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Cozumel Island
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Cozumel Trip Report Costa
Club Cozumel (Formerly Fiesta Inn) Trip report - April 7-14, 2001 Day 1 The vacation started with me being stuck in Toronto for 9 hours, while some lucky people got stuck for 9 hours in Cozumel. It got only better as the days passed. The flight, when it finally happened, was non-eventful, the customs took another 30 minutes and soon I was on the Suburban that was departing to Reef Club - they dropped me off at my hotel, Costa Club. After being dropped at the hotel, registered (quiet room overlooking the pool, on the 2nd floor), phoned Aldora, the dive shop that I booked all my dives with - they were still waiting for me - and grabbed a cab to the town. Done all my paperwork at Aldora, got my Oceanic computer (it is part of the service) and was out around 8pm. Decided to walk around the main square for a while and then head back to the hotel. Saw Casa Denis, right off the main square and even though was not too hungry, decided that a light dinner was in order - saw down and ordered a lime soup, which was delivered promptly and was quite good and cheap (27p). Casa Denis is a great place for people watching. After dinner, walked all the way to Costa Club, which took slightly longer than 30 min with a stop at Chedraui to buy pastries and fruits and take money out of the bank machine. Day 2 - Sunday night at Plaza Woke up at 5:30am, earlier than planned, ate pastries and fruits for breakfast. The hotel served complimentary coffee in the morning, but it was so bad that decided to just drink water with pastries. Hotel provided a big bottle of purified water every day. The water at the hotel is also purified, I had no troubles. Went to the pier and was picked up by Aldora boat at around 7:50am. First dive was Palancar Gardens, max depth 100ft., 61 min. Being my first time with Aldora, they gave my this huge 120` steel tank, so I surfaced with just over 1'000 psi - had a smaller tank since then. The section of Palancar that we dove had a lot of swimthroughs and beautiful large coral formations. Saw various fishes and few huge groupers. Surface interval for 2 hours at Playa Del Sol. Second dive was Paso del Cedral - this was a pretty dive. Max depth 55ft., time 68min. Saw 3 barracudas, lots of groupers, 2 splendid toadfishes, huge lobsters and lots of angels. After dives, the boat dropped my off at my pier at around 1:30. I stayed at the pool for couple of hours - they tried to entertain people and were playing the music quite loud, but the selection was not too bad (they had Bon Jovi going for a while), so I actually liked it. After a couple of dips in the pool went to the room as wanted to get out the camera and get couple of sunset pictures - and surprise - the camera battery had died. Took the camera, walked all the way to town and had the batteries replaced as the store called Omega that is right on Av. Melgar, next to the Calling Station. Missed an unbelievable sunset while replacing batteries, and was too hungry to look for the recommended restaurants. Saw Plaza Leza, just off the main square, remembered that someone from this board recommended it and decided to eat there and people-watch. This proved to be a timely decision - as soon as I sat down and ordered my drink, the rain came pouring down. The number of customers tripled in just over 5 minutes, as people were looking for cover. Food was OK, nothing to write home about, people watching was much better. After I ate, walked around the square, the crowd was huge, about half and half locals and tourists. Watched local artists doing their crafts right in front of you, looked at the shops. Little local kids were quite amusing, especially little girls dressed in their Sunday best posing in front of each other. They had clowns entertaining the kids, so I watched that for a while. Then the music started around 9:30 and after couple of songs the people started to dance. Watched that for a while and then headed home. Day 3 - Wetsuit Torture The beginning was now a routine - woke up early, around 6am, ate fruits and pastries for breakfast and went to the pier to be picked up by the boat. This time we did North section of Palancar Reef as a first dive and La Francesca as second dive. Palancar (Max depth on the 1st dive was 99ft. and time was 69min.) was my deep dive required under AOW. This was another great dive, did couple of swimthroughs, saw large groupers, angel fish, barracudas, grunts, porgies and squirrel fish. When we were about 30 min into the dive, another group started descending on top of us and their bubbles blocked the sight of large eagle ray - still saw enough to be impressed at the ease with which they move. Close to the end of the dive, saw a turtle. This picture is from the later dive, but that is me anyway. My second dive, La Francesca was the most beautiful dive of my whole trip - too bad I did not have the camera on that one. Max depth was 67ft and time was 78 min. The current was pretty strong. Roberto found three seahorses. Saw huge lobsters, angels, groupers, at the end of the dive spotted moray eel. After dives, hang around the pool for couple hours That time was outside with my camera early enough to catch the sun dipping into the ocean. After making lots of sunset pictures walked into town with 2 missions: to eat and to buy a full wetsuit. I dove in my shorty for the first two days and was normally half frozen at the end of my first dive - I do freeze easily and some people dove in shorties and 1/2MM suits with me and were OK. Walked into the Pro-shop and after sizing me up, the girls offered 4 wetsuits to try. Trying the wetsuit in a not air-conditioned shop in a 1x1 meters space was a form of exquisite torture. As luck would have it, the suit that fit me perfectly was the suit #4 and by that time I was totally exhausted from all the efforts, hungry and quite cranky. One of the closest restaurants was Casa Denis, so I walked there and ordered Corona and shrimp fajitas. Vlada at Casa Denis The fajitas were outstanding, shrimps cooked to perfection and very tasty. I heard that their seafood plate for two was great as well. Day 4 - Underwater Photography Day Woke up earlier than normal - around 5:30 - needed to read the chapter from AOW book that described the underwater photography. Finished the chapter and the boat picked me up at usual time. The first dive was Columbia Pinnacles (max depth 94ft., time 52min, vis about 60 ft). Both of the dives today were underwater photography dives. Took me a few moments to adjust my buoyancy to compensate for camera and it took me the whole first dive to figure out how to counteract the current while trying to focus the camera (Nikonos V with a strobe). There was not too much fish, just interesting coral formations, which I did not pay any attention to, since was looking at everything through the camera lenses - made about 16 shots, I think, only 2 decent ones and did not even try to shoot anything during the last 20 min. Angel fish Another fish - porgy? Second dive was Yucab/ Tormentos reefs (max depth 56ft., time 70 min, visibility about 80 ft). The current was quite strong; we were dropped off in the middle of one reef and ended up in the middle of another. We had 2 dive masters on the boat for these two dives and on the second dive Roberto, who was my instructor for the whole AOW course, went with me and Daniel, another Aldora DM, led the remaining 4 divers. This gave me more time to concentrate on my subjects. This dive was much more enjoyable, lots of fish. Roberto found small sand crabs, trumpet fish and I also saw parrot fish, which did not like to pose for the camera. Roberto, Aldora DM and my AOW instructor Fish hiding from the current Soft coral After the dives, went to Omega photo shop (the one right next to the Calling Station on the waterfront), dropped off the film and decided to walk around for couple of hours. I walked to the divers monument, did couple of pictures then walked to Cinco Soles - strangely enough it was almost empty. They have interesting jewelry, but everything else was too expensive. Discovered where Pancho's backyard was and decided to go to Museum for an hour and then eat at Pancho's. Not surprisingly, the Museum was empty and I did spend almost 2 hours there by myself, reading all the explanations, looking at artifacts, etc. I do not have any knowledge of marine biology, so the part of the museum that explained how the coral reefs are formed and their lifetimes was quite a discovery. After the museum, walked back to Pancho's Backyard for a late lunch/ early dinner. Had quesadillas al camarones - quite good, although I found their salsa to be a bit too mild. After lunch, picked up my photos at Omega and walked home. As I was walking, the sun and the sky were forming yet another perfect sunset. Decided that I want to have a picture, so I walked into Plaza Las Glorias which was the closest hotel, set next to the pool and watched the sunset from there. After the last bit of sun sank into the sea, went to Chedraui, got the money out of bank machine, fruits; went home and watched the movie on TV. That was a great day! Day 5 - 3 dives day My 1st dive was very interesting - Columbia Deep, I dove with a different DM and new group, so we did a conservative profile, max 93ft, 63 min. Vis was excellent, the wall was great, did couple of swimthroughs. Saw lots of various angel fish, one huge grouper was very close, saw a NURSE SHARK under the ledge, 2 eagle rays and 2 large turtles - where was the camera?! This is from the day before - Grey Angel Second dive, Paradise Reef was a bit short in time, since we 'ran out of reef'. Max depth 41ft, time 54min. I surfaced with over 1'000psi. Again, wished I had camera - could be lots of interesting pictures. Amenoma, from the day before as well The third dive was a night dive at Chankanaab, max depth 49ft., time 66min. We started at twilight and ended up in darkness - great dive. Lots of plankton. Saw three medium sized octopuses, lots of lobsters and crabs. Saw couple of eels and fed one with the small fish that was startled by the light. Day 6 - Last day of diving This was my last day of diving - could not believe it was over. We tried to go to Maracaibo, but the sea was too rough. Ended up diving Palancar Deep, did couple of tight swimthroughs. Max depth 130ft, time 60 min, vis was excellent again. Saw a nurse shark deep down This is me coming out of a swimthrough - lots of sand Second dive was Dalila reef. Max depth 63ft, time 68min. Pretty reef, lots of fish, critters. Sponge from my Yucab dive For dinner that might, decided to check La Choza - liked it very much. It is popular with tourists and local alike. The food was excellent (had fish sautéed in wine with veggies) and cheap (the order included fish, free nachos and guacamole and soup - all for US$10). Day 7 - Coba/Tulum Ruins I booked the Tulum/Coba tour with Canada 3000 rep and it included ferry to Playa and back, bus transportation in a nice air-conditioned half empty bus, hot lunch and a guide that gave us tours at both places plus a bit of background on culture, places we went through, etc. For a solo traveler, bus worked fine, next time I am there with a company, I will prefer to rent a car. Coba The first stop of the tour was Coba - we arrived at around 11:30am - in the middle of day when the hit was almost unbearable. Coba is a huge site (42 square miles), placed in between several lagoons and it is almost 90% unexcavated. Different excavated parts (Grupo Coba and Nohoc Mul) are quite a walk from each other, about 2 miles each way (they rent bikes to people - next time I will take one). The pyramids are impressive, especially El Castillio in Nohoc Mul group and La Iglesia. La Iglesia El Castillio is either the largest or the second largest pyramid at Yucatan and it is still allowed to climb it. The view from the top is all jungle covering the ruins - only the La Iglesia structure is sticking out through the forest. Me before climbing El Castillo There were quite a few visitors when I was at Coba, but because the site is so large, I could be at any particular place all by myself if I wanted to. Coba took us about 2 ½ hours to visit and after that we had lunch at the only restaurant in Coba called El Bocadito - two-course lunch, quite decent. After lunch we drove back to Tulum. Tulum I thought that since we were coming to Tulum in the 2nd half of the day, there will be less people - wrong! The site is extremely crowded and the structures are all roped off. There were myriads of people enjoying the beach below. It is a beautiful site, windy with the sea views to die for, but it was just too crowded. If you ever visit it by yourself, go in the early morning or just before sunset - crowds were starting to fade around 5pm (unfortunately, that was when we left as well). Castillo @ Tulum Temple of the wind Temple of the sea The bus dropped me off at Playa at 2 min to 6pm, so I had to ran in order to catch the 6pm ferry to Cozumel - I could take the next one, but I wanted to get back to the island since that was my last night. Ate at La Mission (the one that is on Av. Juarez) and really liked the place. They have the kitchen in the middle of the restaurant and you can see what is being cooked and how. It is well ventilated, so the smell from the cooking did not disturb me. I ordered one of the daily specials, fish in the foil, broiled in white wine with different seafood, veggies and some kind of white sauce - it was really good. They give you a soup as part of your meal. After dinner walked home, enjoying the quiet night. Summary Hotel. I stayed at Costa Club and would stay there again - very comfortable divers' hotel, about 20' walk from San Miguel. Only had a snack there once - ate in the town every night. If I ever go by myself again, I will probable stay in one of the downtown hotels or B&B - it is cheaper. Food. Ate in 5 restaurants that were recommended by Travelnotes and Aldora dive masters: Pancho's Backyard, La Choza, Casa Denis, Plaza Leza and La Mission. My favorite would be La Choza (price -quality). Ruins. If I am ever there with a companion, renting a car would be my preferred option to get to the ruins. Chitchen Itza is another site that I want to visit, but flying there would mean one less day of diving - do not think I want to see C-I that much. Safety. A very safe place, even for a woman traveling solo. It was hard to believe that I was in Mexico. Last but not least, DIVING. I dove with Aldora and would use only Aldora from now on. I will be definitely coming back to Cozumel and diving with Aldora again. Lodging Reviews
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