Cozumel
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 7:50 pm
I did 10 dives in Cozumel: Maracaibo, Columbia Shallows, Palancar Caves, Palancar Garden, Palancar Bricks, San Francisco, Cardona, Punta Tenich, Paso del Cedral, and Tormentos. My favorites were Maracaibo, the Palancar reefs, Punta Tenich, Tormentos, and Paso del Cedral (in the order of preference). I so missed diving!!
Since Cozumel is known for drift diving, I wasn’t sure what quite to expect in terms of the current. I found that the currents were actually kind of fun as they helped me mosey along the reefs. The visibility was 75’-100’ easy, depending on the site. Water was 80+ degrees. Maracaibo was a genuine treat as it wasn’t inundated by divers that scare away fishies. These reefs were more vibrant than any of the other sites and it had more life…...huge mean spiny lobsters, reef sharks, corals, fauna, giant groupers, and….of course fishies.
In the shallower divers I saw schools of fish (grunts, blue runners), large barracudas, sting and manta rays, tangs, angels, parrots, lots of large green turtles and a few nudis and morays (green and spotted). Saw a free swimming green eel which was pretty cool; it reminded me of a super miniature wolfie in green. In the Palancar Gardens dive, there was a large, friendly snapper that followed us the entire dive. After the dive, I asked the DM why that snapper followed us – and he informed the group that sometimes fish follow divers because they might find a lionfish treat. So, some DMs will spear lion fish during a dive, then cut off their barbs/spines, and then leave the remains for fish to eat. Yes, it’s a fish eat fish blue world.
There were a few swim through, which were pretty cool. But the coolest thing I saw was fishie porn…yeaah….2 humogo lionfish mating (they each looked longer and fatter than legal sized paper)…it was funny and I was a bit clueless as to what the frack it was since they were attached and spinning towards us….it looked like a floating amoeba spiraling towards our group. I saw a total of 3 lionfish in Cozumel.
Since I got into Cozumel late, my first 2 dives were with Dive House which was the dive shop on site. I disliked them because they didn’t have a DIN adaptor, and they had large groups…11 divers and 40 minute dives. The remainder of my trip I dove with Aldora. I thought they were awesome because they were willing to go further out, have an earlier start as to beating any herds of underwater tourists, and took us to sites that many of the other underwater tour boats took their tourists. And the best part was small groups, great DMs….and STEEL TANKS with DIN!
Yes, steel 100s and 120s. They also let us dive as long as we wanted…each of our dives was at least 1 hour and our longest dive was 1.75 hours at a 2nd shallow dive.
A few after thoughts for Cozumel- bring a DIN adaptor, reef gloves and a hood (to prevent any funny tans
), and that I’m not a fan of blue water ascents with current from 70+ ft. The boats aren’t anchored. The dives were certainly fun. I tried making it out to the Cenotes, but not enough time….hope I’m not missing much!
Next on the dive bucket list…NC….a mere 6 hour dive..er drive…away. Meh!
Since Cozumel is known for drift diving, I wasn’t sure what quite to expect in terms of the current. I found that the currents were actually kind of fun as they helped me mosey along the reefs. The visibility was 75’-100’ easy, depending on the site. Water was 80+ degrees. Maracaibo was a genuine treat as it wasn’t inundated by divers that scare away fishies. These reefs were more vibrant than any of the other sites and it had more life…...huge mean spiny lobsters, reef sharks, corals, fauna, giant groupers, and….of course fishies.
In the shallower divers I saw schools of fish (grunts, blue runners), large barracudas, sting and manta rays, tangs, angels, parrots, lots of large green turtles and a few nudis and morays (green and spotted). Saw a free swimming green eel which was pretty cool; it reminded me of a super miniature wolfie in green. In the Palancar Gardens dive, there was a large, friendly snapper that followed us the entire dive. After the dive, I asked the DM why that snapper followed us – and he informed the group that sometimes fish follow divers because they might find a lionfish treat. So, some DMs will spear lion fish during a dive, then cut off their barbs/spines, and then leave the remains for fish to eat. Yes, it’s a fish eat fish blue world.
There were a few swim through, which were pretty cool. But the coolest thing I saw was fishie porn…yeaah….2 humogo lionfish mating (they each looked longer and fatter than legal sized paper)…it was funny and I was a bit clueless as to what the frack it was since they were attached and spinning towards us….it looked like a floating amoeba spiraling towards our group. I saw a total of 3 lionfish in Cozumel.
Since I got into Cozumel late, my first 2 dives were with Dive House which was the dive shop on site. I disliked them because they didn’t have a DIN adaptor, and they had large groups…11 divers and 40 minute dives. The remainder of my trip I dove with Aldora. I thought they were awesome because they were willing to go further out, have an earlier start as to beating any herds of underwater tourists, and took us to sites that many of the other underwater tour boats took their tourists. And the best part was small groups, great DMs….and STEEL TANKS with DIN!
Yes, steel 100s and 120s. They also let us dive as long as we wanted…each of our dives was at least 1 hour and our longest dive was 1.75 hours at a 2nd shallow dive. A few after thoughts for Cozumel- bring a DIN adaptor, reef gloves and a hood (to prevent any funny tans
), and that I’m not a fan of blue water ascents with current from 70+ ft. The boats aren’t anchored. The dives were certainly fun. I tried making it out to the Cenotes, but not enough time….hope I’m not missing much!Next on the dive bucket list…NC….a mere 6 hour dive..er drive…away. Meh!
