February 2000 Cozumel Trip Report

My wife and I, along with two friends, went on a weeklong trip to Cancun and Cozumel from February 25 to March 2, 2000.  This is a report of that trip.  All of the images below are hyperlinks.  Click on any image to see a larger version.

Once again, I have more slides than I can use.  If you want to see the best of the bunch from this, trip, check out the photo gallery.

Cancun

Two words are all I have to say about Cancun: "never again."   If you really want to know why, click here.

Transferring to Cozumel

We took a taxi down to Playa Del Carmen, where we boarded the ferry to Cozumel.   The taxi ride cost us $60 for 4 people, 12 bags, and a Suburban.  The 'normal' rate seems to be around $30 for two people.  The taxi ride took about half an hour.   The ferry cost 61 pesos each way per person, and took roughly 30 minutes to make the crossing.

If you've never taken the time to visit Playa del Carmen, I recommend it.  We didn't get enough "walking around" time to see much of the city, but I loved what I saw..

Cozumel

One thing that surprised us throughout Mexico was how much attention passersby paid to our baby.  It seemed that everyone had a grin, a coo, or a happy face for Dylan.   We're accustomed to that from women in the USA, but it was the men in Mexico who lavished the most attention on the baby.  There's a huge cultural difference there that I'm not sure I understand, but everyone seemed genuinely happy to see our baby...and most of them had stories to swap about their own children.  I felt like Dylan and we were welcome everywhere we took him, which made the whole trip much easier.

Lodging

We stayed at the Villablanca Hotel in Cozumel.   Don't let their web site put you off; the web site is much glitzier than the hotel.  It's sort of a basic place, but the rates were good, and Villablanca has their own pier right across the street, and Martin's boats gladly picked us up there.  A short schlep of dive gear was all that was needed to get to the dive boats. 

Villablanca itself has great grounds, with a sort of wild feel to the landscaping.  Plants overhang the walkways, and the grass is green.  The rooms were...well... "spartan," but we didn't need much more.  Our particular room, number 5, had some oddities in the form of wooden slats for blinds on the windows, but there were no glass panes in place.  That made me feel very bad about running the air conditioner, so we didn't run it too much.  But the thing worked great; when the room got stuffy or humid, the AC unit took care of business quickly.

Beds in Mexico seem awfully hard, and Villablanca was no exception.  Oh well.   Villablanca's pillows, while tough, were a vast improvement from the blanketed concrete slabs we had the Continental Plaza hotel in Cancun.

The staff at the Villablanca are some of the most friendly and accomodating you'll find anywhere.  When I couldn't find a three-prong outlet for plugging in my strobe charger, they graciously offered to plug it into their computer power strips in the back room.  For three days they put up with my coming & going to keep my strobe topped off.

Food

No dive trip report is complete without a mention of food, so here we go.  The food on Cozumel was fabulous; no surprise there.  We ate at this one tiny little place up about 3 blocks north from the plaza (can't remember the name).  They had traditional mexican fare that was wonderful.  We ate one night at Prima Pasta, a meal of awesome seafood and pasta.  We ate one night at Pancho's Backyard, where the chiles rellenos are not to be missed.  We also at one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner at a new restaurant across the street from Villablanca, the Russian Corner.

The Russian Corner is owned and operated by Sergei, a visiting diver from Moscow who decided to stay for a while and try to run a business.  Sergei serves all sorts of mexican and american favorites, but if you want the best he has to offer, check in with him the day before you plan to visit, and set up the Russian feast with him.  Our feast included a Russian salad (sort of like potato salad but with onions, beets, cooked peas, and who-knows-what-else in it--truly delicious), a giant bowl of borscht (if you think you don't like borscht, try Sergei's before you throw in the towel), stuffed cabbage rolls,some "Russian Ravioli," and liberal and frequent servings of vodka.   I'm sure I'm forgetting a round of food, but the truth is that the whole night turned into sort of a blur after the fourth round of Stoli.  Anyway, Sergei is a gracious and entertaining host, and the meal has to be experienced to be understood.   Please drop by Sergei's place, and tell him "na zdaroviyeh" for me.

One last comment on food: if you can manage to do your surface intervals at a place called 'La Francesa' (conveniently located in front of La Francesa reef), they make some of the best fries I've ever had.  But watch out for their pico de gallo, as it's delicious but deadly hot.

Dive Operation

We did our diving with Dive With Martin.  Our group was/is relatively advanced, and we wanted to do our dive sites, so we opted for the "photographer's special."  That is, we paid a little more to get our own boat for just the 4 of us.  That let us pick the sites with no objections from anyone else, which was great.  The boat itself was your basic 6-pack boat, with twin 75 HP outboards...plenty fast.

Martin's people are quite friendly and helpful.  Our captain was Eddi, and our DM was Fernando.  I'm pretty sure Fernando and/or Martin will be reading this, because I promised to send along a link to this report and to the picture of Fernando.   Fernando was generally a fine DM, although I have two minor complaints, both things he can fix with a little effort.   You listening, Fernando?  If so, please don't take this personally.  Anyway, item #1: while I appreciated that Fernando gave us plenty of latitude in the water, there were a couple of times that we got separated from him and were unable to get his attention to let him know there was a problem. No biggie, but a look back at the group to count heads once in a while would be a good idea.   The other area where Fernando can improve is in creature-finding; a few lessons from Martin on where the creatures live and how to spot them would probably be very helpful.

Mostly, I want DMs who will generally keep an eye on the group, and then one who finds creatures for my camera!  :)  Other than these two items, I thought Fernando was great.  I don't recall a friendlier DM in my diving career, and that's at least 75% of the game right there.  We loved diving with Fernando, and would definitely dive with him again.

The Diving

You thought I'd make you wait forever, didn't you?

OK, the diving was fantastic.  Cozumel is rapidly finding its way to the top of my dive destination list.  Right now, I can't think of anyplace I'd rather dive.   We made 8 dives in 3 days, and loved every one of them.  Columbia Deep stands out as the best dive from this trip.

The visibility was excellent (never less than 100 feet), the water temperatures sat at 77 or 78F on ever dive, and mostly the seas were calm.  Only a couple of dives had more than a mild current.

Dive Log Excerpts

Annemarie cruises through one of the swimthroughs at Palancar Horseshoe.

Annemarie and a sea fan.

Can you tell I'm learning how to photograph with a model?

Dive #1: Palancar Horseshoe The Horseshoe is as cool as it gets.   It's a big swimthrough / sand chute sort of a thing that starts at around 65 feet and rises to roughly 45 feet, where it 'U' turns and goes back down to 65.  At the top of the U there is a really cool little chamber that is home to piles of glassy sweepers.  The tunnel itself is wide and easily passable, and is dotted with small exits and chimneys.  Very cool.  The "Grand Canyon" at the exit from the horseshoe is worth a look.

Dive #3: Punta Sur Devil's Throat is cool, but the real fun is in the all the open and well-lighted swimthroughs.  That's where you find the big sea fans, the long tube sponges, and the great vistas. 

Devil's Throat starts as what looks like a small side passage to a large, short swimthrough.  If no one pointed it out to you, off to the right from the main passage, you'd miss it easily.  Down into the dark hole, down the hill, turn to the left, and there's the exit.  It starts at 85 feet or so and exits at around 120.   Then you make a sharp right turn and ascend into the cathedral, where you look at the huge chamber and the sponges (included the cross-shaped sponge).

The end of the dive, drifting along at about 50 to 60 feet, is cool too.  Lots of sea fans billow in the current.  A giant spotted eagle ray (with remora) swam by towards the end.

Dive Log Details

Last modified March 6, 2000

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