annlaur
Contributor
Ok, so it's been two (unbearably long) months since I came back from Cozumel and I can't believe I haven't written my trip report yet. So here goes.
It was my second visit on the island (click here for trip report #1). First one had been just a month before, then I went back home to Paris, France, only to find out that my next job contract wasn't starting as scheduled. Oh well. Called my bank to let them know I would owe them lots of money :mooner: and booked a plane ticket back to paradise
Flew into Cancun, did the bus and ferry bag drag, all went very smoothly as I had traded my backpack for a wheeled suitcase.
I had booked nights at the Pepita Hotel (good budget option in town, less than 400 pesos a night) but, with the help of an Aldora employee, soon moved into my own one-bedroom appartment for the remainder on my 1-month stay.
It just went like this :
Me : "Hola Chino, by any chance do you know of anyone renting a cheap room by the month ?"
Chino : "No, but we can go look, hop on my scooter."
Less than an hour later, we had visited this brand new appartment, localized the owner (who also runs the Saolina Hotel in town, which has some of the cheapest rates, starting at 260 pesos a night), Chino did the negociating (less than 400 dollars a month) and two days later I was moving in. Wish it were that easy to find lodging in Paris !
The place, located on calle 9, between 5 and 10 avenida, only 2 1/2 blocks from the Aldora dive shop, comprised of a nice living-room, separate bedroom, bathroom and a big "shared" terrasse overlooking the neighborhood with fantastic sunrises. Luxury for someone whose Parisian studio is the size of an American master bathroom.
Only drawback was it came unfurnished. The owner's mother had lent me a nice hammock, but I soon invested in a mattress (USD50 for a queen at Chedraui !) in order to save my back.
Also bought towels, sheets, shower curtain, mops, cups, silverware, styrofoam ice chest, hangers, cleaning supplies, coffemaker… and it still turned out to be a cheaper option than staying at the cheapest hotel… therefore allowing me to spend more on diving… or so I thought…
I had a surprise when arriving on the Aldora dock on Feb. 5th for my first visit underwater of this trip : Justin, a diver I had met a month ago, was also back on the island. Great to see my "vice buddy" again (smokers…. We shared a cig and headed to Santa Rosa Wall.
Despite the recent nicotine intake, I was nervous at the beginning of the dive. And it only got worse when Javier, our guide, entered a swimthrough (hated those). I was too anxious to follow the group in this dark, unknown tunnel of coral, so Justin and I just dove along the reef and met the others at the exit. The visibility was average, less clear than in december (but still much better than anywhere I've dove in the Mediterranean) and the current pretty strong.
When we surfaced, the seas were really choppy. The winds were picking up, we tried to go to the South and make the usual surface interval at Mr. Sancho's (whose prices had also picked up due to high season), but Javier and the captain thought it wiser to turn around. We stopped at the Money Bar instead and did the second dive at Villa Blanca. This reef being out of the Marine Park, I guess it doesn't see as many divers, and it looked pristine. Awesome sponges, several splendid toadfish, drumfish and huge porcupine as well. Loved that site, despite the weather conditions not being optimal.
The following day, our guide was David. I had only dove with him once on the former trip, that's when I had freaked out in a swimthrough and I had thumbed the second dive. He had told me that, if I ever came back to the island, he woud help me overcome my phobia, and I had thought it was either a joke or a commercial pep talk. Nope. The second I got on the boat he brought back the subject and told me that, considering I was going to dive in Cozumel for a month, there was no way I could avoid swimthroughs, and that he wouldn't let me out of his sight and go around the reef on my own or with another customer.
We did Palancar Ladrillos (Bricks) and it was a hell of a dive for me. I had tried to put my weights on differently and kept on losing balance. Nonetheless, David led us to a big swimthrough. Oddly enough, although my heartrate had picked up a bit, I wasn't too scared and managed to keep my breathing under control… until we got to a commemorative plate right at the exit of the cavern and I was torn between the urge to laugh and the desire to call him names (which I did once we got on the boat, only to find out that the woman hadn't actually died there… FWI, I DO NOT want to know if it's true or not). Other highlights of the dive included two seahorses and one eagle ray
Second dive was at one of my favorite sites, Yucab, with an extension to Tormentos (love those big tanks and the fast current). The vis was "bad" (less than 60 feet), the turtles nowhere to be seen, but we were blessed with a huge eel swimming in the open, a gigantic lobster and a beautiful porcupine fish.
That same evening, I found out that one of my neighbors was a techno junkie. From 9 pm till 7 am, the guy played awefully loud electric beats while sporadically yelling his bliss. Not knowing what kind of drug he was on, I didn't dare to go look for him and punch him in the face as he deserved, so was exhausted when I boarded the boat.
Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the dive (Columbia Deep), was just too tired, cold, and anxious (I knew I had no business being in the water in my current condition). I thumbed the second dive (at Paso del Cedral).
After a much needed day off (and a talk to the next door landlady who promised her tenant would not bother me again with his partying), time for some more diving. Same guide, same great group of divers (5 to 6 of us, including Justin and Pelagicsal's friend, the awesome Maria), but no fun chitchatting on the ride to Columbia Deep for me this time. David took me aside for a serious talk about my diving issues. Namely, how I tend to look downward too much, which probably gave me tunnel vision and fed my anxiety.
The instructions were clear : I had to look up and around as often as I could to avoid "vertigo", and follow what his dive light would show me in the swimthroughs.
It worked like MAGIC and for the first time, I actually saw the inside of the swimthroughs (before, I woud just look at the sand and the person in front of me and focus on getting OUTATHERE ASAP without touching anything).
Dive 2 on Santa Rosa Wall was a nice one as well, except at one point the current was trying to drag us away from the reef and into the blue. My favorite part was a big barracuda following us for the whole 5 minute safety stop, its mouth wide open and threatening. I love these animals.
I stopped writing details in my log book after, so the narrative will (hopefully) be shorter.
Next day was my deepest dive ever to this day : 116 feet at Maracaibo.
At first, I didn't want to hear of it, despite my fellow divers' expressed desire to go there. I feel narc'd at 90 feet, so was scared of how I would react entering an arch below 110. I finally agreed to do it, promising myself to thumb the dive if anything felt wrong. I did feel my heart beat faster as we passed the arch, but that was it. The rest of the dive was uneventful, very different from the other reefs I had seen on Cozumel. Beautiful, indeed, but not my favorite.
We then headed to Paso Tortuga. Much shallower, so much more light and color.
The following morning I got my biggest treat of this trip : a caribbean reef shark in the blue as we descended at Punta Sur Sur. :blinking::blinking: Never seen one before. It cruised back and forth a couple of time, so sleek and powerful and confident, like he owned the ocean… It was love at first sight… on my part only, he abandonned us less than a minute later.
Then on to Punta Tunich, where we got to watch a baby turtle clumsily trying to eat off a coral branch. Everytime it tried pulling it off, it lost balance and "fell" backwards". So cute and funny I could have drowned from laughing too loud. Just awesome.
My new friend Maria had taken the next day off, she's an awesome diver but no matter how much exposure she wears, she gets cold really fast, so we took advantage of her absence to do some really long dives (not that the other dives were short by any means).
First one lasted 1hr26min at Palancar Horseshoe, after which I was starving and ordered some yummy nachos at Mr. Sanchos. Bad idea ! Jalapeños, cheese and diving don't mix well together. When we exited Tormentos/Yucab after 1 hr 38 minutes, my stomach started killing me. Despite the pain, it was funny, albeit embarrassing, how both guides (we shared the big boat with another group led by Edgar) expressed their concern, asking questions about my monthly and digestive cycles and giving me advice on "gas management". At least this time I didn't have snort on my face (at least I don't thing so…
Anyway, I decided to just sleep it off and woke up later that evening feeling fine. I had planned to not dive the next day, but a Norte was coming in, which meant a possible outing to the East Side
, so I told Memo to sign me up for it.
The next morning, we hopped on a taxi van chartered by the shop and went to Chen Rio. The sea on the "wild side" was flat as a mirror. We watched the staff push the small boats into the water, Memo gave us a thorough briefing on the sites we were going to, then got in and rode first to Ha'nan, up north.
The first thing that struck me was the water temperature. Much warmer on the surface than on the West side, but then it quickly became colder. Much colder. No current, but a lot of surge close to the shallow bottom, it took me a while to get used to the constant back and forth and learn how not to waste energy trying to fight it. And the reefs !!! Smaller, less impressive formations, but pristine, every inch covered with healthy fans and corals and sponges. All in shallow water, so bursting with colors. Others saw a nurse shark and many barracudas, but somehow I managed not to.
We spent a surface interval on a deserted beach (packed with trash brought by the waves) eating some delicious shrimp and fish sandwiches Memo had bought on the way out of town and trying to warm up. Maria's lips were literrally blue so she skipped the second dive, to Canones : some cannons and balls from a Spanish gallion.
It was neat, but I was freezing and bothered by a hissing sound which I mistakenly attributed to boats circling above us, so I spent my time looking up (we were in about 20 feet of water, less than my comfort level as far as propellers go). Couldn't see a boat, though, and it took me a good 20 minutes to realize the sound came from a small leak on one of my hoses. I still had plenty of air but it bothered me all the same and I was glad when the dive ended.
I wrapped myself in two of the Aldora fleece coats for the ride back, but was cold all the same. Back at Chen Rio, we waited an hour or so for the other boats to come back and take a cab to town. As I was seated in the van, I noticed a tingle in my left fingers and knee. If I had been on a boat, I would have asked for oxygen but being in the cab, I figured I would go to the Aldora shop. The tingling seemed to have subsided a bit once we got into town so I decided to just go home and sleep it off. I often feel some tingling after the second dive and it goes away after a good rest, except it was stronger this time.
I woke up the next morning, some 14 hours later, feeling like crap. My back and hand hurt and, worse than anything, my mind was not working right. There I was, sitting on my beautiful terrace, sipping a cup of coffee with absolutely no recollection of having woken up and made it. On the other hand, my dream seemed vividly real. My brain felt like it was surrended by cotton, very odd feeling.
I walked to the shop, told Memo what was happening, he had me do a couple of balance exercises which I totally failed, put me on oxygen and called the chambers. Dr Piccolo was not available, so we went to the clinic accross the street from Aldora, where I was promptly and well treated. I had had my dive insurance (a special AXA insurance offered by the French diving organisation) e.mail me the paperwork I needed to fill out before entering the chamber. I just signed everything (even that gradually became harder and harder) and let Juan and Memo deal with the rest of the technicalities.
The first ride (table 6) was awful, as I was scared sh**less, although I had a great tender, an American volunteer nurse who did all she could to reassure me. Still, not my funniest Valentine's Day ever…
I had to do another, shorter one, the second day as all symptoms had not gone away, and I actually enjoyed it. Not as much as an actual dive, of course, but they do have a good movie selection.
Of course that DCS2 hit meant I wasn't allowed to dive for the remainder of my trip, which was the hard part (still don't know when I will back in the water, my doctor wants to have me tested for PFO).
Instead I enjoyed watching the Carnival (and the burning up of Señor Frog's palapas), eating a great gumbo with some crazy canucks at Villa Aldora ( you know who you are), being invited at Sunday barbecues, cruising the island on a rental scooter, snorkeling at Chen Rio and Playa Corona, eating out (tried out Kinta on this trip : AWESOME !!! Also finally got the nerves to try tripes at Los Otates : crunchy and tasty), drinking (hadn't had a sip of alcohol all the while I was diving, but made up for that. Recommand La Hatch on the waterfront by Villa Blanca, great owners, staff, live music and food) and took a two-day trip with my friend Maria to Punta Allen : quite an adventure to get there with the bumpy road and pretty basic as far as accomodations go (no 24 hour electricity) but nice beach and great boat tours in the laguna and the ocean. Saw lots of birds, a school of wild dolphins and amazing snorkeling.
Then, all too soon, it was time to leave. Just as he had helped me rent the apartment, Chino and his son helped me empty it (he couldn't believe I had bought a mattress as he is used to hammocks. I guess the one I gave him will serve as a couch to watch TV), I had a last breakfast at the museum overlooking the amazing Caribbean (ask for the menu in Spanish, it has more options, including the delicious "venenoso" omelette) and headed for a night of partying in Isla Mujeres. But that's another story.
Can't wait for the next trip, although I'm still not done paying for that one…
Thanks for reading, safe and fun bubbles to all :kiss2:
It was my second visit on the island (click here for trip report #1). First one had been just a month before, then I went back home to Paris, France, only to find out that my next job contract wasn't starting as scheduled. Oh well. Called my bank to let them know I would owe them lots of money :mooner: and booked a plane ticket back to paradise
Flew into Cancun, did the bus and ferry bag drag, all went very smoothly as I had traded my backpack for a wheeled suitcase.
I had booked nights at the Pepita Hotel (good budget option in town, less than 400 pesos a night) but, with the help of an Aldora employee, soon moved into my own one-bedroom appartment for the remainder on my 1-month stay.
It just went like this :
Me : "Hola Chino, by any chance do you know of anyone renting a cheap room by the month ?"
Chino : "No, but we can go look, hop on my scooter."
Less than an hour later, we had visited this brand new appartment, localized the owner (who also runs the Saolina Hotel in town, which has some of the cheapest rates, starting at 260 pesos a night), Chino did the negociating (less than 400 dollars a month) and two days later I was moving in. Wish it were that easy to find lodging in Paris !
The place, located on calle 9, between 5 and 10 avenida, only 2 1/2 blocks from the Aldora dive shop, comprised of a nice living-room, separate bedroom, bathroom and a big "shared" terrasse overlooking the neighborhood with fantastic sunrises. Luxury for someone whose Parisian studio is the size of an American master bathroom.
Only drawback was it came unfurnished. The owner's mother had lent me a nice hammock, but I soon invested in a mattress (USD50 for a queen at Chedraui !) in order to save my back.
Also bought towels, sheets, shower curtain, mops, cups, silverware, styrofoam ice chest, hangers, cleaning supplies, coffemaker… and it still turned out to be a cheaper option than staying at the cheapest hotel… therefore allowing me to spend more on diving… or so I thought…
I had a surprise when arriving on the Aldora dock on Feb. 5th for my first visit underwater of this trip : Justin, a diver I had met a month ago, was also back on the island. Great to see my "vice buddy" again (smokers…
. We shared a cig and headed to Santa Rosa Wall. Despite the recent nicotine intake, I was nervous at the beginning of the dive. And it only got worse when Javier, our guide, entered a swimthrough (hated those). I was too anxious to follow the group in this dark, unknown tunnel of coral, so Justin and I just dove along the reef and met the others at the exit. The visibility was average, less clear than in december (but still much better than anywhere I've dove in the Mediterranean) and the current pretty strong.
When we surfaced, the seas were really choppy. The winds were picking up, we tried to go to the South and make the usual surface interval at Mr. Sancho's (whose prices had also picked up due to high season), but Javier and the captain thought it wiser to turn around. We stopped at the Money Bar instead and did the second dive at Villa Blanca. This reef being out of the Marine Park, I guess it doesn't see as many divers, and it looked pristine. Awesome sponges, several splendid toadfish, drumfish and huge porcupine as well. Loved that site, despite the weather conditions not being optimal.
The following day, our guide was David. I had only dove with him once on the former trip, that's when I had freaked out in a swimthrough and I had thumbed the second dive. He had told me that, if I ever came back to the island, he woud help me overcome my phobia, and I had thought it was either a joke or a commercial pep talk. Nope. The second I got on the boat he brought back the subject and told me that, considering I was going to dive in Cozumel for a month, there was no way I could avoid swimthroughs, and that he wouldn't let me out of his sight and go around the reef on my own or with another customer.
We did Palancar Ladrillos (Bricks) and it was a hell of a dive for me. I had tried to put my weights on differently and kept on losing balance. Nonetheless, David led us to a big swimthrough. Oddly enough, although my heartrate had picked up a bit, I wasn't too scared and managed to keep my breathing under control… until we got to a commemorative plate right at the exit of the cavern and I was torn between the urge to laugh and the desire to call him names (which I did once we got on the boat, only to find out that the woman hadn't actually died there… FWI, I DO NOT want to know if it's true or not). Other highlights of the dive included two seahorses and one eagle ray
Second dive was at one of my favorite sites, Yucab, with an extension to Tormentos (love those big tanks and the fast current). The vis was "bad" (less than 60 feet), the turtles nowhere to be seen, but we were blessed with a huge eel swimming in the open, a gigantic lobster and a beautiful porcupine fish.
That same evening, I found out that one of my neighbors was a techno junkie. From 9 pm till 7 am, the guy played awefully loud electric beats while sporadically yelling his bliss. Not knowing what kind of drug he was on, I didn't dare to go look for him and punch him in the face as he deserved, so was exhausted when I boarded the boat.
Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the dive (Columbia Deep), was just too tired, cold, and anxious (I knew I had no business being in the water in my current condition). I thumbed the second dive (at Paso del Cedral).After a much needed day off (and a talk to the next door landlady who promised her tenant would not bother me again with his partying), time for some more diving. Same guide, same great group of divers (5 to 6 of us, including Justin and Pelagicsal's friend, the awesome Maria), but no fun chitchatting on the ride to Columbia Deep for me this time. David took me aside for a serious talk about my diving issues. Namely, how I tend to look downward too much, which probably gave me tunnel vision and fed my anxiety.
The instructions were clear : I had to look up and around as often as I could to avoid "vertigo", and follow what his dive light would show me in the swimthroughs.
It worked like MAGIC
and for the first time, I actually saw the inside of the swimthroughs (before, I woud just look at the sand and the person in front of me and focus on getting OUTATHERE ASAP without touching anything).Dive 2 on Santa Rosa Wall was a nice one as well, except at one point the current was trying to drag us away from the reef and into the blue. My favorite part was a big barracuda following us for the whole 5 minute safety stop, its mouth wide open and threatening. I love these animals.
I stopped writing details in my log book after, so the narrative will (hopefully) be shorter.
Next day was my deepest dive ever to this day : 116 feet at Maracaibo.
At first, I didn't want to hear of it, despite my fellow divers' expressed desire to go there. I feel narc'd at 90 feet, so was scared of how I would react entering an arch below 110. I finally agreed to do it, promising myself to thumb the dive if anything felt wrong. I did feel my heart beat faster as we passed the arch, but that was it. The rest of the dive was uneventful, very different from the other reefs I had seen on Cozumel. Beautiful, indeed, but not my favorite.
We then headed to Paso Tortuga. Much shallower, so much more light and color.
The following morning I got my biggest treat of this trip : a caribbean reef shark in the blue as we descended at Punta Sur Sur. :blinking:
:blinking: Never seen one before. It cruised back and forth a couple of time, so sleek and powerful and confident, like he owned the ocean… It was love at first sight… on my part only, he abandonned us less than a minute later. Then on to Punta Tunich, where we got to watch a baby turtle clumsily trying to eat off a coral branch. Everytime it tried pulling it off, it lost balance and "fell" backwards". So cute and funny I could have drowned from laughing too loud. Just awesome.
My new friend Maria had taken the next day off, she's an awesome diver but no matter how much exposure she wears, she gets cold really fast, so we took advantage of her absence to do some really long dives (not that the other dives were short by any means).
First one lasted 1hr26min at Palancar Horseshoe, after which I was starving and ordered some yummy nachos at Mr. Sanchos. Bad idea ! Jalapeños, cheese and diving don't mix well together. When we exited Tormentos/Yucab after 1 hr 38 minutes, my stomach started killing me. Despite the pain, it was funny, albeit embarrassing, how both guides (we shared the big boat with another group led by Edgar) expressed their concern, asking questions about my monthly and digestive cycles and giving me advice on "gas management". At least this time I didn't have snort on my face (at least I don't thing so…
Anyway, I decided to just sleep it off and woke up later that evening feeling fine. I had planned to not dive the next day, but a Norte was coming in, which meant a possible outing to the East Side
, so I told Memo to sign me up for it.The next morning, we hopped on a taxi van chartered by the shop and went to Chen Rio. The sea on the "wild side" was flat as a mirror. We watched the staff push the small boats into the water, Memo gave us a thorough briefing on the sites we were going to, then got in and rode first to Ha'nan, up north.
The first thing that struck me was the water temperature. Much warmer on the surface than on the West side, but then it quickly became colder. Much colder. No current, but a lot of surge close to the shallow bottom, it took me a while to get used to the constant back and forth and learn how not to waste energy trying to fight it. And the reefs !!! Smaller, less impressive formations, but pristine, every inch covered with healthy fans and corals and sponges. All in shallow water, so bursting with colors. Others saw a nurse shark and many barracudas, but somehow I managed not to.
We spent a surface interval on a deserted beach (packed with trash brought by the waves) eating some delicious shrimp and fish sandwiches Memo had bought on the way out of town and trying to warm up. Maria's lips were literrally blue so she skipped the second dive, to Canones : some cannons and balls from a Spanish gallion.
It was neat, but I was freezing and bothered by a hissing sound which I mistakenly attributed to boats circling above us, so I spent my time looking up (we were in about 20 feet of water, less than my comfort level as far as propellers go). Couldn't see a boat, though, and it took me a good 20 minutes to realize the sound came from a small leak on one of my hoses. I still had plenty of air but it bothered me all the same and I was glad when the dive ended.
I wrapped myself in two of the Aldora fleece coats for the ride back, but was cold all the same. Back at Chen Rio, we waited an hour or so for the other boats to come back and take a cab to town. As I was seated in the van, I noticed a tingle in my left fingers and knee. If I had been on a boat, I would have asked for oxygen but being in the cab, I figured I would go to the Aldora shop. The tingling seemed to have subsided a bit once we got into town so I decided to just go home and sleep it off. I often feel some tingling after the second dive and it goes away after a good rest, except it was stronger this time.
I woke up the next morning, some 14 hours later, feeling like crap. My back and hand hurt and, worse than anything, my mind was not working right. There I was, sitting on my beautiful terrace, sipping a cup of coffee with absolutely no recollection of having woken up and made it. On the other hand, my dream seemed vividly real. My brain felt like it was surrended by cotton, very odd feeling.
I walked to the shop, told Memo what was happening, he had me do a couple of balance exercises which I totally failed, put me on oxygen and called the chambers. Dr Piccolo was not available, so we went to the clinic accross the street from Aldora, where I was promptly and well treated. I had had my dive insurance (a special AXA insurance offered by the French diving organisation) e.mail me the paperwork I needed to fill out before entering the chamber. I just signed everything (even that gradually became harder and harder) and let Juan and Memo deal with the rest of the technicalities.
The first ride (table 6) was awful, as I was scared sh**less, although I had a great tender, an American volunteer nurse who did all she could to reassure me. Still, not my funniest Valentine's Day ever…
I had to do another, shorter one, the second day as all symptoms had not gone away, and I actually enjoyed it. Not as much as an actual dive, of course, but they do have a good movie selection.
Of course that DCS2 hit meant I wasn't allowed to dive for the remainder of my trip, which was the hard part (still don't know when I will back in the water, my doctor wants to have me tested for PFO).
Instead I enjoyed watching the Carnival (and the burning up of Señor Frog's palapas), eating a great gumbo with some crazy canucks at Villa Aldora (
you know who you are), being invited at Sunday barbecues, cruising the island on a rental scooter, snorkeling at Chen Rio and Playa Corona, eating out (tried out Kinta on this trip : AWESOME !!! Also finally got the nerves to try tripes at Los Otates : crunchy and tasty), drinking (hadn't had a sip of alcohol all the while I was diving, but made up for that. Recommand La Hatch on the waterfront by Villa Blanca, great owners, staff, live music and food) and took a two-day trip with my friend Maria to Punta Allen : quite an adventure to get there with the bumpy road and pretty basic as far as accomodations go (no 24 hour electricity) but nice beach and great boat tours in the laguna and the ocean. Saw lots of birds, a school of wild dolphins and amazing snorkeling.Then, all too soon, it was time to leave. Just as he had helped me rent the apartment, Chino and his son helped me empty it (he couldn't believe I had bought a mattress as he is used to hammocks. I guess the one I gave him will serve as a couch to watch TV), I had a last breakfast at the museum overlooking the amazing Caribbean (ask for the menu in Spanish, it has more options, including the delicious "venenoso" omelette) and headed for a night of partying in Isla Mujeres. But that's another story.
Can't wait for the next trip, although I'm still not done paying for that one…
Thanks for reading, safe and fun bubbles to all :kiss2:
