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Cozumel Trip Report
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Comments: Coz Trip Report
Nov 24-Dec 1

Being one of the last people alive to not have her own website, I’m sorry
I can’t include pictures with this report. Well....and I haven’t gotten them
developed yet. *grin* So, we’ll have to make do with a narrative broken down
by category instead of a monotonous day-by-day account. You all know the
kind I’m talking about: Day 1 Morning-time: “Woke up at 5am, got up and
dressed in my blue bathing suit with the red stripe. Then I brushed my
teeth, following up with a BIG drink of water, the bottled kind, not out of
the tap. Then I sat on the balcony of Yada Yada hotel and contemplated the
beautiful blue water for an hour as I tried to decide where to go for
breakfast. Rock-n-Java maybe? Or Jeannie’s Waffle House...I just couldn’t
decide...Then I....wait a minute, what’s that? Oh no, don’t aim that shotgun
at me--AUGH!” *kaBLAM*

AIRLINE
I was nervous about the new airline Funjet is using--Ryan Air. All the
websites and several people were posting new luggage weight limitations of
44 lbs total for checked luggage, and I had heard that some people had to
pay fees for excess luggage that was over the limit. I am happy to report
that Ryan Air doesn’t seem to be enforcing these supposed weight
restrictions. I didn’t weigh my suitcases but I know with all my dive gear
and things I was bringing for friends on the island that my luggage was
probably close to 90 lbs. Thank goodness for inline skate wheels!

The planes were your standard 737’s with no leg room and uncomfortable
seats. My favorite features were the armchair radios accessible only by
headphones, of which there were none, and the broken lavatory, leaving 2
bathrooms to service over 100 people who chose THOSE 2 hours to take a big
dump. But they did have these cool monitors that popped down once we took
off and we could track where the plane was, how long we had left, our speed
and altitude, etc. Repetitive after the first cycle, but it was great for
tracking how much time I still had to try to get the feeling back in my
cramped legs before I tried to stand up.

Now I’m going to rant for a moment...about kids. Yes, it was Thanksgiving
week and many families were travelling, so the Great Gods of Bad Luck seated
me next to, behind and in front of every single screaming child on that
plane. They found it really fun to run up and down the aisles, throw their
toys on the floor, at people and over the tops of seats, roll around in the
aisle, trip the flight attendants and prevent them from doing their jobs,
and scream at the top of their lungs. Ok, so I like kids in general, and don
’t care if people want to take them on vacation, but parents PLEASE make
your kids behave on the plane! Be considerate of the fact that other people
might not find your children as adorable as you do, and are not on the plane
to provide entertainment for YOUR kids. I just can’t believe parents let
their kids act that way and even the flight attendants were sick of it.
Quite frankly, I wouldn’t have blamed the flight attendants a bit if they
had collected them al
l and stuffed them in the overhead bins until the flight was over!
Hmmm...that’s an idea.....oh sorry, I digress....moving on....

FOOD
I ate many good meals at a few of my “usual” haunts, and tried a few new
places this time. There were still several I didn’t get to but that gives me
yet another reason to return, like I need one! :)

Breakfast: On dive days, I got pan dulce from Chedraui--the early
departures didn’t allow for a leisurely breakfast, but it was just as well
because I wanted to get on the boat! I had breakfast at Tony’s a few times,
eggs, bacon and hotcakes--delicious as always. It’s amazing how many friends
drop by at various points in the morning. I just love his coffee--he puts a
little cinnamon in the coffee grounds before brewing. YUM! We also stopped
in at Rock-n-Java one morning, which is always good even though the prices
went up (grrrrr). I had the Cowboy breakfast, which was scrambled eggs,
bacon and gravy on top of biscuits with home fried potatoes (I’m a southern
girl :) and a side order of fruit--all quite tasty.

Lunch: We had lunch at a little fruteria on Salas--don’t remember the
name--but they had wonderful cheap tacos and fresh fruit smoothies. There
are quite a few of these places in town now. We tried Sabores on Sally’s
recommendation and it was a great one. Nice place--the dining area was the
living room of the house and I think there was outside seating out back.
Good food--the comida casera at 40 pesos was quite a deal. With that, you
get soup or salad, main course and tortillas, and dessert was either
included or an extra charge--I didn’t order dessert so I’m not sure. I had
some kind of breaded fish, steamed veggies, beans and rice--a little bland,
but still tasty. Christi introduced me to Camilo’s--which is now my new
favorite lunch place. The tacos were 10 pesos apiece and stuffed
full--several varieties of seafood. In 2 visits, I had the breaded fish,
breaded shrimp, Mexican shrimp and the smoked marlin tacos--all VERY good,
and I also had the smoked marlin salad tostada
--YUM. My only caution is--as poor Chas found out: Don’t blorp a bunch of
the habanero mayonnaise on your tacos without tasting it first! :) They also
have other kinds of tostadas, sandwiches, seafood salads and main
courses--all seafood. I got hooked on the wonderful cheap tacos, but I hope
this place survives so I can get back and work my way through the rest of
the menu!

Dinner: Tony outdid himself at Thanksgiving--it just didn’t seem like
Thanksgiving until I saw that huge plate of turkey, stuffing, cranberry
sauce (with the can marks still in it--ahhhh home :) VERY good mashed
potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole and yams. And of course his wonderful
key lime pie for dessert--fantastic as always. :) I ate there a few other
nights too. I enjoyed my usual chicken parmesan and tried his homemade
spaghetti bolognaise, which was great for my carb fix! Against my own rule,
I made a return trip to Prima to have dinner with the Rodale’s gang. Nothing
against Prima--their food is pretty good, but most of their meals are way
overpriced, in my opinion. It was a good meal--I had the lobster ravioli,
which wasn’t too unreasonable at 90 pesos, and it was just enough food to
fill me up, so I may actually go back there again on a future visit. If you
stick to the pasta dishes, you can have a decent dinner that doesn’t cost a
fortune. We also returned to L
as Arracheras/Johnny Bravo’s, which I had visited in Aug. We went on Sat
night and I was sick with a cold and running a fever, so I don’t know if it
was because I wasn’t feeling well or if the food just wasn’t as good, but I
didn’t enjoy that meal very much. The meat on the Plato Bravo (flank steak
with avocado slices, cheese quesadillas, tortillas, bean soup) wasn’t as
tasty as it was in Aug and his prices have also gone up.

THE DIVING
After meeting and talking with Christi (sometimes for 4 hours at a time,
right Christi? hee hee) and reading many positive reports about Blue XTSea,
I decided to give her a shot and I was NOT disappointed. What a great
experience--all I can say is WOW! Ok, I’ll say more than that....:) She had
originally rented an extra boat since it was Thanksgiving week so she was
going to divide up the divers according to experience level. She had 4
last-minute cancellations so she had to cancel the extra boat and we all
went on Shamu. There were varying experience levels but when this happens,
Christi will either send an extra DM or dive herself. In our case...she
ended up diving with us because she and I wanted to dive together, and that
worked out GREAT! Diving with Christi was diving with a friend, When the
others ran out of air, she and I would stay down and comb the reefs. She and
I have the same dive style, so we spent most dives just thoroughly exploring
a few coral heads rather th
an racing to see how much reef we could cover. She has an eagle eye for
the macro stuff and pointed out many things that I never would have seen
otherwise. On Thanksgiving day, the 2 other divers scheduled cancelled their
dives and I was the only diver. Christi tried to get herself and me on
Liquid Blue’s boat, but they were full, so we took her boat out with just
the 2 of us and Mago (her captain) and had a blast! I felt guilty about her
wasting gas for just me, but it was SO cool! It was just 2 friends going out
diving, rather than dive operator/customer, and that made it so much fun! It
also allowed us to do 2 dives that we wouldn’t have gotten to do otherwise
(with less experienced divers on the boat), so I’m glad those other divers
cancelled! whahahaha :)

Dive info:
Cedral/Part of Santa Rosa
Max depth: 73 ft Max time: 69 min
Santa Rosa Wall
Max depth: 125 ft Max time: 64 min
Chankanaab Shallows
Max depth: 47 ft Max time: 75 min
Chun Chacaab
Max depth: 96 ft Max time: 60 min
Tormentos
Max depth: 56 ft Max time: 81 min
Palancar Gardens
Max depth: 79 ft Max time: 56 min
San Francisco wall
Max depth: 52 ft Max time: 60 min

Unusual critters of note included: Several free-swimming nurse sharks,
ranging from 5-10 feet, eagle ray, 3-foot porcupinefish (looked like a relic
from the dinosaur age), baby pipefish, teeny juvenile spotted drum (less
than 1”), 2 baby nudibranches, baby arrow crab, tiger grouper, Atlantic
spadefish, almaco jack, a hawkbill turtle as big as the loggerhead that
haunts the south side and another smaller hawkbill, baby sailfin blenny (the
pencil eater), baby bristleworm, adult bristleworm, scrawled filefish,
spotted scorpionfish, the biggest great barracuda I’ve ever seen plus some
regular-sized “normal” barracuda....all in addition to the usual array of
tropical fishies: blue tang, angels of all types, spotted filefish, parrots,
grouper, morays, lobsters, gobies, grunts, snappers, jacks, trunkfish,
squirrelfish....You know, it would be easier to list what I DIDN’T see. No
splendid toadfish or seahorses this time though, although Christi found a
pipehorse that I didn’t get to
see because of ear problems. :(

Water temp was a consistent 82 degrees but we eventually got chilled with
our long bottom times--not that I’m complaining about long bottom times! :)
The norté started blowing in Friday afternoon, so the port was closed on
Saturday which was just as well since I was sick. Sunday they opened the
port about 9am, but the 2 other divers scheduled cancelled, so since I hadn’
t been feeling well anyway and it was my last day, I cancelled too. It was
cool and really windy that day, and Christi said they closed the port again
that afternoon, so it was just as well that I didn’t dive. Bad weather
aside, I had 7 fantastic dives and made a great friend in Christi, so it was
a great week all around! :)

NEW FRIENDS
Well Christi is definitely at the top of this category--she was so much
fun to hang out with and really went out of her way to show me a great time
and make me feel at home. I miss you, girl! :) And Janie--I didn’t get to
visit with her much when I first met her in Aug, but we talked quite a bit
at the T-notes party Sunday. That woman has a lucky star above her head--you
go girl! :) I ran into other friends I met in Aug, too. I saw Nelda, Dr
Scott, Jim Wilson and Antonio at Tony’s--it was great seeing them again! I
visited Sally at the minigolf and saw her again at Rock-n-Java. Sally, I had
to fly out Mon before the minigolf opened so I didn’t get to say goodbye,
but I will see you in Feb and this time I’ll remember Sunshine’s treats! :)

I met Corki and Doug the day I got there--they were walking through town
and we visited for a few minutes. I’m sorry that we never hooked up again
that week, but I’m glad we at least got to meet and hopefully we’ll be able
to visit more at Carnival! I also met Robert Williams--we were doing a
surface interval at Playa Paradise and he was there with his family and
recognized Christi. I also got to dive and hang out with Patrick from
Rockwall, his son Jonathan and father-in-law George, and met Scott from
Atlanta and his family at Tony’s. And I can’t forget the unforgettable
characters from Rodale’s--talking and dining with these folks was a true
pleasure: Doc V, Jonathan, Beth (killerb), Mark (Marcos), Paul (Marriard)
and LarryL, Annette and their 2 boys. It was great meeting all of you and I
hope our paths cross again someday! :)

I missed the crowd at Tony’s on Thanksgiving because I didn’t show up
until 7:30, but I had dinner with Nelda and Scott from Atlanta and family,
and then Patrick from Rockwall showed up and we all sat around and visited.
Our T-notes gathering on Sunday night was a huge success. Not only did
almost every T-noter on the island show up, but we had some Rodale’s board
members join us as well! Let’s see if I can remember everyone who was there:
Me, Chas, Tony, Christi, Janie, her friend Cathy, Di, Janet (from
Cozumel.net board), Carl and his wife and daughter (I’m bad with names, I’m
sorry!), ScubaTony put in a brief appearance, Kel and her hubby Jay, Nelda,
Ann and even Nick F showed up! From Rodale’s, we had Jonathan, Paul and
Beth...so all in all, we had a GREAT time that night and it was so much fun
meeting and getting to visit with everyone! :)

IN SUMMARY
Cozumel is feeling more and more like home with every visit and with every
new friend I meet. I am truly blessed for the people who have come into my
life through the magic of this little island. I always say that leaving
Cozumel to come back to Dallas is like LEAVING home, rather than GOING home.
I can’t wait to come back and see you all at Carnival and hopefully meet all
the people I haven’t met yet! 72 more days....the countdown begins anew! :)

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