well...... the bermuda trip became a Cozumel trip. flihts last sunday were canceled due to snow in memphis and atlanta. we cashed in trip insurance and rescheduled somewhere West and South. Cozumel was the winner. this is my 6th trip there and was probably the best. We stayed at the Occidenntal Grand Cozumel. This is the first time we've stayed at an all-inclusive. It is a lot further south than other places we've stayed which has advantages and disadvantages. Being all-inclusive we didn't go to town to eat like we usually do so distance wasn't a problem there. We rented a jeep so we could visit some favorite spots on the other side of the island. Chen Rios is our new favorite spot. for 155 pesos you could get a "kilo of fish" (which I'm pretty sure was swimming that morning) with all the trimmings. with the exchange rate of 15:1 that ends up being $10US .
Water temp was 79 degrees, current minimal, by Coz standards, visibility was excellent - even by Coz standards (150+). Because it is so much farther south, the boat ride to most dive sites is less than 10 minutes. I did 10 dives in 4 days and was lucky to be with some excellent divers, though "conservative" would not be used in a sentence describing most of them. Dive Palancar operates out of the resort and their staff and crews were excellent. Because of experience levels of divers, low currrents, and good weather, we were able to venture to locations and depths not always possible on a consistant, daily basis. Our last day we went to Maircabo, far to the south, and did a great deep wall dive. Seeing the beauty of the soft coral in that location makes we wonder what the other reefs looked like in the 1960's. Being so much deeper I'm sure helps protect it not only from divers, but also hurricane damage that the shallower reefs are subject to. I was the conservative one in the group and maxed out at 153 feet a few others were approaching 180ish , as they were well below me. It was planned as a deep and short dive. We did a long safety stop. One diver ran a little low on air and I used my 7 foot octo to share just to extend the dive, he switched back to his for safety stop. this trip was the first time I've gotten to do Devil's Throat. Other trips there was always adiver on board that DM didn't feel comfortable taking there.
I saw some of the usual sea life, turtles (during a night dive, the largest one) I've ever seen, nurse sharks, eagle ray, green morays, and the great swim-throughs that make Coz so much fun. I plan to return later this summer, stay at the Occidental, do as many dives as possible and have a few "kilos" of fish to help the margaritas taste even better.
Todd
