Part 2 This is my second dive trip to Cozumel (only 6 weeks after the first one... this sport is really addictive...). The main purpose of the trip was to relax, dive and do my Rescue Diver certification with Alison. This time, instead of staying at an all-inclusive resort, I decided to stay at the Vista Del Mar, a small hotel located couple blocks (5 mins) from the main place in San Miguel.
Sunday, November 25th (4 dives: 0:59, 0:55, 0:58, 0:58) Dive one was on Palancar Gardens with Kathy, Alan, Ted, Jeannie, Joe and Roberta. Coming out of a cave, a small turtle swam right up to us. I saw a turtle sitting on the reef and we saw another smaller one at the end of the dive.
Wow! What a lot of work on Tormentos! The current was swift and the group got separated. It was a bit chaotic most of the dive...but it all worked out in the end. We enjoyed the colorful encrusting sponges on the underside of the ledges.
That afternoon Alison split the group into two. I went with Chucho at Palancar Wall with the certified divers: Shanon, Sean and Laura while Steve, Larry and Denise went to Palancar Horseshoe with Alison to do their open water training dive skills. We all got to see the big turtle off in the blue water. My group also saw a stingray.
On our second afternoon dive on On Colombia Shallows we saw a shard, four turtles, many crabs, sea cucumbers, a couple spotted eagle ray and suddenly, we faced a group of six spotted eagle rays swimming, all together! These were probably 6 feet wide and swimming in a
3x2 formation. This was the most amazing encounter I had in my life. We needed to ascend although I still had 1300psi as we finished the reef and it was getting dark.
Monday, November 26th (4 dives: 0:50, 1:00, 1:00, 0:51) Alison probably thought that Marc, Chantal, Kristen, Trevor, Joe, Roberta were getting a little “Palancared out” so we went to Santa Rosa Wall where the traffic jams usually are in the morning. We planned a multilevel dive using the wheel for Roberta’s advanced certification. Right as we arrived at the wall, we saw a huge nurse shark take off swimming against the current and a couple stingrays.
Our second dive at on Chankanaab where Kristen and Roberta finished their navigation. We saw sea cucumbers, lobsters and crabs on that dive. I found a spotted scorpion fish hidding on the reef. It was very difficult so see, and with the drift, hard to take pictures. I also saw 4-5 huge puffer fish (~2-3ft long, 8in in diameter).
In the afternoon we went to French reef with Shanon, Sean, Steve, Laura, Denise and Larry. We saw a big green moray eel out swimming around. I got a great picture of it. We also saw a crab and a lobster. Sean, Alison and I saw a huge turtle right before we came up.
Our last dive was on Dalila where We all had a fantastic time. First, a medium-sized nurse shark swam off to the deep water. Later we saw a few turtles. The last turtle was huge. A second nurse shark swam 10-feet away from me and and smiled for my camera....
Tomorrow, I start my Rescue diving class....
Part 2