Cozumel: (Sept 15-23, 2001)
by franny

A little joy among the maddness of the world
I was a little hesitent to make this trip while I was still in a state of shock.
This would be my 3rd trip this year.
Now I am happy I went.

With our group of 7, heading to Cozumel less than a week after the tradgedy, you can well imagine how we felt.

Secretly, I was hoping the trip would be postponed to a later date. But, by Sunday, it looked like a "go".

Arriving 2-3 hours early at the airport, waiting out the delays and appreciating the beefed up security, our plane finally took off for a direct flight to Cancun.

A van ride to Playa Del Carmen, a meal and a margarita later, and a ferry and taxi landed us at our villa at around midnight.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Our group leader who owns the local dive shop here in Whiterock, (shameless plug for Pierre at Ocean Pro Divers ;) is friends with the people who own this fantastic villa. It's convenient location, and smart layout make it wonderfull for a group of up to 8 divers.

If you would like to see pictures and more info. just go to www.rentcozumel.com. It has 4 airconditioned bedrooms, open air common room with all the ammenities, right up to a pool in your living area. Located on Calle 19, it is just a block from the Chaudraui grocery and a short walk to Plaza Las Glorias.

DIVE OP: AQUA SAFARI

An obvious choice, Angel and his staff were absolutely WONDERFULL! We were provided with our private boat and had Chilleango (sp?) as our captain and Mariano as our dive master for the week.

DIVING: I won't go into all the details but, suffice to say, it was great! Vis the first day was +150 with calm seas. We all dove air the first day and most of us on Nitrox the rest of the week. From the moment we submerged in that "big ol aquarium", I was able to remove myself from the terror going on in the world above. I think it was the best medication. I was happy we'd come.

On Wednesday, two in our group went to the mainland to do the cenote' dives. Little miss claustrophobia here, wasn't among them. So on that day, when Mariano asked us where we wanted to dive, I said, "Where is YOUR favorite site?" Well, his face just beamed and he said "really? you want to go there?" "Yes!" we all said in unison. He said it really did not have a name, but is located between Palancar Bricks and Palancar caves. This dive did not dissapoint!

Lots of life including 2 groupers that were about the size of a loveseat!!! No kidding, I have never seen anything that big in my life! Huge lobster, crab and so many of the other usual critters. And let's not forget the turtles! It was so much fun we decided to do a repeat the next day so our buds could see it. We didn't see the huge grouper but 4 large turtles, lobster and a juvinile seahorse so small, I could barely make out what it was. The next dive was at Francesca with a decent current going for a speedy drift. Again, lots of life with cudas, grouper, (nowhere near the size of the "monsters"), turtles, sharks etc. etc. Mariano on all the dives would work very hard to find us things we would probable miss by a mile. Seahorses, eels, juvinile spotted trunkfish, seahorse, juvy pipefish no bigger than my pinky finger, octopus x 3, squid and the list goes on.

What I really appreciated was that time was not restricted. Most dives were an hour and one of mine was 72 minutes. It proved to be a wonderfull week of diving!

OTHER STUFF: We made lunch everyday after diving which was delicious and very economical. Some of the restaraunts visited were Primas x 2, Peppes, Plaza Leeza for great fajittas. Unfortunately, for no reason that we could find out, Guidos was closed. :( Tuesday was my birthday and after we came back from dinner, we partied which resulted in me getting tossed in the pool. Judy's was Saturday, so we had a double header.

We kept a close daily watch on CNN in the livingroom, but, made ourselves pull away when possible. Rented a jeep on Saturday and did the "island tour thing". It is low season and a quiet time anyway, but many hotels and businesses are suffering HUGE group cancellations. The Costa Club cannot even afford to run the air conditioning in the rooms. All is a very eerie quiet scene.

The trip home proved to be a very long day with many delays at the airport. Some frustrated travellers on other flights were about ready to lose it. It is to be expected. Heck, there is a war going on for Gods' sake!

We finally crawled home about 2:00 a.m. As I sat in my kitchen and looked around, and then pulled back the covers on my huge bed, I thought about my freedom and said with a sigh..............."It's good to be home".

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