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We've just returned from our first "warm/blue/clear" water diving experience.....WOW..and that doesn't even begin to sum up the awesome experience for our first time! We spent 9 days in "Paradise" in "rainy & windy" Cozumel, but even the weather could not diminish the wonderful diving experience. We did 11 dives - 1 on the shore of our hotel the Plaza Las Glorias, and 10 with Dive Paradise among the various reefs of Cozumel. We arrived in Cozumel to wind & rain, with the harbor closed to all boats and divers!. Sunday we did a shore dive to check our buoyancy in saltwater, in anticipation of our dives on the reefs. We were amazed at the amount of fish life and colorful coral we found just 15 -25 feet from shore.
Monday we headed out to Palancar coves followed by a 2nd dive to Tormentos. Our afternoon dive was on Paradise Reef. Gee, the viz sure was better than we're used to at BSC! We were amazed at all of the colorful and plentiful fish life, along with the gorgeous coral formations. We were treated to numerous lobsters, spotted eels, toad fish, oodles of angels, sea snakes, hermit crabs, and an occasional glimpse of a distant spotted eagle ray. We descended on the 3rd dive in calm, clear weather. We surfaced after a 55 minute gorgeous dive to a scene from "The Perfect Storm"!! The crew did a great job and we all had some laughs on the "rough & extremely wet" ride back to dock. Their docking abilities at the hotel was a "treat" to watch!!!
Diving Day 2 took us to Palancar Horseshoe, Yucab Reef, and Las Palmas. Words cannot describe the majesty & beauty of the formations at Horseshoe. It gave us the feeling of how small & insignificant we really are in this world. This is definitely a dive I want to do again (& again & again!). I couldn't decide if I should swim this face down or on my back looking up at the towering formations! Saw some nice size barracuda and more spotted rays in the distance, along with a turtle, more lobsters (seems strange to see them without claws!), a crab stuffing his face, and a starfish out in the open sand (the divemaster said it probably wouldn't be long before it was fish food!). We didn't get to see any sea horses at Las Palmas, but it wasn't due to lack of effort on the divemasters part.
Diving Day 3 was Palancar Gardens & Paso El Cedral: Palancar Gardens was almost as spectacular as Horseshoe. Some neat swim throughs and awesome to pop out on the wall and look down into the blue abyss! Saw some big groupers. Paso El Cedral was a unique dive varying between lush garden reefs and areas reminiscent of a desert!. A nice strong current to feel as if "flying". LOTS of marine life...a big spotted ray, barracuda, an octopus under a rock, more lobsters, and a regular ray feeding on the bottom.
The next 3 days the weather and ear problems for Chris kept us out of the water. Were supposed to do an EDP to Punta Sur to do Devils Throat, but high winds closed the harbor again. Our last day there, we were able to get a fast boat to Columbia Reef, with the 2nd dive at Delilah Reef. Our divemaster sure earned his money, because there wasn't anything we didn't see on these 2 dives: We were treated to the "regular" colorful, plentiful fish plus a huge spotted eagle ray, finally up close; a huge grouper, & 2 smaller ones "playing". For fish that look like large "slugs", they sure can move fast when they want to! A large sea turtle cruised by above us, and a large hermit crab in a conch shell. Dive 2 gave us an up close with a smaller sea turtle, barracuda, another large spotted ray, and finally, what I wanted to see the entire trip...a 6-7' nurse shark! It stayed in the area with us and swam toward and right underneath us. What beauty in motion!
All I can say is I sure hope heaven is underwater, because that is what I felt I was in the entire diving time we were there!
This was our first trip to Cozumel, but definitely NOT our last! Drift diving is fun and easy! Viz was great! And the food in town is EXCELLENT!!!!!!!! Since our "Cozumel Travel Consultant" (aka Dennie Leese!!) neglected to tell/warn us about the underwater parasites that like to "host" in your skin, our next tropical diving will be in full length 3 mil wetsuits instead of shorties!!!!! Lots of alcohol & calamine lotion in this house right now!! We took over 500 "land" pictures and 250 underwater pictures! Have included a "few" for viewing!!!!
Adios! Norma & Chris Presler
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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