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We arrived in Cozumel today. Originally we were going to stop off at Playa Del Carmen to drop off a group that was taking a tour closer to there but the conditions didn’t allow us entry. So instead we arrived quite early into Cozumel and it was a very nice morning. The water was vivid blue and with color of the sunrise and the buildings combined with what appeared to be some uniformed military guys doing a flag raising near our ship it was a nice welcoming to Mexico.
Today, I went scuba diving in Cozumel. It was labeled as an introductory scuba class, you might even say an accelerated pre-certification class for those who had never gone scuba diving before. Although I am PADI certified I have not gone in a dive in the past two years. Because I want to do a two tank dive in St. Thomas on the last stop of this trip I needed to have proof of at least one dive. This fit the bill for me and it never hurts to get a refresher course on something that can kill you if you aren’t paying attention.
We met on the dock very close to the Mariner to collect our group of 7 people. After a short cab ride down the main drag along the waterfront we arrived at the diving school which consisted of a beachfront restaurant, a shower area and an outdoor, on the beach training “room”. We received a 45 minute lecture on dive basics from a competent instructor, picked out our equipment and were helped into the water by the instructors.
There were only two people that had scuba experience so it was pretty cool that 5 people got to try it for the first time. We swam slowly our from the beach and continued to follow the slope down to about 30 feet where there was a nice reef. Lots of coral, colorful reef fish, moray eels and other miscellaneous sea life. One of the newbies was having a tough time of it so they got to hold hands with one of the instructor pretty much the entire dive. That’s service! After we used up our tank we swam back to shore, cleaned up and took a cab back to the dock area. All in all, a very nice tour with friendly instructors.
After diving we cleaned up and then had an opportunity to have a drink and snack at the upstairs restaurant. They were also selling mementos and local crafts. After a Corona I headed back to the dock area in the cab they provided and found a dive shop to get a plastic dry bag for my S90 to protect it for the Belize cave diving trip. A quick stop at a cigar shop also landed me some nice Cohiba’s for Margaret.
We were then treated to a great sunset. Here’s one sample but the rest will be in the Sunrise/Sunset show that I’ll put together at the end of the cruise. Hopefully, it will be quite a show!
Cozumel Picture Gallery: http://travelwithdm.smugmug.com/Travel/South-America/Cozumel-Jan-12-2010/25152424_G2X8bg#!i=2062532503&k=HdQ4D7F
Dale
jthor2054 - Again I reaped the benefits of my masterful disguise training. Although it was difficult creating the shark costume (see http://tinyurl.com/yk64qtw ), the results proved well worth the effort. I was able to carefully observe this group’s entire underwater escapade, and came THIS CLOSE to snagging Dale’s Rolex.