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Cozumel Trip Report
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Posted by tom on 12/13/02

trip report 11/29 - 12/6...+

It was a great time but the changes continue. Cruise ships were in everyday including Sunday.  Cruisers were everywhere including the pool at PLG. I guess they have an agreement with some ships that allows them to visit. That left it a little more crowded and noisier then in the past.
Ate at Casa Denis on Sunday and there were all kinds of problems with the waiter getting the bills wrong. It was a mess with food and drinks put on wrong checks. The food was good however. At Casa Maya the wait for the food was long. It was one waiter and the cook. The French Quarter as always was good. Ate there twice. We were introduced to a few local places. One was Johnny Bravos and the other Los Chilangos  both were excellent.
Now the real reason for going, the diving!! Chose to dive with Oracio and Living Underwater. I have to say he’s the best DM I’ve dove with so far and I can say that because I’ve dove with a few. He knows and finds creatures I’ve never seen. Quick with a magnifying glass incase you can’t see it with your eyes.
Every dive we did with him was a pleasure. We did Palancar for an hour and a half. To tell you the truth I was chilly after an hour. Plus the way we dove it we were up at 45 ft by the time we got to horseshoe and that’s not the best part of it. Water was in the 80-81f range all week.
Another highlight was the Eagle Ray dive. They are gathering up north for what I was told was mating season. We did this twice and it did not disappoint. A few minuets into the dive Oracio is pointing over the wall. He spots these things a minute or two before anyone. He motions for us to descend to the sand at the foot of the wall. First three passed by then another two out over the wall. He mentioned later that it’s an eddy area. They pass by then loop around again. They passed by like four times.
We missed the devils throat on another day with one of his DM’s in training. When I mentioned it to Oracio he promised to take us and show the throat like we never saw it before. He came by the hotel with a map of the throat system. He pointed out 20 something entrances and exits.
The next day when we got to the site there were another 3 boats. We waited a bit for one group to go in then we went. We swam at about 30-40 ft depth until we were given the sign to follow. The group before us was entering one way and Oracio took us to another enterance.
We just laid in the sand and everyone slowed down there breathing and checked their buoyancy the proceeded into the opening. We entered the system and had 3 divers cross in front of us. They were the last ones we saw. Into the cathedral and then swim thru after swim thru never repeating any of them.
Computers were ringing off the hook!! Everyone was in deco mode. We started our ascent and made stops at 60ft, 50ft, 40, 30, 25, 20,and fifteen-10ft. My only problem was the Suunto Vyper doesn’t start counting down till you hit 15ft. I showed 25 min deco stop. A well executed dive.
 The 120’s were nice to dive with but I don’t know if it’s worth the extra $$ to dive with them. You do have extended  bottom time but if  you can do an hour on aluminum do you need to pay it. The SI were great at Nachi Cocum and the soppa de pollo was always on our minds on the way there.
I also did my Nitrox cert with Christi and did the required two tanks with her. She found turtles on Palancar Gardens and La Francesa along with Splendid Toads. We had two nice hour long dives.
Over all it was a good trip the air temp was around 85f everyday with a nice breeze. After the last dives of the week it rained, they closed the port and a norte blew in. This gave one DM I know some down time. She was quite the busy bee all week.
tom

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