples we travel with recently bought a condo on the north end of the island, so I stayed there with them, and the other couple also rented a condo in the building. I dove five days with ST and all five of those days had Israel as our dive master and Papo as our captain. Each morning we'd drive down to Fontaur Marina and meet the boat about 7:15 and always headed out by 7:30. ST uses the six pack boats so at most we'd have 1 other diver on the boat with us, and one day it was just us five. I really like that we are out at the dive sites and in the water before 8 AM as we stay ahead of the crowd a bit. A funny aside, as we were finishing up our first dive one day, it seemed like it was raining divers on us as Dressel was dumping a number of divers right on top of us.
Over the course of the five days we dove Palancar Caves, Bricks, Horseshoe, Gardens, La Francesa, Cedral, Punta Tunich, and Yucab, with some sites twice. Overall the current was pretty good, but on the second day we had a really strong current at Cedral and just ripped along with it. The rest of the days Israel would have some suggestions to go based on his thoughts of the currents for that day, and realistically, we weren't too picky where we went, so it didn't matter. We saw the usual assortment of sea life including a fair number of turtles (including a loggerhead!) morays, smaller eels, nurse sharks, some huge grouper, sting rays, and on the last day saw a big eagle ray!
For the rest of our time after diving we'd head back to the condo for lunch and a siesta and then into town for dinner. Ate at some of our usual favorites like Le Chef, Cielito Lindo, La Perlita (lionfish!) Sal d Mar, Cafe Cubano, and tried two new places for us; La Cocay and K'ooben Laab. Both were really good, though I wish we had gone to K'ooben Laab earlier in the trip as it's a definite revisit! I missed going to Mr. Taco as friends went the day before I arrived, so will have to do that when we return. Also had some drinks at the Pub, Palomar and La Monina (where we were overcharged a bit...but what the heck!).
In regards to ST, I love diving with them for a variety of reasons. I love the fast boats that are in really good condition, the ability to leave our gear with them, and the early departure times (and hence arrival back to the dock), so we can enjoy other aspects of Cozumel. I also love the personalized service that we get from Andrea to schedule our dives, and every day Adam and/or Tony was at the dock in the morning to greet us. Israel is an awesome dive master that my friends knew from the Dive Paradise days and I love diving with him (he certified me as well). He works hard in and out of the water to make sure we maximize our diving experience and is engaging during our surface intervals. Papo is fabulous too as he always had a smile for you in the morning and when you popped up to get back on the boat. I think he literally knows all the other boat captains and workers as everywhere we went people were saying hi to him!
I know there's a lot of great dive shops in Cozumel and I think ScubaTony is on that list as well. Am looking forward to heading down in the spring to dive with them again. It was a sad day today as I packed away all my gear until then, but this review helps ease that a bit.
This is my first review on Scuba Board, so hope I hit all the highlights for everyone!
