Diving Cozumel Island 2002

By Gene Lucas Pictures By Joann Lucas and Caroline Southwell

Arriving at the Airport 3 hours early has given us time to wonder about our fall dive destination of Cozumel, Mexico. I have come to realize that all of our dive vacations begin with going to bed late, and getting up very early. This trip was no exception. We try to Dive Cozumel at least once a year. It is only a 4 hour flight and a very convenient place to dive. Our destination hotel for this trip is the Plaza Las Glorias. The hotel is just on the south side of the city and over looks the ocean. This is our first dive trip of the year. On this trip Joann and I will be celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary. One of the things I look forward to diving Cozumel is the drift diving. Drift diving is where you just let the current carry you along the bottom of the ocean. It is like watching a movie from the comfort of your favorite reclining chair. We arrive on the Island of Cozumel at lunch time. The first order of business is to grab our diving gear and head off to the Costa Club Beach Resort where we will do our first dive of the week. It will be a short check out dive off the beach of the hotel. We are just checking our weights and gear to be sure it is all working properly. Once that is out of the way we head into town for some Pina Coladas and Margaritas. Oh life is getting better now. The next morning we rise around 6:00 am for breakfast ocean side at the Waffel House. After Blueberry pancakes and 5 cups of mexican java we head back to the hotel and pickup up our dive gear. We are supposed to meet our dive boat the Tango at the dock at 8:15 am. We arrive at 8:20 am everyone else is on the boat waiting for us. The boats are normally late in Mexico, not the case on this trip. We are diving again this year with Dive Paradise as we have for the last 10 years. They are one of the oldest dive operations in Cozumel. Check them out at Dive Paradise . We are heading down to Palancar Gardens for our first boat dive of the week. It will be a 45 minute boat ride so we quickly setup our dive gear than head up to the bow of the boat to catch some rays. Once we arrive at the reef we divide our 20 divers into 3 groups. Each group will dive with an experienced Dive Master. The advantage of taking a native dive master with you is that they will be able to find all the great attractions. All the divers on this trip except one are very experienced and have hundreds of dives under there weight belts. Bryan has just learned to dive this spring. I nicknamed him the bubble maker because he was always the first person to use up their aloted air. When your tank is down to 1000 psi then you give the dive master the time out signal and make a slow accent to the surface. The first dive we are winding through large coral head to a maximum depth of 74 feet. The water is crystal clear, but we see very few fish. After surfacing and reboarding the Tango we remove our wet diving gear and have a little snack of sandwiches, oranges, and watermellon. We move up to the bow of the boat to catch some rays while slowly drifting north east all the while burning off nitrogen. After about 1 hour we suit up and head back into the water for our second dive. This dive will be another drift dive to a maximum depth of 60 feet for 50 minutes. On this dive we see a 2 foot sea turtle, a 6 foot nurse shark and a spotted eagle ray. This is my first encounter with a shark in mexico. Once on board the Tango I make the comment that this is the best dive ever in Mexico. Nothing could be better than let the fish come to you. During the trip back to the Hotel we are all talking about the encounters on todays dives. Once back to the hotel it is off to the pool for Pena Coladas and salsas and chips. We are going to the Lobster House tonight for supper. The Lobster House is one of the best seafood restaurants on the island. I am also starting to think about our plans for Thanksgiving. We plan on diving the Cenotes on the main land. The next two days are spent diving all the great dive sites Cozumel has to offer. Thursday morning we are up at the crack of dawn. Our plans are to meet at Arcaros for breakfast and catch the 8 am ferry to Playa del Carmen. There waiting for us is the van from Aquatech divers. They will take us the 70 km ride down to Akumal for the day of Cavern and cave diving in 73 degree fresh water. For these dives I have brought along my 3 Mil shorty to wear over my 3 mil Body Glove. The roads in Mexico have been upgraded through out in the last 5 years. Most of the roads are now as nice as any of our interstates. The trip takes about 1 hour. The back road to the dive resort is pretty ragged and washed out. We arrive at the Aquatech dive Center and are meet by the dive operator Marikee. She is a swedish girl that has been down there for many years. She says that the locals call her a witch because she is not married. The story has it that she moved down there with her boy friend but it did not work out. We have a short orientation and start getting our weights and weight belts and load up another van with dive tanks and weights and head out to the Cenotes. Cave diving emerged in the Akumal-Tulum area during the mid 1980's, when divers discovered that the cenotes (natural wells) were windows to the underground streams. This began an entire New Frontier! As cave divers continued to explore, more cave systems were discovered. Today, there are over fifty-seven differenty cave systems to visit with more than 300 miles of passageways to explore and enjoy. Five of the largest water filled cave systems in the world are located in this area. The three longest known stalactitas are also located in the area's systems. History continues to be made as new roads are blazoned into the jungle, allowing access to more and more virgin cenotes. We drive back out on the main road and head north for about 10 miles before we turn off on some washed out old dirt road. This road leads back to a Cenote which will be our first dive of the Thanksgiving day. Back at the Cenote we unload our gear and start suiting up for the dive. We have a another quick orientation and head down the steps that lead about 50 feet to the Cenote. We are broken up into 3 groups. We enter the water and adjust our weights for the fresh water. I usually use about 9 or 10 pounds of weights in the salt water. In the fresh water I only need about 3 pounds. Once we are acclamated to the fresh water and the Cenote we start heading toward the back of the Cenote were we will go under the back side and into a cave like system of interconnected Cenotes. The first thing you notice is the eary water when salt and fresh water mix. It is like the Stargate movie when the people enter the Stargate. The person in front of you starts looking like you need a new pair of glasses. They start getting hazy and distorted or there lights start changing colors and disappearing. We see a few common fish, as we make our way through the caves to the connecting Cenotes. Some of the small fish look like guppies. There are also catfish on the bottom of the Cenotes. As we circle the outside of one of the connecting Cenotes there are roots from the trees above coming down into the water. The dive master points out some fossils on the walls of the caves. Our bubbles rising hit the ceiling of the caves and cause peices of the roof to fall down. In places were there is a lot of stone that has fallen down from the ceiling you can shine your light below and and see 30 or 40 feet down through small openings. The fresh water is so crystal clear you can see light coming from the connecting Cenotes. As you start up from the bottom to the Cenote the surface water is so smooth you think you are looking at a reflection of the jungle on the water, but actually you are looking at the jungle through the water. They have a line run through the major cave complex with arrows pointing back to the beginning Cenote. So if you would get lost in one of those you just follow the arrows back. We return from the first dive and climb the stairs back to the surface. We change tanks and move our gear to a differant location. On the second dive we see a lot more fossils on the walls and go further out from the main Cenote. But the dive is very much the same fresh cool water and occasionally warm squiggley salt water. As we load up from the dive and head back to the dive shop I have that warm feeling in my stomach like you get at Christmas time. We do not have time to reflect at this point because we have a 1 hour van ride back to Playa del Carmen, and a 45 minute ferry ride to Cozumel. It is 4 oclock at this time and we have a 6 pm reservation back at the Hotel for our Thanksgiving feast. We have a ship wreck on the agenda for the first dive on Friday. The ship is a 170 foot boat that was intentionally sunk about 4 years ago to create an artificial reef. The bottom of the boat sets in 90 feet of water. The inside of the ship is full of many variaties of fish. We enter at the bottom and work our way up to the top of the ship. The trip home from Cozumel will be after lunch on Sunday. This gives us time to pack leisurely Sunday morning and catch our last breakfast on the beach. The things that always keep us going back to Cozumel are the friendly people, warm blue water and cold beer.

These are a few of our Favorite Cozumel Pictures

Click on these Pictures to enlarge

Scott Diving	Scott Playing	Joann Cenotes	Cenotes	Cigar Shopping	Cenotes	Caroline Cenotes
Wild Life	Divers Prepare	Flower	Akumal Beach	Dive map	Gene	Joann Gene
Prepare to Dive	Acclamating	Cenotes	Gene Cenotes	Cenote oasis	Chasing Turtle	Shark
Bryan & Cheryl	Caroline & Scott	Gene Relaxing	Lynn Nic Cas	Joann	Scott	Scott & Gene
Cerveza La Corona	Catfish	Cenotes	Cenotes Guide	Cenote Platform	Spotted Eel	Sex Instructor
Cuban Cigars	Gene & Byran	Gene	Horses	Caroline	Cheryl	Scott Byran

Last updated on 3/21/2004.