This report was posted to a newgroup, it is written by Ben Parker
We have been diving for 7 years, in various places around the Caribbean, Usually we like out-of-the-way spots like Little Cayman, Grand Turk, Guanaja, etc. but this time we determined to give Cozumel a try. Unlike some places where accommodations, food, and diving are all included, Cozumel allows, indeed encourages you to adopt an a-la-carte approach, and we made all the arrangements electronically. We booked our air travel from Chicago via Compuserve. We arranged our diving with Aldora Divers and booked our room at Fiesta Inn by email.
Getting there & back was easy and fast. We flew from Chicago direct to Cozumel, connecting smoothly through Houston. We checked our bags through both ways with no problem. We were lucky (I guess) to get the green light at Mexican Customs but would not have had a problem anyway.
The taxi ride from the airport to Fiesta Inn was in a rainstorm, and one of our bags was tied on the roof of the car. A couple things got damp. Based on past travel I had started with a fistful of $1 bills for tips, etc. along the way, and used them all. Although you can (and should) change some money to pesos, you almost don't need to in Cozumel. You can spend $US just as easily and even get change back in either currency, but it helps to have a rough idea of the exchange rate, just to be sure you aren't over-charged.
Some friend of ours in Chicago had suggested Fiesta Inn was not such a good place. (He prefers Plaza Las Glorias.) We found it to be neat, clean, and very pleasant, at least equal to Holiday Inn/Ramada in the states. They have a pedestrian tunnel under the road, for beach/dock access and have many divers there, so they are used to people dripping water across the lobby. Only precaution is to watch out for the quarry tile on floors, stairs, and pool deck, it is very slippery when wet! We actually never got in the pool, but did catch a few rays lounging on the deck.
Much has been said here before about restaurants. There are at least 100 great places to eat, so there is something to please everyone. We aren't much for eggs/sausage breakfast. Orange juice and bagels/rolls with peanut butter is fine for us. We found a bakery and also bought rolls (and submarine sandwiches for picnic lunch) at Prima. Lunch was somewhat the same, or we would have soup and quesadillas at Playa Sol during our surface interval. Each evening we ate someplace different. We didn't have a bad meal anywhere. Places we ate: Prima, La Choza, Casa Denis, Muy Mexicano, El Morro, El Remolcador (The Tugboat). Our final morning, we had breakfast at the Museum, overlooking the harbor, very relaxing and great view!
This was the real reason for coming here! As you have no doubt heard, Cozumel is famous for its currents and drift diving. This means you really must dive with a dive operator. There are perhaps more dive operators than restaurants, but we chose Aldora Divers, based initially on recommendations from this newsgroup. There are no moorings, boats do not anchor. You are dropped 'on the fly', do your dive, ascend, and are again picked up by your boat. So, diving on your own, following a guide book (like Bonaire) is not really feasible here. You won't know the right drop zone for today and you won't have anybody to tend your boat. Shore diving, while possible, is not very interesting, there isn't much to see. The real reefs and walls are too far off-shore to swim to.
With the current (and sea) running, accurate drop placement is critical to having a good dive on the right objective, especially on the deeper southern reefs. The Aldora boat captains work very hard, using much skill in reading waves and currents, as well as GPS to get to the right drop zone, for the conditions at the moment. It is very much like an airborne jumpmaster, gauging the wind for the right place and time to drop in. In many dive operations the Divemaster can make/break a pleasant dive. With Aldora, the dive masters share this responsibility with the boat captains. Not only do they get us to the drop zone on time, and run down to hand over cameras, etc. but they also follow the divers, and circle around on our ascent, to be ready and waiting when we surface.
Diving stresses the buddy system, but drift diving really requires the whole group stay together as a buddy. Aldora works very hard to match divers by ability and inclination. They try to put photographers together with others, so they can stop and shoot without getting widely separated, while keeping the power swimmers to a different fast-travelling group. The other advantage is most groups are max of 6-7, and you will dive with the same people for several days, so you will become good friends, if you aren't already.
Aldora has adopted several innovations that make the drift diving safer. They use 100 and 120 cuft steel tanks, with high pressure DIN fittings, so they are charged to 3500 psi. This gives you at least 50% more air that an aluminum 80ft tank, especially important for the deep sites, and for the end-of-dive hangouts (more on that later). Plus, the steel tanks are heavier at all times (less weight on your belt) and change buoyancy much less over the course of the dive than Alum 80's would do. All divers 'must' use a computer. Aldora will supply the Oceanic Prodigy for you if you don't have something else. I use a USD Monitor 2, and my wife has a Dacor. We each use a Sherwood Source as a backup. Normally, I run out of air before I run out of bottom time on my profiles. But with the larger tanks and more air, I started running into computer limits while still having 1000lbs of air. I also began to graphically see the differences between my computers which have slightly different algorithms.
The basic Aldora rule is, the group dives until someone reaches 1000lbs of air, OR until your computer gives you only 5 min of no-deco time limit. Then we slowly ascend to 15 ft. By this time, our computer graph would be several diamonds or squares into the yellow zone. This is where you use the 1000lb safety margin of air. We stay at 15ft, drifting along in the current, until we have 'cleared' back into the green zone. On one dive this took as long as 20 min, after a 55 minute dive at 50' depth! One other innovation that helps the boat captain find and follow us, is the dive master puts up an inflatable safety sausage on a line to the surface, while we stay at 15ft. The Aldora boat circles, safely keeping other boats from running over us.
The next innovation for safer diving that Aldora practices is an approx 2hr surface interval between dives. After the first morning dive we would usually come into the beach at Playa Sol. Here you get off the boat, go ashore, have a snack, soak up some sun, watch the Brazilian women, swap lies with your fellow divers, etc. Then a leisurely departure, a ride to the next site and the next dive. Last, but not least is comfort and convenience. The first day, we carried our gear bags to the boat. Every day thereafter, it was on the boat, ready for us, and we had only to carry ourselves and cameras to the dock at Fiesta Inn. Much easier than having to schlep all the gear 2 ways every day like all the other people in other boats.
The actual diving: So, now that we have the theoretical discussions out of the way, how was the diving? As Tony the Tiger would say, Grrreeeaaat! First dive, Santa Rosa Wall, 98ft, 55min. A couple of big groupers joined us as we descended to the top of the wall at 60ft and stayed throughout the dive. Current was blowing, 2.5 kts or so. It was fun to just drift along effortlessly looking at huge sponges. We saw 5 queen angels, ocean trigger fish, permit and some other pelagics as well as schooling grunts in little alcoves along the wall. We navigated several swim-thrus. 2nd dive, was Yucab Reef, 50ft, 75min. Current was still ripping, so we went 'flying' with arms outstretched. By now we were learning to drop into still water behind coral heads or little hollows in the reef. Having done white water river running helped give us some idea of where to find counter currents and slack water. When you are stopped, you can look at very tiny things, like arrow crabs, little chromis, lettuce coral. When moving in the current, you need to find big things and see them coming up, so you can shift position if need be to get a better view as you 'fly' past. On this dive, we got separated from the group near the end of the dive, just as our DM, Memo, had signaled to prepare to ascend. So we just got together and went up by ourselves to 15ft, spent 10min on our safety stop, and then surfaced, to find the Aldora boat just down current. The boat captain had seen us doing our stop, knew we were ok, retrieved the rest of the divers and then came back for us. I had a safety sausage, but no line to let it up to the surface. Lesson: keep one eye on the DM at all times, know where the group is, and be prepared (I added a 20ft line to my BC pocket for the next dive).
Next day we dove with DM Daniel in a different boat. We did a dive called 'Bricks of Palancar' (which I didn't believe until I saw the actual small brick wall built on the reef). It is also known as Columbia 'North', 88ft, 70min. Current was slower today and I had my video camera. This is tongue and groove reef formation on a huge scale. Lots of up, over, down, around, and through. Lots of little fish, spotted morays, and angelfish. The wind had kicked up waved, so we couldn't go to Playa Sol. We went to calm water in by Chankanab to wait. We had planned to go to Paso de Cedral for our 2nd dive, but the radio told us everyone else was too (10-15 boats on the water) so we went to Tormentos Reef instead. This advance scouting by radio is another service of Aldora, keeping us far from the crowds. Tormentos was calm, almost no current, with much to see. 58ft, 75min. sunlight was coming and going as clouds blew by. My video light was running out of juice. I hadn't been able to charge it, because of electrical problems. It seems electricity in Cozumel is not the 115volts or so we are used to here in USA, but actually runs about 127 volts. Most appliances don't mind, but my video light charger was sensitive to this. overheated and shut down after a short time. I finally got it to work by putting it on the cold quarry tile floor, and used it as a heat sink!
Next day we had yet another Aldora boat and DM Dave Dillehay, the owner. He claimed they were short handed. I think he just wanted an excuse to go diving. This was Columbia Deep, 132ft, 60 min. It was a fast drop, the reef top is at 80ft. We swam thru big valleys and around into a beautiful enclosed amphitheatre. Then down a little dead-end sand chute, down a tunnel called "Dave's Throat" and out on the face of the wall. We came back up and continued slowly upwards along between huge coral heads and over little valleys. This dive covered a lot of territory, "mountains" instead of "chipmunks" in Dave's terminology. He was very conscientious, checking everyone's air supply and computer readings every 7-8 minutes. Our second dive was back to Santa Rosa Wall, 85ft, 70min. We did several swim-thrus again. Then worked our way up over sand flats. This was very much like low terrain avoidance flying, zooming along only inches above the sand, swimming sideways like a flag blowing in the wind. We found scorpion fish, and fed a moray eel, cautiously! That evening, we did a night dive on Tormentos Reef, 61ft, 65min. Again, we might have gone to Chankanab, but the radio suggested everyone else was headed there so... There was very slight current. We found lots of things to see, 2 lobsters, 2 octopus, some really long (2ft+) curly worms in free water, and were practically deafened by the calls of toad fish. This was the 3rd day in a row we dived on a boat with people finishing their dive week and taking there last dives of their trip, but they were all staying at Fiesta Inn so we had a great day and had a wonderful dinner afterwards.
Next day, another boat, but DM Dave. This was really big dive, Punta Sur, Sur, 110ft, 65min. This is a deep reef at the south end of the island. There was huge 'mountains' here, but with the current slow, after a change, and there was a lot of floating crud in the water. I'm told this is a spectacular dive with better vis. but not this day. Still we enjoyed ourselves as much as we could. We swam into a big amphitheatre, and saw an unusual 6ft long 'trumpet' sponge. Our 2nd dive today was Tormentos (again!) same as last night 61ft, 75min. We found lots of stuff, including the same toad fish as last night. The current was slowly turning south and by the end of the dive, we went up into it and drifted back over the entire dive while doing our safety stop. Our DM was Juan Carlos, somebody new Dave was trying out. This sounds like we were getting 2nd string but our group consisted of 1 instructor, 3 divemasters, and 2 master divers. Dave asked us to 'try out' Juan Carlos and evaluate him as a DM in the 'Aldora' way. It is a privilege to be accorded the confidence that we can take care of ourselves and evaluate a new DM, all while diving and having fun.
Next day the wind was strong out of the SE, kicking up 4ft+ waves. The first Aldora boat headed south reported conditions were too rough, undivable. We couldn't even dive Santa Rosa conditions were so bad. (Getting in the water would be OK, but getting out and safely into the boat would not.) The choices were Yucab Reef, or Tormentos (which we had done 3 times already) so we went to Yucab. Current was strong, and we spent much time dodging in around coral heads looking at fish. Our 2nd dive was an area near Chankanab called Bolones, 65ft, 70min. These are large, separate coral heads, 40-50ft in diameter. Many under hangs, lots of thing to see. Caught a big lobster at one coral head, and followed him in the open walking to the next coral head. We discovered several large 'king' crabs.
Next day (our last) we taxied from Fiesta Inn to the Marina to find our boat out of the water on the hardstand. Our gear was all set up however, and we watched as a giant forklift picked up the boat and set it carefully into the water. We went out from the marina, picked up the rest of our group from Plaza Las Glorias and by general choice we went back to Bolones, a little deeper this time, 71ft, 75min. The boat ride was rough, but we rolled in easy and had a great long dive, finding more crabs, lobsters, and lots of fish. My BC inflator valve developed a slow leak, so I had to disconnect it and do BC manipulation manually. It was time to be our last dive. I used my rope and safety sausage at the end of the dive, it makes it even easier to hang at 15ft. Just run it up to the surface and deflate BC slightly and hang on it, no effort at all.
We rented a car and drove to the East coast to see 10-12ft breakers blown in from Cuba crashing on the shore, and we toured the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio. We couldn't watch the sunset, as it had been hiding behind clouds for 3 days, but had a great dinner. Next morning was our breakfast at the Museum, then we went on to the airport for our trip home. We'll be back.
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Ben Parker ............ (Oak Park IL)
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