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Date: July 05, 2000 - - July 09, 2000
Airline: Continental - - Austin, Texas to
Houston, Texas to San Miguel, Cozumel
Hotel: Plaza Las Glorias ($748 including 2 tank boat dives for 3
days and air fare)
Dive Operator: Dive Paradise (Afternoon dive $10, Night Dive $32)
Tips: $2.50 / dive / diver
Travel Agency: Bay Adventure Inc
Food and Drinks: $275
Transfers to/from Airport: $15
Park Fee: $2/person (only one fee for the
week)
Gifts and souvenirs: $100
Total cost: $1225
Weather: Hot 95 degrees, Scattered Showers
Divers: Dan W., Rick H., Mike S.
The airline, Continental Airlines pretty much gets an 'A' for this trip. All
flights were on time and we made it with
all our luggage. Nothing interesting about
the flight... which is a good thing.
At the San Miguel airport, each passenger
must purchase a transfer ticket for about
$8. What appears to be unclear is whether
the transfer included the round trip fare.
The driver of our suburban taxi took both
parts of the ticket. We are not sure, but,
we think we should have received part of
it back as the return ticket. Guess we will
never know...
The hotel, Plaza Las Glorias had improved over our first experience.
The water was one of the most significant
improvements. Previously, the water more
resembled the color tea rather than any thing
I've ever seen coming out of a faucet. None
the less, we still chose to stick to bottled
water. They were in the process of painting
some of the areas on the lower floors and
the premises had been very well cared for
over the years. The hotel was generally crowded
during our stay with some real nice scenery
lounging around the pool area. Across the
street, a new "supermarket" has
opened which made it handy for those items
which you may forget at home. It's pretty
much a third world version of Walmart.
The only complaint came when a six pack of
glass bottles hit the floor of our room and
we couldn't get any one from the hotel to
cleanup the broken glass. It basically sat
there for an entire day and night until we
checked out.
The food was too enjoyable! We ate way too much.
My favorite restaurant turned out to be
very reliable. La Mission, just a block or two east of the plaza,
serves excellent food. In addition, the
food preparation is something interesting
to see as well. The lights were turned down
a couple times as the waiters prepared these
blue flaming drinks. Unfortunately, there
are now two La Mission restaurants and they may have very similar
menus, but the food quality was definitely
not the same. The newer restaurant, just
south of the plaza, did not meet the standards
of the older one east of the plaza. It was
a disappointment to say the least.
We returned to both Guido's (north of the plaza) and Las Palmeras (on the plaza) for two of our other outings. Both restaurants upheld the quality of both food and service we have come to enjoy from these establishments.
The dive operators Dive Paradise turned out to be a bit of a disappointment
when compared to our previous experience
with Aqua Safari. Although, we also had a negative experience
with Aqua Safari at the hotel. We attempted to rent tanks
from Aqua Safari for a checkout dive on our first day. They
refused to let one of our divers dive because
he is diabetic. He has been diving since
1995 and has never had a problem or been
turned down by dive operator. We wondered
if Aqua Safari didn't want to rent us gear because the
bulk of our dives had been part of a package
deal with Dive Paradise.
Dive Paradise did give us tanks to use but we had to drag
our gear down to the Barracuda Hotel in order to complete our checkout dive.
On the first day, our boat was nearly an
hour late. Turns out, Dive Paradise was leasing this boat because of a peak in
the number of divers during the July time
frame. The boat, Lorena, barely classified
as a dive boat. All of our gear was basically
piled in the center of the boat and you had
to sift through the pile to find your equipment.
This boat, and I use the term lightly, could
have been out maneuvered by any child in
a rowboat. Since the boat lacked anything
that resembled speed, we were only able to
make it to some the reefs close to the hotel.
We refused to be booked on this boat again.
Another problem we ran into with Dive Paradise appeared to be the result of the dive masters'
desire to only go on short trips. Unfortunately,
the best reefs are the farthest from the
hotel. In defense of the dive masters, we
were told they had been working long days
with hardly any time off. So I can see their
reluctance to make the longer trips. However,
we paid to go to some where other than the
shallow reefs. On the last day, several of
the divers on the boat banded together and
basically demanded to go to the reefs on
the south end of the island. We were not
disappointed, although it did rain on us
along the way.
There were some high lights to the diving.
We did have a couple dive masters who did
an excellent job. On our night dive, the
dive master pointed out several items, including
two small sea horses (my first) as well as
several octopi and a school of squid. In
addition, I got to see my first Mantra Ray
off of the San Francisco Wall. The best diving
was definitely on the last day.
There were a couple of, lets say, interesting
experiences during our dive trip. Both occurred
close to the International pier. The first
occurred just after we had entered the water.
Turns out we entered on top of one of the
tourist submarines. The second incident occurred
as we were ending a dive. We were in the
middle of our deco-stop when the dive master
began to frantically bang on his tank. Turns
out we were about to surface under one of
the cruise ships. We surfaced a few feet
from the cruise ship but the current began
drawing us closer. The dive boat was no-where
in sight. We had to swim against the current
until it pushed us past the back of the boat.
By this time our captain finally arrived.
The current was rather strong and some people
were having difficulty boarding the boat.
In fact on woman lost a fin when she was
fighting the current and trying to hold on
to the boat. This appears to have happened
to several other divers in the last year.
The September issue of the Undercurrent newsletter
documented stories from other divers who
also ended up too close to the cruise ships.
(www.undercurrent.orgy)
A couple divers from our group did return
with some lost treasures. We found a Scubapro
weight belt (with 20+lbs of weight) and an
integrated weight pouch.
If you have ever dove in Cozumel or any other
major dive sight, you are familiar with the
typical dive procedures. Every dive starts
with the pre-dive briefing. Unfortunately,
after diving in Cozumel for several years,
you will have heard the same speech repeated
over and over. After hearing it 40 or more
times, you will be pretty much disgusted
at the waste of your time. Sooner or later
some one will figure this out, unless the
lawyers get involved and then we will be
doomed to listen to the same speech forever
just like the one given by the flight attendants...
The trip included two divers who had never been to
Cozumel and two returning divers. Overall,
the trip was successful with only a few minor
irritations. Cozumel is definitely growing,
which has some benefits such as the supermarket,
but may one day become just another tourist
trap. The increased number of cruise ships
was proof of this fact. When the cruise ships
arrived, every store, bar and taxi were filled
with tourist. There was a noticeable difference
every time a cruise ship departed or arrived.
One of the hot spots for the sea going passengers
was Carlos and Charles. There was an abundance of drinking and
dancing and barely enough room to walk around
anywhere inside. In addition, they had a
lot of entertaining events to keep the crowd
partying hard and drinking to excess. It
appears the Texas women were winning the
beer chugging contest (from a baby bottle)
as well as the best tattoo contest! The general
age of the crowd varied such that almost
every age from 21-50 had a substantial representation.
Carlos and Charlies is definitely the place to be when the ships
arrive.
The shopping in Cozumel is also still reasonable.
There are many bargains to be found and they
are still willing to negotiate. If you have
time, try some of the stores on the edge
of town. The prices do vary from store to
store.
The diving remains excellent as well as the
water clarity. The abundance of sea life
appears to be flurishing and the reefs appear
to be holding up to the increasing number
of divers. Although the water is fairly warm,
some type of protection is still recommended
due to the increased dispersion of heat caused
by the current. Usually, a dive skin or polartech
will suffice.
The only item missing in Cozumel's diving
is a sunken wreck to dive. It would be a
nice addition to the diving and could help
relieve some of the stress on the reefs by
moving the divers to a new location.
Daily Dive Log
Water Temp: 80+
Dive Log No. 66-75
Computer Dives
July 05, 2000
Dive Location: Barracuda Hotel - Checkout
(45mn@20ft)
July 06, 2000
Dive Location: Santa Rosa Wall (34mn@83ft)
Dive Location: Los Palmos (44@66)
Dive Location: Villa Blanca Wall (42@65)
July 07, 2000
Dive Location: San Francisco (43mn@90ft)
Dive Location: Paradise Reef (50@49)
Dive Location: Villa Blanca Wall (night)
(45@52)
July 08, 2000
Dive Location: Palancar Gardens (37mn@83ft)
Dive Location: Tormentos Reef (47@61)
Dive Location: Balones de Chancanab (40@68)