Cozmel Trip Report-7/26-8-1

[94GTStang]

Thought I would share my report in here since the Carribean section gets little traffic...

Just got back a few days ago from our annual Cozumel vacation! It was a blast as always! It did seem much hotter this year than usual, but that’s alright. The water was still a beautiful blue and the beers were cold!

We did two days of diving and two night dives with Raul Platas of bottomtimedivers.net. He of course did a fantastic job as always handling me, my fiancé, and our two friends! Our dives consisted of the C53, Tormentos, Chankanaab (at night), Punta Sur (Devils Throat), Cedral Wall, and Las Palmas (at night). The dives were great and the reef life was abundant! Much better than last year!

I bought the SeaLife SL960d strobe to use on this trip. I didn’t have any practice with it before we left, so some...err... most of my pics could have turned out better! Either way, I feel I took some nice pictures that would have been impossible to take without the strobe. As for the strobe, it worked perfectly and I never had a problem with it at all! Great strobe for the price! The camera is my old Sony Cybershot P-73 4.1 megapixel with a Sony underwater housing. A large majority of the shots were taken with a Sea and Sea wide angle lens as well.

Once again, we found ourselves staying at Fiesta Americana. They have great clean rooms and a well kept hotel. Not to mention all the rooms face the ocean! Can’t beat that!

Finally, to make it a really special trip, I decided to propose to my girlfriend. Where else but underwater too! Everyone was in on it and at the end of the dive at Cedral wall we all got on the sandy bottom and I pulled a seashell from my B.C. pocket. It didn’t take her long to figure out what the shiny thing attached to the inside of it was! Of course her answer... or head movement... was yes! I also have a feeling that the massage from Sally of barefootincozumel had something to do with her answer too...

Enough with the writing... here are most of the pics I took on the trip! I can’t figure out how to embed them into the thread from picasa, but I’ll post the link to gallery instead. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/94GTStang

[torrey]

Looks like a fun trip. Congratulations!

[creggur]

Looks like a great trip... Is your girlfriend the one with the pink hoses?... I gotta know where she got those, my wife would kill for them...

Can't wait to dive Coz in Feb. on the SB/ST cruise..Looks like some great dives!!!

[94GTStang]

Thanks!

Actually they aren't pink hoses, though that would be pretty cool for her. I'd get me some red ones... They are just the hose wraps. I bought them off ebay and they come in other colors. Hers are pink and mine are "carbon fiber" in color. They also have patriotic colors etc...

Don't let Larry see this link but...
http://www.divers-supply.com/TECHFLE...p/ins30210.htm

I'm pretty sure you can get it from Scubatoys though

[3rdEye]

good stuff...i assume the pics through the long cave thingy are devil's throat? Looks awesome.

looks like you did the advanced stuff that I couldn't do when I was there.....next time

[94GTStang]

Originally Posted by 3rdEye

good stuff...i assume the pics through the long cave thingy are devil's throat? Looks awesome.

looks like you did the advanced stuff that I couldn't do when I was there.....next time

Yea that was through devils throat. I have a video of it I believe... Just need to host it somewhere. I guess youtube...

Yes we were doing the advanced stuff without the advanced cert. However... our DM signed off for everything but the compass work so we can get the advanced cert. We just need to meet up with an instructor here so we can do the rest of the course work.

[kqhouston]

I was in Coz July 28th through Aug 4th, we probably passed you on the reef down there!

Stayed at the Reef Club....lovely resort, but the service is awful. Dove Columbia Deep & Shallows, Palancar everything, Cedar Pass, Cordova, Tormentos.....and took a day to get Nitrox certified! Great weather, great diving.

No engagement in my group tho, congratulations!!!

[Cichlid]

Congrats Stang!

[94GTStang]

Originally Posted by kqhouston

I was in Coz July 28th through Aug 4th, we probably passed you on the reef down there!

Stayed at the Reef Club....lovely resort, but the service is awful. Dove Columbia Deep & Shallows, Palancar everything, Cedar Pass, Cordova, Tormentos.....and took a day to get Nitrox certified! Great weather, great diving.

No engagement in my group tho, congratulations!!!

Ah cool! We were thinking about Reef Club, but we did our research via tripadvisor and decided to stay away. It does look like a nice place. We passed by the Presidente on our night dive and it looked amazing!
I wouldn't mind getting nitrox certified though... just another cert. under the belt!

Originally Posted by Cichlid

Congrats Stang!

Thanks! She's behind me looking up wedding places now...

[nferra2]

I see alot of divers post about diving in Cozumel, but I always thought of Cozumel to be more of a spring break, cruise port, american tourist kind of destination. Is the diving that great that it makes up for the 6 cruise ships sitting at the port ( and the thousands of cruisers coming off those boats)