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 Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Kevin F. on 01/21/02

COZUMEL TRIP – DAY 1 (Friday, Jan 4, 2002)

Fiesta Americana Hotel

I promised myself I would write a trip report this time.  It’s my first one, and it certainly will not be as eloquent as others, but bear with me.

Ryan, my 12 yr old son, and I will be the only ones on this trip.  Ryan’s older brother, Colby, is in the middle of basketball season and cannot miss any games/practices.  Tammie, my wife, will stay home with Colby.  Neither are happy about missing a trip to Cozumel, but I’m pumped that I will be spending some “guy time” with Ryan.  The deal we got on FunJet was just too good to pass up.

We fly out of Dallas on Friday morning after making the drive up from Houston.  We get to the counter about 1.5 hours before flight time and there is already a long line.  We leave on time and land in Cozumel around noon.  The temp is cool, for Cozumel, but after leaving behind 25-degree temps in Dallas it still feels pretty good.

We head to the Avis counter to get our Chevy Pop for $29/day.  We receive the car with the gas tank on “E”.  I figure we had better make Pemex our first stop.  I figure we are going to be doing quit a bit of driving so I go ahead and put 150 pesos of gas in the tank.  As it turns out, we probably could have gotten by with about 70 – 80 pesos.  No big deal.

Our second stop is the Blue Angel/Alex & Alex Dive Shop. I’ve been diving with Alex and Alejandra for about 5 years now.  We have become close friends over the years and I have had the pleasure of watching them transform my wife and both my sons into excellent divers.  We have also grown very fond of their staff, particularly Jorge, who has us all convinced he’s the best divemaster on the island.  OK, enough of the plug for Blue Angel.  We agree to do a twilight dive this afternoon/evening.

Ryan and I are getting pretty hungry by now – and Hogtown Café is just right upstairs.  We go up and sit down and order a couple of aguas.  I cold Dos Equis sure would be good – but I’m diving at 3:30.  We both order cheeseburgers and split an order of curly fries.  Good stuff.

We head for the Fiesta Americana to check-in.  We have stayed at the FA before, but it certainly is not my favorite place on the island.  We are staying here only because of the great package deal we got from FunJet.  The FA is OK, but it lacks the charm of many of the other hotels on the island. If I had my choice, and I was watching my budget, I would stay at one of the small hotels situated around the plaza (Villas Las Anclas or Suites Colonial come to mind).  If money was no object (yeah, right) or it was a special occasion, you cannot beat the understated elegance of the Presidente.  The Fiesta Americana is similar to a mid-range Cancun resort hotel – nice pool with 80’s music blaring, over-priced food and drink, polite but slightly stand-offish staff.  With that said, the hotel is very nice, the rooms are clean, and the reefs are right at your back door.

We get to the hotel around 2:00 p.m. and the room is not ready (big surprise).  By the looks of the amount of people milling around the lobby, we are not the only ones who decided against some palm-greasing in hopes that a room miraculously becomes available before 3:00 p.m. (official check-in time).  We find a vacant spot in the lobby and begin to pack our boat bags for the 3:30 dive.  I was hoping that sprawling gear all over the lobby floor might help get our room earlier – but it didn’t work.  At precisely 3:00, all the rooms were magically available, and the desk started handing out keys to all the folks in the lobby.
We met the Blue Angel boat at the FA pier at 3:30 p.m.  Ramon is our divemaster for the day. It’s Ryan and I, and 4 other guys.  We head to Tormentos for our first dive:

1/4/02 – 3:59 p.m. Tormentos Reef
58 ft. for 58 minutes

It felt good to get wet again.  My last dive was back in October, so it had been wayyyy too long.  All of the other 4 divers were very good.  No one had any trouble, and we got some pretty decent bottom time.  We see 2 or 3 spotted morays, a big southern stingray, and plenty of the usual reef fish.

I was never cold in the water (Ryan and I were both wearing 2 mm shorties) but when we got out of the water and hit the late afternoon air it was FREEZING!  I began to have doubts about doing another dive, but it was going to be a short trip and I promised Ryan that we would do at least one night dive.  We dropped 2 of the divers off and headed for the caleta to get out of the wind.  

1/4/02 – 5:47 p.m.  Paradise Reef
40 ft. for 52 min.

Only four of us and Ramon on this dive.  We pulled the cold, wet shorties back on (not pleasant!) and hit the water.  The water was definitely warmer than the air!  I’ve done plenty of dives on Paradise but a night dive is always special.  We dropped over a spot that was more sand than reef and I began to wonder if Ramon had missed the reef – but a began to realize he had done it on purpose.  As we headed over the sand and reef out-croppings, we saw many crabs and lobsters out on the sand.  We came upon a spotted moray out of his hole and swimming across the sand.  I shined my light in another direction and I caught the tail of another eel – I thought.  As I swam closer, I realized it was a splendid toad fish – the whole thing!  I had never seen their colorful tail before now (except for pictures).  He sat and posed for us for a few seconds, then decided to swim for cover.  Around another turn we found an octopus on the sand.  He also hung around and let us get a good look.  After more eels, crabs, and lobsters (now I’m getting hungry) we head up to face the cold Cozumel night.

Ryan and I jump off the boat at the FA pier.  Jeez – that hot shower is going to feel good.  I let Ryan get in the shower first.  A cold Dos Equis sure would taste good right now, but I’m too cheap to go down and pay the price at the FA bar.  I knew we should have stopped at the Chedauri on the way from the hotel!

Ryan and I get cleaned up and head for Los Gaviotos.  I have never eaten here before, but I have heard good things about it.  The restaurant is beautiful.  We sit outside, over the water.  The waiter brings Ryan some bread to feed the fish. He throws a few pieces in but he quickly loses interest.  Swimming with them is much more fun than feeding them!  I sit and listen to my 12-yr old son berate me about my air consumption skills.  I am not an air hog – it’s just that Ryan has gills!  He came up with well over 1200 psi on both dives.  I silence him by threatening to refuse to take him to the plaza for churros.

Ryan orders Mayan bean soup and a pasta dish (I cannot remember which one).  I’m not big on soup, but I tasted his bean soup and it was really good!  I got a salad and grilled mahi-mahi.  Excellent food.  Oh yeah – and the Dos Equis was cold!  It’s amazing how many good restaurants Cozumel has.

We head to the plaza to get Ryan’s churros.  There are a few locals in line in front of us but they are waiting for the french fries to finish.  We pay for the churros (12 pesos! – even the churros are getting expensive) and head back to the hotel.

I great first day in Paradise!

Trip report - day 2

DAY 2 – (Saturday, January 5th)

We had arranged for a 2-tank dive this morning but I realize that I did not ask when the boat would pick us up.  I decide to get up and head down to the dive shop around 7:30.  I could have just called the shop, but we had to go out for breakfast anyway (I was not going to pay $15 a head for a lukewarm breakfast buffet at the FA).  We got to the shop and Alejandra and Ramon were already there.  We confirm an 8:45 pick-up at the FA pier and head up to Hogtown for some breakfast.  I get eggs and bacon and Ryan gets pancakes.  It’s much better – and cheaper – than the buffet back at the hotel.  Note to anyone who cares – Use your US $ at Hogtown.  Their exchange rate is 10 to 1.

The dive boat arrives and Alejandra is on it!  She will be our dive master for the day – cool!  We jump in the boat and I glance at the other 3 people in the boat.  Hey, I know these people!  Its Paul and family from Iowa.  Tammie (my wife) and I met them last February when we were here.  It’s a small world (island??).

1/5/02 9:36 am.  Palancar Bricks
85 ft. for 59 min.

This area is one of my favorite dives – and it does not disappoint this time.  We descend and immediately see a baby turtle swimming around the reef.  This was the first of 5 or 6 turtles we saw this dive.  Lobsters, crabs, a juvenile drum fish, and angel fish everywhere.  A pair of huge French angel fish swim within 2 feet of my mask.  I hold my breath as they approach so that my bubbles do not spook them. Paul’s daughter begins to have trouble staying down.  It appears to me that she may still have air in her BC – she needs to get vertical to release it.  Her mother heads up with her and Paul stays down with Ryan, Alejandra, and me.  Near the end of the dive we see an eagle ray.  We do not get a good look at him – he was too far away.  I was disappointed.  I know that this time of year is prime eagle ray season and I was hoping to see some “up close and personal”.  They are magnificent creatures.  Oh well, maybe later.


1/5/02 11:40 a.m. Cedral Pass
87 ft. for 60 min.

It’s not hard to figure out why they call this area Cedral “Pass”.  It is a series of hills and valleys.  Pretty barrel head and fan coral.  Plenty of fish life.  The only unusual thing about this dive was the two sleeping nurse sharks tucked up under a ledge.  I had checked them out and was moving away when I looked back and Ryan was petting them!  I am a “look don’t touch” type of guy, especially when it comes to sharks (even nurse sharks).  But Alejandra had motioned that it was OK so it was hard to get upset with him.  Paul’s wife and daughter were getting low on air, and Ryan and I were well into the yellow on our computers, so we all headed up together.  Ryan and I extended our safety stop just for good measure.

The rest of the day we did typical tourist stuff.  Ryan had never been to Carlos n Charlies, and I had not yet been to the new location, so we headed there for lunch.  If you liked the old C&Cs I am sure you will like this place.  It was full of drunken gringos throwing their weight (and their money) around.  I’m trying not to be critical – I have certainly spent some time in C&Cs too intoxicated to realize how ridiculous I look when I tried to dance – but its not near as much fun when you have only had a couple of beers. I can only imagine the impression we make on the locals.  I cannot tell you anything else about the new mall because we did not go into any of the stores.  I did notice that there was a sign announcing the future opening of a TGIFridays.  This should make the cruise ship folks happy.

We headed to the plaza to look around, then back to the hotel to take a nap by the pool.

We ate at Azul Cobalto tonight.  Great Italian food.  Ryan got lasagna.  I had the spinach tortellini in lobster sauce.  I gave Ryan the choice of chocolate mousse or more churros for desert.  He opted for the chocolate.  I had a bite and it was good stuff.

Now its time to go the El Golfito and get Ryan back for all those “air hog” comments.  We have forgotten to bring Sunshine a treat and she doesn’t give us the time of day.  I don’t blame her.  I burn up the course tonight and beat Ryan by 5-6 strokes.  He’s not a very good loser.

Back to the hotel to turn in.  Alejandra told us she has a “secret spot” on the north side where she thinks our chances of seeing an eagle ray will be good.  Last time they were there they saw 27!  I fall asleep with visions of eagle rays swimming in my head.

trip report - day3

DAY 3 (Sunday, January 6th)

I wake up about 6:30 and go out to the patio.  The wind is blowing HARD from the west.  This is not a good omen for a north side dive.  We agreed to meet Jorge (our divemaster this morning) at the shop since we were heading north.  We get there about 7:15.  Jorge is already there.  “You can forget about the north side this morning, big boy!”  I was afraid of that.  The winds are just too strong.  Ryan and I are really bummed!  They have not closed the harbor yet, so we agree to meet Jorge at the FA pier and dive the south side.  We head to breakfast at Ernesto’s.  Ernesto’s Big Deal is not near as good of a deal since they moved across the street (it has jumped from $2 to $4) but it’s still a pretty good deal and I really like the guys who work there.  

We get back to the hotel and see Ramon heading down the steps of the FA.  What’s he doing here?  “The wind has let up some.  We are going to try the north side!” Yeah, baby!  Ryan and jump in our car and follow Ramon back to the dive shop.  The boat is out in front of the pier and they are trying to decide if they want to try to dock here to let us on or if it would be better to do it in the safety of the caleta.  The wind has not died down much!  We attempt to get on at the pier, and due to the skill of the captain we are successful.  The two guys we dived with the first day are with us.  These guys are good divers.  I hope Ryan and I can keep up.

It’s cold and wet.  Jorge suggest that we put our wet suits on now to stay warm.  The ride to the “secret place” is quite an adventure.  El Capitan (Ferrero) does a masterful job.  Jorge’s dive briefing is simple and stern.  We descend as soon as we hit the water and we all come up together.  If someone has a problem, we must all abort due to the rough seas.

1/6/02 9:04 a.m. ????? Reef
93 ft. for  37 min.

We get ready and hit the water.  The current is swift and Ryan is a long ways from me.  I tell myself not to panic.  I need to relax or I’m going to suck this tank dry in 5 minutes!  I work my way over to Ryan and I begin to relax.  The current is swift but I have been is worse.  The wall varies from a sheer cliff (90 degrees) to a more level 45 degree incline.  The coral is in good shape but not really spectacular.  The fish life is sparse.  But about 10 minutes into the dive I begin to see what we came for.  I spot the first eagle ray in the distance, then another, and another.  We move out a little off the wall to get closer.  The wall levels off and Jorge motions for us to descend onto the wall and find a patch of sand to dig a finger into.  I drop down and grab a small rock protruding from the sand.  Ryan heads towards me and I extend my hand for him to hole on to.  Now it really starts to get good!  The eagle rays continue to appear and a few of them actually circle us once or twice as if they are curious.  Ryan said he counted 22.  I never started counting, but I know that at one time I could see as many as 8!  This one dive made the trip special!

We head up and the surface is extremely rough.  Ferrero tells us they have closed the harbor (for small boats) – no second dive today.  Ferrero decides to take us back to the north- end caleta (the bigger marina) since the trip will be shorter.  We jump off the boat and thank Jorge and Ferrero, and tip them well.  They tell us Alejandra will be there shortly to pick us up in the truck.  It suddenly sinks in that are diving is over for this trip – bummer!

We had decided to head to the east side after diving, not knowing we would be finished so early.  We head back to the hotel and use the hotel’s rinse tank to wash our gear.  Then we jump back in the car and head for Mezcalitos for lunch.  

I knew since we were getting a northwest wind that the east side would be calm, but I had never seen it this calm.  We sat down at Mezcalitos and ordered a Fanta and a Dos Equis.  I wasn’t all that hungry yet, and knew Prima’s was on the schedule for tonight, so I just ordered the fish tacos.  Ryan ordered nachos.  The flies were a bit of a nuisance because there was no wind.  The food was good – as always. We paid the bill and headed south.

Our first stop was just south of Chen Rio to swim.  The surf was great.  We body surfed for a while, then headed closer to shore to play in the sand.  I was a little worried about Ryan getting to much sun so we jumped back in the car and continued south.  We stopped in at Rastas for a snack and a drink.  We met some retired Canadians there who apparently spend much of their time in Cozumel.  What a life!  We head back to the hotel and lay by the pool.  This is not Ryan’s idea of fun!  We go in and play a couple of games of pool in the lobby to pacify him.

We shower and go into town.  Prima’s is not very crowded and we get a table immediately.  I order the grouper special and Ryan gets a pasta dish.   I have to admit, with all the excellent restaurants on the island, I think this one has become my favorite.  They do not disappoint me tonight.  After dinner we head into the plaza – its Sunday night!  But we are both tired and quickly decide to head to the hotel.  We have promised Colby’s mother and brother that we would bring them an order of churros. (yes – really!)  We get 3 orders and Ryan has finished off his before we get back to the car.  The bed feels good – and Ryan is happy about sleeping late in the morning.

trip report - day 4

MONDAY (January 7th)
We get up the next morning and go to Jeannie’s for breakfast, then some last minute shopping.  We go by the dive shop to buy some t-shirts.  I buy one for a friend I have never met, but it’s a feeble attempt to re-pay him for his kindness (thanks again, George, the pictures look great in my office!)

We head to the airport.  We turn in the car (no problems, Avis is great) and get in line to head home.  It was a great trip but it was too short.  I console Ryan by reminding him that we will be back in June with the whole family and friends.  

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