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Cozumel Trip Report
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Day 1: Saturday August 16th

(From Chris) Day 1 was our traveling day and we had to get up at 4:30 am to go to the airport. Around 5:15 am we woke up Evan (our 2 year old). Evan is not normally a morning person and usually we get the “go away daddy” when we wake him up. This morning Julie whispered to him to wake up to go to the airport and he sat upright and said “okay, we go to Mexico.  Bye bye home!” We were all ready to go. Got to the airport, checked in, had an uneventful flight to Charlotte, NC (which is really a good thing with a 2 year old). Transferred planes and arrived in Coz around 12:30pm local time. Cleared immigration, customs (green light) and picked up the car from Avis.

We headed to Alicia’s (www.aliciasbedandbreakfast.com) and Alicia greeted us from the upper balcony as she was hanging some laundry. Within 5 minutes Evan was calling her Nanny. I headed out to Chedraui to get some money from the ATM and a few provisions and then off to get a case of Sol at the “brewthru” near Alicia’s. This place is a new beer store since last August that is ˝ a block from Alicia’s house. You can actually drive your car in if you wish and they will load it up. Very funny.

Around 4 or so Christi (www.bluextseadiving.com) from Blue XT Sea came by to pick me up to start my checkout dives for OW certification. I wasn’t supposed to dive until day 2, but because of a ticket screw up, we arrived 2 days later than originally scheduled (but still stayed 11 days). So, I had to do open water checkouts 1 and 2 (Dive 1 was 33’ for 42 minutes and dive 2 was 40’ for 31 minutes). Christi and I filled out the paperwork, went to the caleta, and dove Paradise reef for our first 2 dives.

Because it was getting late in the afternoon, and no one had been diving for a few hours in the area, we got to see a lot of good stuff. Lobsters, crabs, hogfish, squirrelfish, many parrot fish, cleaner shrimp, and a splendid toadfish were among the highlights of the first 2 dives.

I didn’t get back home until about 8:30pm or so since we went back to the caleta and unloaded the boat at which point I was tired and hungry. Julie and I went to Los Seras, a hopping taqueria on 30th by the Ace hardware store and had 6 tacos al pastor, a bowl of bean soup, and 2 cokes for $52 pesos ($5.20 USD). Excellent tacos, good soup and a very local feel made for a nice dinner.

(From Julie) While Chris was diving, Evan and I walked the dogs with Alicia.  Evan was not impressed with the trash on the sides of the road, and at one point even asked “Whose shoe, Mommy” about an old shoe discarded on the side of the road.  He was exhausted after traveling and getting up so early, so he went up to bed shortly after dinner.  For dinner, Chuco had brought back a half chicken and sides.  The way Evan ate you would have thought we never fed him.  The whole dinner had cost a grand total of 20 pesos, and Alicia laughed when I asked how much I owed her for dinner.


Day 2: Sunday August 17th

(From Chris) I was scheduled to do open water 3 and 4 at 4pm so we had the morning to hang out. Julie and I took Evan to Playa Azul and hung out there until after lunch. Evan took to the water very well and really enjoyed “swimming” between his mother and me. Back at Alicia’s, Evan went down for a nap and I met Christi at Plaza Las Glorias. I met Dogood and her husband and another couple – Heather and David when they were dropped off at the pier. Christi and I finished my OW 3 at Chankanaab and dive 4 at a different section of Paradise. Dive 3 was at a max of 48’ for 46 minutes and dive 4 was at 35’ for 35 minutes. On the first dive I came up with over 1000 pounds of air. I dropped 2 pounds of weight on these dives and was very comfortable with 10 pounds for most of my dives. I’d like to see if I can get down to 8 or so next trip. I was very pleased with my air usage, buoyancy, etc and Christi seemed to be very happy as well. Later that evening Alicia once again offered to babysit and Julie and I went to Tony Rome’s for a bite to eat. We expected a party there for Dogood, but I guess they had celebrated the day before on her actual birthday.

Tony’s ribs are very good and the beer was ice cold. Julie and I talked for a while with a woman who just moved down to Cozumel a few months earlier and also with Tony’s wife. Went back to Alicia’s and crashed out as I had to get up to do my first real dive in the morning.

Day 3 Monday August 18th, 2003:

(From Chris) Day 3 started with a 5:10 am wakeup call from Evan. For some reason he decided to get up at this ungodly hour. Julie was nice enough to let me sleep until about 7 am or so and we headed down for another great Chuco breakfast. Today was Mayan eggs (my absolute favorite Chuco breakfast). We ate and I caught a cab to Plaza Las Glorias to meet up with the other divers at the pier there. Dogood and her husband Barry, Heather and David, and a friend of Christi’s name Randy were there when I got there. Shamu docked soon after and we were on our way. We all suited up and I was pretty pumped up for my first real dive after being certified. We had a short briefing on the boat by Raul and entered the water at Palancar bricks. My group had Heather and David, Randy, me, and Raul while Christi dove with Dogood and her husband.

This is where the problems started for me. I couldn’t get off the surface as quickly as I wanted (I kind of forgot to exhale) and my buddy Randy descended with the rest of the group. Raul noticed I wasn’t getting down and put 2 extra pounds in my BCD. Down I went, but then I had the new problem of getting my buoyancy corrected for the extra weight. The current was pretty good this day and there was actually a surge to and from the shore. I quickly buddied up with Raul and we started along the reef. I managed to take in the very large coral heads and noticed a good size sea turtle below me, but then I started to get preoccupied with my air usage and buoyancy control. I was also concerned with keeping up and didn’t have any problem at least with that. I must have misunderstood during the briefing, but I wasn’t expecting to go ahead and do a swimthrough. This made me a little more apprehensive about my buoyancy control and I decided to not do the swimthrough, but instead swim above it and the group. Eventually I tightened up with the group. After about 35 minutes I indicated to Raul that I was low on air at 700 pounds so he decided to raise a line and I ascended while the rest of my group finished up. I did my safety stop and then ascended.

At this point I got the bright idea to swim to the boat since I wasn’t sure they saw me as Christi, Dogood, and Barry were boarding and the captain was assisting them with their gear. After I reached the boat Christi explained that with all the boats in the area, this is precisely the reason not to do a surface swim.  On board I explained what happened and started the process of beating myself up over this dive. I couldn’t understand what had happened as in all my previous dives I was in control of my air, buoyancy, and felt totally comfortable and natural in the water. My computer showed 93’ max depth for 35 minutes, but at no time do I remember descending below Raul whose computer showed max depth at 88’.

The other divers ascended about 5 minutes after I did and we retrieved them and headed to Nachi Cocom for our surface interval. At the SI I was given my temporary C-card. We headed back out after an hour and dove El Cedral (55’ max for 45 minutes). On this dive I dove with Christi, Dogood and Barry. I came up with 1100 psi and used only 10 pounds of weight. Bouyancy was good again, so I chalked up the first dive to nerves.

After the dives I ran over to Chedraui, bought lunch, and caught a cab back to Alcia’s. I met the new arrivals (a couple that just graduated from high school name Chris and Kristen).

(From Julie) Alicia had asked me to go by one of the schools to pick up some transcripts for some Chrysalis kids.  Bear in mind, that I speak very little Spanish (enough to ask the questions but not enough to understand the answers).  So Evan and I head off to the school armed with a list of names.  I walk in and ask to speak with Tomas (at Alicia’s suggestion) and the guy I asked points me to a line.  So I go get in the line looking very much like a fish out of water with my blonde hair and a 2 year old on my hip.  After a minute of so, a woman asks me if I need help, and so I explain that I speak very little Spanish and what I need.  After walking around the school a bit and listening to her speak, she decides that we should find a teacher than speaks English who can tell me that the forms for those kids have been sent to the high school.  So we left empty handed, but I did at least remember to get the woman’s name.

We headed back to Alicia’s empty handed, gave her the news, got changed and headed back to Playa Azul.  Evan was remarkably good tempered for having woken up so early, and when I discovered that he liked sitting near the water and building sandcastles, everyone was happy.  We had some nachos for lunch, and then Evan saw anther boy eating a Popsicle, so he just had to have one.  After a bit more beach time we headed back to Alicia’s for his nap.

(From Chris) Later that afternoon I received a call from Christi encouraging me to talk with Raul on Wednesday before next set of dives so that we could recap Monday’s first dive. I wished her well on her vacation back in the States and told her I’d touch base with Raul the next day to schedule Wednesday’s dives.

That evening we went to Casa Denis for dinner out of convenience. They have these really good fried plantains I discovered this trip that make a really nice side dish. Dinner ran us under $15 with drinks. After dinner we stopped by a local’s ice cream shop a few blocks back from the square. They have really good coconut ice cream and Evan seemed to really enjoy his strawberry. Three double scoop cups ran 24 pesos total. Julie and I hung out a bit, drank a couple of Sol’s, and planned on hitting the East side the next day as I had the day off from diving.

Day 4: East side Tuesday August 19th, 2003

We pretty much decided to just head to the east side and wing it as far as the beach was concerned. We originally thought of going to Playa Bonita but decided to just drive and pull off where it looked good. We ended up going to Chen Rio, but instead of going to the beach club there, we found 3 palm trees that provided some shade and laid our towels out there. Every time we went to the beach, Evan could barely wait to get in the water. We’d put his sunblock on and then rush to get ours on as he was always saying “we need to get in the water.” We only took him in a little bit, as there wasn’t much of a current but I know what the east side can be like and we stayed within the areas that actually have boundary lines. We had a summer shower with the sun shining and the rain coming down, but the trees sheltered us adequately. We made a new friend here, a well-kept beach dog. The dog wandered over to us and laid down in the sand inches from our towel and kept watch over our stuff. After a few hours here we decided to drive down to Coconuts to get a bite to eat since we hadn’t been there before.

Climbing the steps to coconuts, I can see why they stopped having full moon parties there. A couple of drinks and you are in serious danger of losing your life coming down those. We had a very nice waiter and a good lunch of quesadillas and fish tacos. Their fish tacos were pretty good too. Evan gobbled them up and we made more doggy friends as 2 of them roared up to us and were in Julie’s lap before our food arrived. We watched some local teens boogie boarding in the surf below and took in the view. Evan really got into looking at the parrot they kept there as a pet and dug Elvis the iguana. This has got to be Elvis number 10 as he has been a fixture up and down the east side for years. Evan was showing signs of sleepiness, so we headed back to Alicia’s for his nap.

We took a nap too and Raul called me after I woke up to let me know about the dives the next day. At first he wanted to do Chankanaab, but I told him I wanted to do a site that was comparable to the dives I’d be doing with a more experienced couple later in the week. We decided to leave the decision up in the air until the next morning.

That evening we went to La Choza since we had never been there either on our previous trips. Evan continued to act well eating out and I was pleased to hear that the couple next to us was planning on moving when they first sat down and realized a toddler was next to them, but decided not to after watching his behavior. I had the snapper veracruz as I wanted to try it after watching a show on PBS where La Choza was featured and this dish was prepared. I was a bit disappointed in it as it was a bit dry, but the flavor was good.  Julie had fish with garlic, which she said was good but also a bit dry.  Evan loved the soup that they served before the meal, and you have never seen a kid suck down fresh squeezed orange juice so fast.

We headed back home and relaxed a little bit before we headed up to bed.

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