Cozumel (June 22 to July 2, 2000)
Author: Gwen Mills

On June 22, my fiancé and I boarded a Mexicana flight from Orlando to Cozumel at 4 PM. We connected through Cancun with a 2 hour layover before arriving in Cozumel around 7:45 local time. As we had heard horror stories about divers losing their luggage, we each had a carry-on which contained BCD, Regulator w/ dive computer, and masks. Both of our checked luggage pieces made it ok to Cozumel. After purchasing the transfer tickets we were off to Plaza Las Glorias for 10 nights. Plaza Las Glorias is centrally located approximately a 15 minute walk from the main square in Cozumel. Right across the street is the Mexican equivalent of a Wal-Mart super center on a smaller scale. We purchased some snacks, sandwich meat, bread, soda and water to stock the mini-fridge in our suite. All the rooms at PLG are mini suites with a microwave, sink, and 2 place settings. As we were there for 10 days and both with between 20 and 30 logged dives, our plan was to dive a conservative schedule but to dive every day. 

Day one, we went down to Aqua Safari which was the in-hotel dive operator at PLG. We decided to do a “refresher course” which included 1 hour of classroom time, 1 hour in the water, and then a boat trip for the afternoon dive to Paradise Reef. Our instructor was Nino (possibly Lino) and fiancé and I were the only 2 in the class. He kept it interesting and any concerns we had were addressed until they were no longer concerns. After checking our equipment, we entered the water and submerged to approximately 15 feet. We were lead to an area between the rocks where the wave and current action was minimal. There we practiced all the basic open-water training exercises for approximately 20 minutes. Several fish watched us intently looking for a handout. Nino allowed us to “take it easy” between each exercise and gave approval every time we completed the task with a handshake. After finishing up the training, we went on a short tour around a pile of rubble, the dock, and some rocks. We saw a seahorse, an eel that peeked out from a pipe, a filefish, a trumpet fish, and several other reef fish. Total time underwater was around an hour with a max depth of 18 feet. After surfacing, we had approximately an hour to eat lunch before boarding the “Safari II” for the afternoon 1 tank dive. The ride to Paradise reef was approximately 30 minutes. We were on board with 8 divers and 6 snorkelers. There were 3 DM’s on the boat, one with the snorkelers, and 2 with the divers. The briefing called for one DM to lead and the other DM to follow and keep us herded together. Underwater, we stretched out at least 200 feet. Visibility was great. All varieties of reef fish, an eel, some flounder, a crab whose body was at least a foot across, and a snapper in the range of 60 pounds were seen. I saw the big snapper back underneath a ledge lurking. The dive was called at 45 minutes when another diver reached 700 psi. Overall, it was a nice beginning dive but not the best. The limited time underwater soured us towards this operation but everything else about them was good. 

Day 2 we went to a local national park called Chankanaab. There is a sheltered lagoon which allows swimmers, divers, and snorkelers to see sea life without fighting the currents. We had brought our own gear and spent 60 minutes at 25 feet. A lot of reef fish hanging around and 2 eels kept us interested. Also of interest was the Buddha statue. Not much to see here except for a few coral formations. We went back to PLG and contemplated an afternoon trip but as there were 3 cruise ships in town, we decided to just do a shore dive to avoid the crowds. We saw a scorpion fish and various reef fish there. Also a big stingray scampered through the area keeping it interesting. Had some problems with my fiancé's BCD so we cut it short after about 30 minutes. 

Day 3 we wandered into town in the early morning. We had stopped by a couple of the dive shops the preceding evening and we found ourselves at Sea Scuba near La Mission II restaurant. We booked on the fast boat trip. There was another couple of novice divers on the boat with us who wanted to do shallow dives so we hit Yucab and Paradise reefs. Yucab maximum depth was 52 feet. Saw one big grouper and a large King Crab. It wasn’t much different at paradise. We saw two groupers over 50lbs, some barracuda, and a school of small mackerel in addition to the usual assortment of reef fish.

Day 4 and 5 we did the afternoon fast boat trips with sea scuba. For some reason I didn’t do a journal entry on these days so I don’t have details or even where we went. I do remember we did San Francisco one day which was my first “wall dive” so to speak. We had the boat to ourselves one day and the other day we split it with 2 boys that just wanted to snorkel and followed us from the surface.

Day 6 we visited El Cedral and Chankanaab. El Cedral was packed full of curious jewfish looking for a handout. Also there were some nice swimthroughs. Lots of lobster on this reef. This was my favorite reef of all the ones we visited during our trip. Once again we had the boat to ourselves and our divemaster simply followed behind allowing us to move at our own pace.

Day 7 was our last day diving and we visited Palancar caves (I think it was called that) which was our deepest dive of the trip. It starts out over the sand and then drops down with huge coral formations. We wound between the formations and saw a sea turtle and several types of reef fish. The highlight was moving out over the blue water and looking down approximately 100 feet below us to see a huge black grouper just hanging out. He looked big from our vantage point so to see him up close he must have been massive. One humorous thing about our trip is that we were joined by a family from Missouri. They were all AOW divers and had completed their training in Florida. I expected them to be good divers but their unnecessary movements used up the air quick. At 30 minutes into our dive they were making the low on air sign and went up. We lasted approximately 20 minutes longer. Our second dive was on Paradise reef. This time, the Missourian’s were off on their own speeding ahead of the group and for the same reason they surfaced after about 20 minutes. We enjoyed 48 minutes on the reef before the DM called the dive. Overall, I was impressed with Sea Scuba. Their DM’s were precise, cautious, and safety oriented. Before each dive we got a briefing and the equipment was double checked. Entry with Sea Scuba is back-entry and the group descends as a whole meeting on the bottom. I would highly recommend Sea Scuba!!!

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