It was diving in an aquarium! The water was so clear. We saw a crazy amount of different wildlife, and I shot a lot of pictures. So many different fish, it would take awhile to type them all out, and I'm not motivated enough to do so. Most fish have very vivid colors. We saw nurse sharks, and both Hawkbill and Green Sea Turtles, Barracudas, Green and Spotted Moray Eels, as well, Southern Stingrays, and Spiny Lobsters, amongst many other things. Splendid Toad Fish can be found only in Cozumel, so what trip wouldn't be complete without seeing them. Of course, there are all sorts of sponges and coral. I have never dove Cozumel before, so I can't say much about the post-hurricane damage, but according to our fearless leader, he only noticed some changes (a lot more sand in some places), but not much, and everything seemed really healthy. By the way, because all diving is inside a marine preserve, neither gloves, nor knives are allowed.
Hotel Cozumel is a pretty good set-up for diving. It is an all inclusive hotel, so except for top-shelf liquor, espresso, and phone calls, the rest is free, including W--Fi. If I was making the trip plans, I would look into a different hotel only because of the overall lack of variety of restaurants (only one open per meal), I liked everything else about Hotel Cozumel.
I would recommend Dive Paradise as a dive outfit. They had an outlet at Hotel Cozumel, and they have others at other hotels. They know the dive areas really well. We were a group of 14 divers (out of 15), so we had good size boats. Their Al80s are slightly smaller around, so they area little taller than normal 80s. I am not sure if they were 7" or some metric equivalent of something slightly bigger, but not quite 7.25". Unless you suck gas like you can't wait until you get to the toy prize on the bottom, their Al80s will do fine for the dives. Can rent 100s, but the cost is nearly $10 - rather expensive. Nitrox is also $10, and you only got a choice - 32 or 34 (I believe). I inquired at the very beginning of the trip, then quickly determined I'd try to make do without, and forgot the exact figures. I had several dives beyond 90 fsw, and my primary computer hates deep air dives, so those deeper dives would have been my only purpose for nitrox, but 32% is not good for 100'+ dives. Made do with air just fine. It was pretty odd, yet cool that after doing the 127 fsw dive, had only enough time to change camera batteries and tanks before, had to get back in the water for a 60+ minute "surface interval" dive. That day, really looked forward to my lunchtime espresso.
Sorry to say it again, but diving was great! Most dives averaged between 45 to 55 minutes. I really liked arriving in Cozumel early afternoon, then diving a couple of hours later. Of course, to be able to get there that early requires leaving SeaTac at 12:30 A.M., yes, A.M.. I wore a 3mm full wetsuit. Some wore shorties. One initially wore a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, but after a bout with fire coral (brushing against it, but no cuts), switched to a full diveskin. I was very happy with a full wetsuit. I don't think I brushed any coral. I was not hot with the 3mm either. I was very comfortable. Two or three times had to kick really hard (harder without split fins), but most of the time it was just floating through or along for the dives. And as it turned out, the few times had to kick hard was worth it. We were all done with diving after the last two dives Thursday morning. It was sad, but glad to take a break.
I wanted to dive the Cenotes Friday morning, early on in the week, but by Thursday, tired and needed a day of no diving. We all rented scooters for 24 hours Thursday afternoon, and drove around 2/3 of the island. It was great fun, and we didn't get it into any accidents. Friday, we vegetated in the sun, and enjoyed not being rushed to do anything. Came home Saturday night, and back to work Monday. Sigh…
I really would encourage people to dive Cozumel. There is not much to do on Cozumel except lay on the beach, snorkel, scooter about, and diving. Probably 90% of all tourists flying to Cozumel are divers. High temperatures were in the upper 80s, and except for Saturday and Sunday, when it rained, it was mostly very sunny. The sun would significantly lower the humidity, which would be pretty high by morning, so the sun has multiple purposes. I think/hope I am going back next year with friends, and look forward to it.
Rich
