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Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by R&R on 06/28/01

Trip Report ... day 1....

Casa Del Mar Hotel

Cozumel Trip Report…. June 14-21st 2001
DAY 1- Thursday, June 14
Air Travel:
Left Colorado Springs at 4:30am driving up to DIA, arrive early, check-in with Apple Vacations, all goes smoothly.  Board the plane (Allegro Airlines charter 727) and leave the ground at 8:15am heading for Cozumel!!!  Arrive at noon, but of course our bags were the last off and then we got the RED light.  Ugghh.  Ron had zip ties on each bag and she made us open every one.  So by the time he had found his pocket knife, cut the ties, open bags, close bags, almost everyone had left the airport.  We stroll over to the Avis counter, dragging way too many bags (note:  next year pack lighter!!) and wait to get the car.  Finally, about 20 minutes later load up the Nissan 4-door (which had A/C but we didn’t use it all week) and head for check in at Casa del Mar.  

Hotel:
We were staying at Casa del Mar, package deal with Apple Vacations, cheap and great location… just one long block south of PapaHogs, our dive shop and one long block north of La Ceiba where we planned several shore dives.  It is the perfect location for us.  Front desk wants to show us several rooms… first one is the basic hotel room, but no balcony for drying dive gear.  Then they show us a large suite which is $15 more per night.  It is on the first floor and bigger but we say no thanks.  Next they take us to 3rd floor for an oceanview room, also $15 more per night but 30% less if we pay cash.  We decide on this one since we can see the ocean and there is a great balcony for drying gear.  We pay cash so it was only $74 total for the seven nights.  Well worth the upgrade!!!  We return to the front desk to finish paperwork and haul all those bags (ditto note above… pack lighter next year!!) and we are informed that they don’t have our breakfast buffet vouchers yet but will bring them up later.  The rooms are basic hotel rooms, two double beds (smaller than our queen back home but okay for us), a small tv set, and a clean bath with large shower stall.  There is also a lockbox in the room for keeping your valuables.  Nothing fancy for sure, but we are here to dive dive dive.


We quickly unpack and head to Papa Hogs Scuba Emporium to check in. We dove with them last year and had a blast so we booked a week with them again this year. We meet with Jorge who is managing the shop while Mike and Margaret are on a 2 week vacation to Europe (now we know what people who live in Paradise do on vacation).  Jorge has everything set for us for the week and we ask if Ken and Candy (from this board) have check-in yet.  He says yes and we ask to be on the same boat with them in the morning.  Jorge switches things around quickly for us and we are set!!! We sit down at Hogtown Café and have a light snack since it is getting close to dinner time.  Two Sols, two sodas, a Chicken nachos plate =
$13.50.  Great food, and the beer tastes so much better sitting at a table in Paradise watching the dive boats come in!!!!   (sigh!!!)  Nice to be back in Cozumel.

Dinner:
After the snack we head downtown to stroll around and get reacquainted with Cozumel.  We stop for dinner at Los Dorados de Villa right at the square for dinner.  None of us are hungry yet but we are meeting Ken and Candy, Cervezaleo, and others from the board at the Mini-golf 7pm so we need to go ahead and eat.  Tiffany decides to be daring and order something new.. Breaded Conch, Ron gets the Chicken with mushrooms, and I order Green Enchiladas, 2 teas and a soda = $32.50.  Very good price and the food was good also.  Tiffany loves the conch!!!  For those of you with teenage daughters who can be picky eaters you know what a thrill
this is for us.  As we are eating a procession of children dressed  in white carrying icons from the church pass by followed by hundreds of townspeople singing.  

Mini-golf:
After dinner we window shop a bit and head to the mini-golf.  We are the first to arrive so we order a few drinks and sit and wait.  Ken and Candy arrive next.  What fun people!!!  We hit it off right away and chat for awhile… no one else arrives.  We decide to go ahead and start the golf and mention to Scott that we were planning to meet Leo.  Scott offers to call his hotel for us and the next thing you know we have him on the phone… he had just returned from afternoon diving and wasn’t even dressed yet.  I told him to get his butt over since we wanted to meet him (we have been chatting on this board for over a year and still hadn’t met).
We go ahead and start the game and sure enough Leo arrives!!!
And what a
great guy!!!  He told us about all his adventures the previous week doing his Dive Master course, all the diving, etc.  It was so much fun finally meeting and talking to him about diving since all five of us are all relatively new to the sport.  We order a few more drinks from the
walkie-talkies, take pictures, and it is time to run back to the hotel. By the way, the mosquitos about carried me and Tiffany away that night… they were horrendous!!!    And of course our bug spray was back at the hotel.    Lol We say goodnight to all, head for the Chedraui for bottled water, sodas, beer, etc. for the room then off to Casa del Mar for sleep.  



Ron, Robin, & Tiffany - tomorrow the diving begins.

DAY 2 - Friday, June 15
We are all up at 6am and dressed with a bit of encouragement.  The breakfast buffet (free with our package) opens at 7am so we head down to the front desk to inquire about our vouchers.  The lady at the desk tells us they are in our room.  We tell her no they aren’t.  Now she gets mad and starts speaking in Spanish to other employees and tells Ron to go look again.  Ron goes up the 3 floors again (no elevator) and looks around.  He comes back down and says ‘no vouchers’ to which she tells us that she put them in our room last night at 10pm.  We tell her that she couldn’t have since we were IN our room at 10pm.  She then says she slipped them under the door and we need to look again.  Okay, now Ron is about to jump over the counter and slap her… he storms out and up the stairs again, 3 floors of stairs, back down… no vouchers.  While he is gone she turns to the guy next to her and calls Ron a “stupid gringo” loud enough for me to hear.  Ron informs her that we are going over to eat at the buffet and it better be free.  She says it will be.  We walk in and the waiter asks for the voucher.  We explain to him but he says we must have voucher…..  Aagggghhh!!!   We go back towards the lobby and the guy from behind the counter stops us and goes back with us.  He explains to the waiter and we are allowed in.  The breakfast buffet consists of fruit, juices, waffles, sausage, cereal,  etc. and a cook to prepare your eggs for you.  It is actually a very nice setup.  We eat and sign the bill and Ron writes on it “FREE” and hands it back to waiter.  We are not sure what is going to happen over this but I hope it isn’t going to get uglier than it already is!!!  We bring down the dive gear and hop in the car and head  to PapaHogs.

Diving:  
Since none of us have been in the ocean for awhile we ask for some shallow easy reefs to get accustomed today.  Raul is our DiveMaster for the trip and there are only the five of us:  Ken, Candy, Ron, Tiffany, and me.  
Chankanaab:  46’ max depth, 33 minutes, vis 100’
This is my first ocean dive with my new Ikelite Auto35 camera and I am very excited about being able to take pictures of everything.  We are all sucking air on this dive we are so excited.  It is so beautiful, mild current, lobsters, lobsters, and mega-lobsters everywhere.
 can you say "Dinner!!!"
It seemed as if every overhang had a lobster or huge grouper under it.  We see crabs, grunts, blue chromis, parrotfish, trunkfish, filefish, squirrelfish everywhere.  The colors are so bright and more beautiful than we remembered.  What a great first dive but we all need to do better on our air!!!  
 a crab tries to escape my camera into a cave

 a few residents of Chankanaab Reef

 My favorite fish - Smooth Trunkfish, and they were everywhere this year!!!

Paradise:  35' max depth, 44 minutes, vis 60-70'
Visibility wasn’t as good as first dive and current a little stronger.  Still a great dive and as we reach the end of dive, Raul heads over to a sandy area and starts look around.  Ron and Tiffany know what this means and they join him… sure enough:  Seahorses.  We find 3 of them.  This is too amazing!!!  Our first day of diving and we see lobsters the size of a German Shepherd and now we find seahorses!!!  Of course I am out of film before we get to the seahorses.  Oh well, Great dive!!
gorgeous sponges everywhere

squirrel fish at Paradise

We arrive back at the dock by 11:30am, unload the gear and head straight for the Hogtown Café for lunch.  The special is fish and chips, Ron & Tiffany both order that and I go for the grilled chicken breast sandwich.  Three teas and lunch = $22.  Great food.  I wish they were open for dinner, too!!   And guess what we find sitting next to our bed when we arrive back to the hotel….. Vouchers!!! We pack up the dive gear again and head over to La Ceiba hotel to do the shore dive to the airplane.

La Ceiba Airplane:  32’ max depth, 16 minutes, vis 100’
By the time we drag all the gear out to the pier and get set up I am tired already.  This has been a busy day and it is only 2:44pm and we are ready for our third dive.  Tiffany decides not to dive, she is too tired.  So Ron and I rent the tanks at the Del Mar Aquatics shop, $5 each and give them our C-Cards to hold until we return.  We climb down the stairs and fight the surge getting our fins on.  I decide not to bring the camera this time and I am glad once we get in the water.  The current is incredible and heading south, away from the plane which is just northwest of the roped-off snorkel area!!!  We kick our way out to the spot where the plane should be and finally see it.  Wow.  It is bigger than I expected and the pieces are strewn over a large patch.  Fish are everywhere, large and small.  There is some coral in the area but mostly sandy bottom and wreck debris.  Very cool but the current isn’t cooperating with me.  I kick and kick and I am standing still.  I finally kick my way upstream from the wreck and drift past it in a matter of seconds.  I try to circle around again but my legs are tired and I am ready to go.  Ron is busy doing his mapping assignment for his DM and is having no problem with the current.  Ron sticks his head under the wreck and a huge parrotfish comes out and scares him back.  It then quickly disappears under the wreck again.  Ron looks over at me to see if I saw it.  Yes, I did, and yes it is the size of a Buick!!!  I am pooped by now.  Geez, I need bigger leg muscles and stronger fins, I guess!!  I signal Ron that I want to go back in to shore, and he agrees to follow me.  It was a short dive but very enjoyable.  Ron says he has great stuff for his map already.  We will be back!!

Back to the hotel we go, toting dive gear back up 3 flights of stairs.  We are going to be burning some calories this week just carrying around the gear!!!  We shower and change for dinner and walk across the street to Ernesto’s new oceanfront location. (They have moved directly across the street from their old location but now it is 2 story so you can sit and see the ocean as you eat.)  It is only 5pm but we are all starving.  We order a couple of margaritas and Tiff orders soda and shrimp fajitas, vegie quesadillas for me, and beef/chicken fajitas for Ron for dinner.  Food is awesome as usual.  The magies (which arrive in 12 oz. Cups) are very strong and by the time I finish the first one the waiter arrives with another for each of us.  I tell him that we didn’t order those and he replies it is Happy Hour - 2 for 1.  Aggghh, I am starting to get snockered and he is giving me another one!???!!!   I take two sips and I am ready to start dancing on the table…. Okay, I don’t drink much, but these things are strong.  An order of Key Lime Pie and three forks, bill comes to $51.  Great food, just like we remembered and now you can sit and watch the sunset from your table!!!  Ernesto’s south location is our favorite restaurant, I think.  After dinner I know I need to walk off the drinks so we strolled down the street window shopping all the way to La Ceiba.  We stop in the photo shop and talk to the owner awhile, then back down the other side of the street to our hotel.  It is so gorgeous and we watch the sunset over the water from the hotel pier then head back to the room.  We watch a bit of tv then early to bed.

Ron, Robin, & Tiffany

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