Squeekycat
Registered
My husband (known on this Board as Texas Diver) and I just got back from Cozumel last Wednesday. It was our second trip this year. We had a fantastic time! Both times we stayed at the Occidental Grand (all inclusive) and did 4 days of two tank dives with Blue X T Sea.
Our hotel room was spacious, clean and had a large bathroom and a balcony. The meals were quite good. The menu was varied enough to give us quite a few choices at each meal. The diving was fantastic!
Christis boat picked us up right off the beach at our hotel. And she held our gear and rinsed it for us so we never had to lug it back and forth. Christi runs a first class operation and is a really nice person. Her dive masters Raul and Jaime are very professional and attentive. They are expert at finding neat little critters as well as nurse sharks and during one dive Raul even found a huge crab hiding under a ledge. Mago, our boat captain always had the boat close by when we surfaced and had us out of the water in a couple minutes. As soon as we were back on the boat, we were offered dry towels, bottled water, crackers, fruit, cookies, cheese and even sandwiches! We spent our surface intervals on the beach where there was a restaurant and rest rooms. And because our hotel was in the southern zone we always got dropped off first after the second dive. Life is good!
All the diving was great. We saw lots of sea turtles, some nurse sharks, a giant parrot fish and some large groupers as well as lots of other kinds of fish. However, we did not see the great white shark what was reportedly seen off Tulum a couple months ago. My husband said it was just as well because he was carrying his 3 inch BCD knife and it would have gone badly for the shark. Plus, I think it is illegal to stab a great white shark in the marine park.
Okay, lets get back to reality. We got to dive the Devils Throat and three other swim throughs at Punta Sur. We tried to dive Maracaibo on our 3rd day, but Mago decided the swells were a bit too high. On our last day we went up north to dive Barracuda and San Juan Reef!
Diving Punta Sur and the Devils Throat for the first time was a real thrill for us. It got pretty dark for me just before I dropped down into the throat but my husband, who was the last diver to go through, said he was in total darkness for a couple seconds thats because he probably had his eyes closed! That dive is a real hoot!
Just when we thought it could not get any better, Christi got permission to take us up north. We dove on Barracuda and San Juan Reef! Those reefs are very healthy and very lush and have lots of fish. There are also several areas of red sea plants and algae and coral that we never saw before. It looked like a carpet of red in some places. The current was pretty brisk and we moved along at a fair clip. There were a couple of places on San Juan Reef where we were really high tailing it! Those dives are addictive. They gave us a need for speed!
Here is a list of the sights we dove:
Day 1: Columbia Deep; Cedar Reef,
Day 2: Punta Sur; Delila,
Day 3: Catera? French Point,
Day 4: Barracuda; San Juan Reef.
In sum, we had a fantastic time. Our lodgings and food were great. And Christi and Blue X T Sea get our highest recommendation! She runs a great operation, is a very nice person and has great people working for her. We are planning a return trip in November to dive with her again.
Our hotel room was spacious, clean and had a large bathroom and a balcony. The meals were quite good. The menu was varied enough to give us quite a few choices at each meal. The diving was fantastic!
Diving
Christis boat picked us up right off the beach at our hotel. And she held our gear and rinsed it for us so we never had to lug it back and forth. Christi runs a first class operation and is a really nice person. Her dive masters Raul and Jaime are very professional and attentive. They are expert at finding neat little critters as well as nurse sharks and during one dive Raul even found a huge crab hiding under a ledge. Mago, our boat captain always had the boat close by when we surfaced and had us out of the water in a couple minutes. As soon as we were back on the boat, we were offered dry towels, bottled water, crackers, fruit, cookies, cheese and even sandwiches! We spent our surface intervals on the beach where there was a restaurant and rest rooms. And because our hotel was in the southern zone we always got dropped off first after the second dive. Life is good!
All the diving was great. We saw lots of sea turtles, some nurse sharks, a giant parrot fish and some large groupers as well as lots of other kinds of fish. However, we did not see the great white shark what was reportedly seen off Tulum a couple months ago. My husband said it was just as well because he was carrying his 3 inch BCD knife and it would have gone badly for the shark. Plus, I think it is illegal to stab a great white shark in the marine park.
Okay, lets get back to reality. We got to dive the Devils Throat and three other swim throughs at Punta Sur. We tried to dive Maracaibo on our 3rd day, but Mago decided the swells were a bit too high. On our last day we went up north to dive Barracuda and San Juan Reef!
Diving Punta Sur and the Devils Throat for the first time was a real thrill for us. It got pretty dark for me just before I dropped down into the throat but my husband, who was the last diver to go through, said he was in total darkness for a couple seconds thats because he probably had his eyes closed! That dive is a real hoot!
Just when we thought it could not get any better, Christi got permission to take us up north. We dove on Barracuda and San Juan Reef! Those reefs are very healthy and very lush and have lots of fish. There are also several areas of red sea plants and algae and coral that we never saw before. It looked like a carpet of red in some places. The current was pretty brisk and we moved along at a fair clip. There were a couple of places on San Juan Reef where we were really high tailing it! Those dives are addictive. They gave us a need for speed!
Here is a list of the sights we dove:
Day 1: Columbia Deep; Cedar Reef,
Day 2: Punta Sur; Delila,
Day 3: Catera? French Point,
Day 4: Barracuda; San Juan Reef.
In sum, we had a fantastic time. Our lodgings and food were great. And Christi and Blue X T Sea get our highest recommendation! She runs a great operation, is a very nice person and has great people working for her. We are planning a return trip in November to dive with her again.
