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Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Jim Forte on 01/17/01

with the fact that the weather was absolutely beautiful.  Few clouds, although the air temp was deceivingly cool, especially following dives.  Water temp at depth was in the 77-78 degree range, probably should have worn a full wet, but settled for my shorty instead, since I didn't pack my full wet (was on the wrong page in my binder, I guess).  First day we got there, me and a friend of mine who hadn't dove for about ten years donned a tank at Papa Hogs and I checked him out for bouyancy, with no apparent problems, we deemed him fit for a Saturday morning two tanker, while the 16 year old son of my other friend did a resort course with Mike Gerus.

That night we ate at the house (sorry, no restaurant review there), and the three adults (age qualified only) stayed up until after midnight savoring some Cubans we lifted from the humidor at Mama Hogs Boutique.  And then on to the dive shop, where we did Santa Rosa and Tormentos with Tony and Orlando (Dawn had called the shop earlier and was a no show), then back for lunch at the Hog Town (no this will not be one continuous ad for Mike and Margaret's compound, but it is kind of neat that you can fold diving and dining into one bill).  If you are looking for a real hamburger (con or sin queso), you have to try one of the hand formed burgers at the Hog Town, and don't forget to specify the Curly Fries, 'cuz it don't get any better than that!).  Anyway, did a third tank with the kid, to check him out for a potential Sunday morning two tanker, so Mike took us out to Paradise.  Now I've been diving CZM since about 1987, and probably didn't see my first shark close up until around 1990-91, but about two thirds of the way into the dive, there it is, bigger than Dallas (that's a Texas phrase), about a 10-12 footer, sleeping under a ledge, very exposed and quite visible.  Mike thinks it's a female, he's seen her a little deeper, but in the same general vicinity, and thinks she's shallow because she's pregnant.  Anyway, 16 year old kid, first dive, close up shark, on the way back I told him he ought to give up diving and quit while he was ahead, because it's gonna be hard to beat a shark on the first dive.

Anyway, back to the casa (I'm sorry, the Villa, since Casa Forte as a website name was already taken, we had to go with Villa-is this starting to sound self serving yet?).  Cleaned up and went downtown for dinner and shopping.  The kid wanted a Fossil watch, I needed some Faukley's, so we went to the French Quarter for dinner, so we could walk to the square afterwards.  Dinner was great, as usual at the FQ, both Mike and Mike were there, and we chatted.  I had the all you can eat Baby Backs (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights only), one of the others had the Stuffed Chicken Breast, one had the Seafood Platter, and the other the Stuffed Grouper.  Not a crumb left on any plate!  Went on to the square and I was surprised to see some of the shops closing up at 8:30, but then again, no cruise ships in port, so I guess the local merchant's know the schedule (sorry Ellejandro).  Didn't see any beggars, went on over to Carlos and Charlie's, watched all the married couples from the all inclusives try to look like they weren't, and headed back home again.

Kid decides that he'll sleep in and not dive on Sunday morning (are their really laws against strangling 16 year olds?).  We had it all planned out, to allow the boat to go and permit the other divers to go deep (16 year old + Resort Course = 40 foot max), I would stay with the kid up close to the surface, picked the perfect reef to do it, Palancar Horseshoe and Palancar Gardens, but the kid bagged us, what can I say, maybe he was distrought (sp?-Richard can you help me on that one?) over no fake Fossil's in town.  I have dove Horseshoe probably 20+ times, and you always dive the bottom, 75-90 feet, but the tops are up within 30-40 feet of the surface, and there is some neat stuff up there, so even when the kid didn't go, I dove the tops anyway.  And then at Palancar Gardens, you can go to 50, but that's right at the first, and again, most of the good stuff is in the 20-30 foot profile.  Came into the Gardens at the old statue pedestal, which was pretty neat for my dive buddy, as we had talked about my first ever open water dive being on Horseshoe and actually finishing on a swim through that started at about 80 and opened at about 40, with a perfect view of the old Christ of the Abyss (which is now at Chankanaab and a lot shallower).  Our divemaster for this dive was Kevin, who used to be with Pam at Blue Angel, but left to free lance when Pam sold the shop to Alex & Alex.

For the afternoon we took our Aguilar Tracker and headed over to the east side of the island, starting at Mescalito's, having lunch at Coconuts (it's still not the same without Elvis), and finally getting another beer at the Paradise.  Started to go to the South Lighthouse (which I strongly recommend if you have the time, as the museum is first class), but it was late and starting to get dark, so we headed home.  The new road is finished, no its not, yes it is, no its not, yes, no, yes, well it looked like that section was finished, why did that cabbie flash his lights at us, oh, so that's a barricade in Mexico, is that really a cop on that motorcycle, well, if it's going to be that confusing, why don't you stay on the old road, which we finally did!

Ate at the house again on Sunday night, using up some of the leftovers, and smoked another extraordinary Cuban from Mama's.  Got up Monday morning, piddled around the house, went to the dive shop to settle up, headed out to the airport, booked our stuff, and with over an hour and a half to kill, headed back into town.  My guests wanted to see the real downtown, so we parked up near the Municipal Market, and walked through there, and then headed back towards the square, looking into the back street shops.  I made my buy, found a guy who started the Faukley's I wanted at $10.00 a pair, and bought four (one of each color-red, white, silver, and black) for $350 pesos.  That guy will get my return business when these break (they always do, in the same spot, but for $8-10 a pair, what do you want, a life time guarantee?).  The kid had seen a ring in one of the shops in that alley next to Fat Tuesdays the night before that he wanted, he had already talked the guy down from $40 to $32 Saturday night, and when he went in there Monday morning, walked away with a $12 deal.  Flew back on Champion Air, courtesy of Adventure Tours and Chris, the Travelman on this board, and was safe and sound in my own little bed Monday night.

Was supposed to hook up with another contributor to this board while I was down, but as I pointed out to her in my e-mail, things got kind of busy at the dive shop, so it was Hog's before Pearl's.

We'll be back down first week in March, for a week, so look out Mini-Golf, I'm on my way!

If anyone has any questions, I'll try to think up an answer, this trip kind of blurred upon development, and a lot of the details were lost in the translation.

Jim