Trip Report Why I Won't Be Returning to Cozumel-Part 1,2&3

[agilis]

As a solo diver, I went to Cozumel in March 2021 for my 8th or so diving trip. Since Americans can't really dive anywhere outside the U.S. except the Bahamas and Mexico without a big hassle with COVID restrictions, testing, etc., I've been really antsy to dive, so I chose Cozumel. I booked this trip at the end of January, and I stayed at the Hotel Cozumel (now Wyndham) and went diving with Salty Endeavors. In general, my hotel stay was very good. The food was average and the service was excellent. All hotel staff were happy to help. This was my first time doing an AI, and I liked that I didn't have to seek out food for every meal. Usually AI resorts charge double for a single traveler, but with the great pricing that was in place in January, there was no single penalty. Even though I didn't dive with the onsite dive op, I still got a dive gear locker at no cost. I have never stayed at Hotel Cozumel, so I have no basis of comparison pre and post Wyndham's purchase, but I would return here. The resort was only about 30% occupied and about half of those guests were divers.

The Diving. This was my first time using Salty Endeavors. The boat picked me up at the on-site pier and there was no pick-up fee charged by the hotel. That was really nice, since other hotel piers along our pick-up zone charged the divers a pier fee. The dive guides were very good, for the most part. I was a little put off by one of the dive guides handling the marine life on a night dive. The guide picked up a balloon fish so he could show us how they blow up as a way to protect themselves when threatened. As usual, Mexico doesn't practice what they preach. It's okay if the dive guides harass the marine life, but we can't even wear gloves in the marine park.

I haven't been to Cozumel since December 2019 and I wasn't very happy with the condition of the reef back then. They had just started the rotating closures of the dive sites. I know Cozumel was hit by two hurricanes last fall, so I had that in mind, too, when I went diving. Again, I just wanted to go somewhere to dive. Well, the reef is still in really bad shape. I guess I wasn't surprised, but I was hopeful that with no cruise ships, it might have improved some. Some of the sites had so much dead coral that I got bored trying to find some signs of life. These coral bones were everywhere. There were only juvenile fishes and hardly any adult fish. I did many night dives (my favorite!) and saw the most sea life on those dives. It's also where I got the best photos and videos. Santa Rosa Wall was the only place where there was still a lot of color to the reef. I'll try to get some photos on here in the next post.

Dive Profile. I used Nitrox the whole trip, except on the last day, because the dive guide forgot to load it onto the boat. We were already on the way to the dive site, so I had to use air. I'm a very conservative diver and I don't need to go deep to have fun. My profiles were 40-60 feet with a couple of 85-foot dives. I did 3 dives a day for 6 days straight, 2 in the a.m. and 1 night dive. I drink a lot of water and bring Powerade Zero from home to drink on the boat during the surface intervals.

My last day of diving concluded with a night dive. I had the next day free to rest and dry my gear, then fly home the following day after that. After washing and hanging all my gear, I went to bed. I was feeling fine, just really tired. About two hours into sleep, I was awakened with a really painful feeling in my upper chest and abdomen. At first, I thought I had fallen asleep in a weird position, so I tossed and turned to try to get comfortable and the pain was intensifying. It felt better if I sat up for a few moments, then I'd lay back down and here comes the pain again. It felt like skin and muscle pain. My skin was itchy and warm and it hurt to touch my skin. I also was having cold sweats. I've had skin bends before, so now I'm out of bed and looking in the mirror and, yep, it's skin bends. I've never been formally treated for skin bends by a medical professional because I've been leery of the quality of care I'd receive in a foreign country, plus skin bends aren't known to be too serious. In fact, the first time I got them, I just thought my wetsuit was too tight at depth and it was a rash from the wetsuit compression. But this time it felt different, so I called DAN. I have their dive insurance.

Okay. I have to split up this post because of a character limit. See part 2 to follow.

Very conservative divers do not do three dives a day for six days straight. They also do not come anywhere close to the computer's max no decomp limit. That's asking for trouble.

 

[DandyDon]

Correct! I'm not really down on Cozumel but my wife has reason to avoid it. As a matter of fact I love drift diving.

Then why did you post in this thread? I gripe and moan about many things, but I try to do so in the Whine forum, or just or to myself since I'm a hermit.

No real issue with Dive Paradise but if I had been at Little Cayman or Roatan or Bonaire at a dedicated dive resort I probably could have gotten oxygen at 1:30 am. It seems that DAN would have been more proactive.

DAN phone medics do the best that they can based on what your call tells them.

It might help to clarify this issue for those like me who do not know.

Is O2 recommended for skin bends only?

Or do there have to be additional symptoms? As in this case nausea, dizziness and headache?

What about skin bends and fatigue?

If I ever get skin bends, I'll call DAN so they can monitor the case but I will indeed ask them to coordinate my immediate treatment at their best suggestion for an ER, use their contacts to get it set up, and send me an ambulance. Then I'll keep them on the phone asking what else they can do, perhaps repeatedly. They're going to pay for it however it goes down, but I'm going.

Aside from that, I learned long ago to never travel anywhere without a bottle of Pepto Bismo equivalent. I forgot on a trip to the Utah wildlands years ago, couldn't find an open store before daybreak anywhere in Moab, and it really cut into my day.

 

[South4Scuba]

Seems like if you want to have 24/7 medical care on site (or closer than the nearest ER) that's something to ask your dive-operation or hotel about ahead of time. Blaming DAN or Cozumel as a destination seems odd to me.

I never said 24/7 medical care. I was ONLY referring to oxygen availability.

 

[South4Scuba]

It might help to clarify this issue for those like me who do not know.

Is O2 recommended for skin bends only?

Or do there have to be additional symptoms? As in this case nausea, dizziness and headache?

What about skin bends and fatigue?

If you have moderate DCS symptoms after a dive the dive op will immediately give you oxygen on the boat. Or later you'll get it at the resort or ultimately at a medical facility. It's used for skin bends and most all DCS.

 

[DandyDon]

Seems like if you want to have 24/7 medical care on site (or closer than the nearest ER) that's something to ask your dive-operation or hotel about ahead of time. Blaming DAN or Cozumel as a destination seems odd to me.

He's not down on Cozumel. He just wanted to gripe.

I'm not really down on Cozumel

 

[cvchief]

I know Alison (Scuba with Alison) has taken calls late at night from divers and got them to hospital if they weren't well.

The service my wife got at International Hospital (Owned by the guy that owns SSS hyperbaric chambers all of the world) was awesome. I really like Dr. Garcia the Med Director there. And the view is great.

And there are other good private hospitals as well.

 

[cvchief]

And being private, they compete for business, which is why you see ambulances staged along the south and at the Fonatur just waiting for a client.

 

[MrBigfins]

Very conservative divers do not do three dives a day for six days straight. They also do not come anywhere close to the computer's max no decomp limit. That's asking for trouble.

I may not be "very" conservative, but definitely am fairly conservative and I regularly do 4 dives a day, every day when on a trip. When the trip is multiple weeks, I'll take a few days of just 2 a day mixed with a day off here or there.. I dive best available nitrox mix on all dives and don't push ndls. I don't feel me or any liveaboard divers (most liveaboard trips are 4-5 dives everyday)are asking for trouble

 

[yle]

I may not be "very" conservative, but definitely am fairly conservative and I regularly do 4 dives a day, every day when on a trip. When the trip is multiple weeks, I'll take a few days of just 2 a day mixed with a day off here or there.. I dive best available nitrox mix on all dives and don't push ndls. I don't feel me or any liveaboard divers (most liveaboard trips are 4-5 dives everyday)are asking for trouble

But everyone is different. You might do just fine with four dives a day, multiple days in a row, but the data collected from the diving public at large, over many years, suggests that this kind of schedule is on the riskier side of that statistical curve that determines the probability of a DCS incident.

If it works for you, then keep at it and dive as much as possible. But consider that you could possibly be exceptional (in terms of DCS risk tolerance), and we wouldn't want the average diver to assume they are also.

 

[ggunn]

But everyone is different. You might do just fine with four dives a day, multiple days in a row, but the data collected from the diving public at large, over many years, suggests that this kind of schedule is on the riskier side of that statistical curve that determines the probability of a DCS incident.

If it works for you, then keep at it and dive as much as possible. But consider that you could possibly be exceptional (in terms of DCS risk tolerance), and we wouldn't want the average diver to assume they are also.

The older I get, the more conservative (diving-wise) I become. A Cozumel dive I used to enjoy a lot is Punta Sur Cathedral, but the way I have always been taken on that dive I incurred a deco obligation at the end, and my last dive there I got what I found out later was likely a minor skin bend. I don't do deco any more.