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After the rough water on Monday, I decided to wait on diving on Tuesday. I found Caballitos del Caribe and signed up to go diving with them. (I know, I know… Papa Hogs has a good rep & a loyal following on this board but I wanted to be picked up at the PLG pier and they and several other dive shops that are popular here don't do that.) Then found Smart Car with my trusty coupon from this board. Because there was several cruise ships in that day, Jose didn't have any cars. We ended up renting an absolute bomb from Rentadora Cozumel.  A VW bug. It was almost laughable if it hadn't been so dicey. At one point I pulled on the hand brake and it came off in my hand! The gear shifting was an adventure in itself. We packed it up anyway and headed south. Got to a confusing part in the road and took the new road without even knowing it was the new road. We're just going and going in the middle of the jungle. At this point Jay said he would drive - he wasn't comfortable driving in town. We stopped the car to switch seats. When I got back in I noticed 3 workers sitting in the shade by the side of the road eating lunch. I asked them where Dzul-Ha was and they said "back there on the other road". The other road? There was another road? They started laughing at the look on my face and we had to laugh too. We stopped at the first place we could and got the story about the new road and the old road. We continued on South. At the first place we stopped, maybe Bob's Marley, there were these 2 very out of shape chicks sitting on top of a truck, topless and wearing thongs and looking very pleased with themselves, posing etc… Whatever blows your skirt up but really, they didn't have the bodies for this. I kept thinking about the sunburn they were getting and the hangover they were going to have. Quite a different kind of Kodak moment. All of a sudden I just wanted to get out of that damn car, away from the yahoos and enjoy the beach. We spent some time a little beyond there and then backtracked and ended up at Mr. Sancho's beach club .Lots of cruisers, but we decamped there anyway and had fun swimming and walking on the beach and eating guacamole and relaxing. After walking down to Nachi Co-con we decided we'd go there next time. We managed to get the car back before dark. When I pointed out the danger of no hand brake the manager said, "no problem, it's flat here, you don't need it! Hard to disagree with that attitude. Once we got home we didn't want to go out again, so we ate there, swam in our pool and called it a day.

Wednesday, my first dive with Caballitos del Caribe. I felt more comfortable with them, not such a rush-rush. I felt more rapport with their dive master, Adrian.  We did our deep dive at Palancar Reef and the shallow at Cedral Pass.  Palancar's huge coral reefs were awesome in a holy cathedral kind of way. I would have been whispering if I could have talked. At one point Adrian grabbed me and turned me around to look at something and it was a turtle right in my face! Lots of big groupers at Cedral Pass, another Eagle Ray, and tons of fish. The sea had calmed down and I was starting to feel better. That night we decided to go back to Las Salas and get some of their great cheap food. We're more comfortable walking than driving, really. Even if we're walking almost a mile there and back it's fun to take in the daily life of the people that live there.

Thursday, my last day to dive. Where did the time go? I think we need to come here for 2 weeks, ( or more!)… 1 week is definitely not enough time. Did our deep dive at Columbia Reef and the shallow at Yucab. Adrian has offered to take pictures of me for a souvenir. ($35) This is a treat and a great souvenir. However, once we're in the water I feel like we're concentrating too much on the pictures and get self conscious after about the 6th one. I give him the sign of  "no more of me, take pictures of the fish" and he gets it and does.  Yucab again is my favorite of the 2 dives as there is more light, color and marine life: a turtle, 2 puffer fish, barracudas all over the place, giant groupers and tons of beautiful, colorful fish. I never get tired of floating over the reef and looking at this exquisite other-world. We ended up the trip eating dinner at the downtown La Mission, sort of overpriced and touristy but great service and good food. My husband requested the song "La Historia del Amor" and the musicians were so soulful the whole place stopped eating to listen. I downloaded lots of tips from this board - thanks to everybody -but hardly got to follow up on any of them as our week went by so quickly. I'm already planning our next visit and will be visiting both boards (scuba and chatters) regularly to put in my 2 cents. I had good experiences with Caballitos del Caribe and plan to go with them again. Hasta la vista !