I’ll be honest, tropical destinations generally aren’t my favorite. The heat and humidity beat me down, especially this time of year when I’m already trying to escape those conditions back home in Texas. But, I’ve got plenty of mountain adventures planned in the upcoming months, so we kicked off our summer of travel with a scuba diving trip for Kurt in Cozumel over the long holiday weekend. Kurt has positive memories of his first diving trip here after he completed his dive certification in 2012. Now that he has been diving all over the world, I was curious to see where Cozumel ranked with more experience under his (dive) belt.
With the recent news that Southwest Airlines will no longer fly this route from Houston beginning in a few months (we happened to overhear the story behind this change from another diver who is an aviation insider at our hotel), we were happy that we got to take advantage of it while we could (although, more direct flights to Central America and the Carribean from Austin would make this sort of trip so much easier for us!). The flight from Houston took less than two hours, so we arrived in the early afternoon on Friday. The line through immigration was quite long, with only three agents working and multiple flight arrivals. But, once we cleared that, then everything else was a breeze. We grabbed our waiting bags and hopped in a taxi ($13/person) for the short 15-minute drive through the town of San Miguel to our hotel.
Keeping in mind that the purpose of the trip was scuba diving, I wanted to keep the logistics for Kurt as easy as possible. So, I booked our stay at Scuba Club Cozumel, which features a dive shop on-site and a pier for boat access just steps away. Meals are also timed to coincide with the daily diving schedule. Neither of us really wanted to stay in a large, all-inclusive resort this time, so a smaller, dive-focused hotel with fewer amenities suited us just fine. One of the benefits of the hotel location was its proximity to town, which meant that we could easily have our choice of restaurants for dinner and I could occupy my time as I pleased.
After getting Kurt set up for his first dives the next day and settling into the room, we opted to just relax for the afternoon since the heat was brutal. We waited until the sun was going down to venture out and explore the downtown area. With no specific plan in mind for dinner, we stumbled upon an unassuming hidden courtyard tucked away from the main area of town, which turned out to be our favorite (and, most expensive) restaurant of the trip, Kondesa. The outdoor restaurant featured tables underneath large trees, which gave it a jungle feel. And, the food and drinks were top notch! I had a frozen tropical margarita, lobster queso fundido (shared), and octopus tacos. Kurt had the lionfish cakes and catch of the day, a delicious grilled red snapper. We walked around a bit through downtown after dinner then made our way back to the hotel on the early side because we both had a morning full of activities planned for the next day.
Kurt was assigned to “Reef Star,” the first of the two boats that left around 8am on Saturday.
Here’s his report…
The boat took divers down to Colombia Reef for the first of two drift dives (almost all boat dives here will be drift dives because of the strong currents) meaning the boat dropped off divers at one spot and picked them up when they resurfaced some distance away, usually traveling south to north. The divemasters and boat crew had it under control and the boat was never far away no matter how long we were under or how far along we drifted. Colombia was a long boat ride, about an hour away from the resort, so there was plenty of time to get gear ready and settle in. We passed several of the all-inclusive resorts further from town including the Occidental Grand where we stayed on the previous trip. The reef was about 80-90 feet deep and covered in various corals which I remember vividly from my first experience here 12 years ago. There are also many spots that overhang creating tunnels that you can swim through so the divemaster headed through those and our group of 6 followed one-by-one. There weren’t as many fish overall as I was expecting on such a developed reef, but we did spot a shark, spiny lobster, and turtle before coming up. The second dive was closer to the resort at Chankaanab Reef which was a bit shallower at 40-50 feet as is usually the case for diving twice in succession. We had an hour between dives which gave plenty of time for the boat to make it back to this reef which was near the southern cruise ship dock. The reef wasn’t as tall so there weren’t really areas to swim through but there were some cool critters which I hadn’t seen before including a splendid toadfish and a trunkfish as well as another lobster, some nudibranch, and two types of barracuda.
Meanwhile, I set off on my own snorkeling adventure. Even though I had the opportunity to go on the dive boat with Kurt (at an additional cost), we have learned over the years that the best dive sites aren’t generally the best snorkel sites. So, I booked my own snorkeling-specific trip for Saturday morning while he was diving. I walked to the meeting point downtown then our group of 12 was picked up at the dock by our small boat for our ride out to the southwestern part of the island (note to self: opt for the catamaran tour next time). Our first stop was on the Colombia Reef, which was teeming with a variety of colorful fish right at eye level with amazing visibility in the water! Unfortunately, the snorkel that I was given on the tour wasn’t working well, so this turned into a frustrating stop for me until I could get it replaced once we were back on the boat for our second stop (note to self: always just use your own dry snorkel). Thankfully, the second stop went better, and I was able to see a couple of turtles and starfish. Our guide even roused two baby sharks from the sandy bottom under a coral outcropping. Our final stop at El Cielo/El Cielito was our longest stop, as our guides prepared fresh guacamole and ceviche for us while we enjoyed the crystal-clear shallow water with numerous stingrays roaming by us.
Kurt and I regrouped over lunch back at the resort and swapped tales of our respective underwater adventures. Neither of us needed any more sun exposure, particularly me, so we hibernated in our air-conditioned room for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to venture out for dinner. This time, we opted for a beachfront restaurant so that we could watch the sunset. We ended up at Cantina 101, a new restaurant just south of the center of town (closer to our hotel). I enjoyed my pina colada and tacos (shrimp and octopus) at a much less expensive rate than the previous night’s dinner. Kurt had a “tower” of ceviche-style shrimp, octopus, avocado, onion, and cucumber which was meticulously prepared and quite filling – he was barely able to finish it which is really saying something! We accomplished our main goal of seeing the sun set though.
Sunday was a busy morning with four dive boats scheduled to go out. Kurt was assigned to the same boat as yesterday, and I wished him well while I settled into the waterfront hammock for a leisurely morning.
The second day of diving started with another long boat ride but not quite as long as the day before. Our destination was Cedar Pass which was closer to the resorts and one of the spots that I had dove on 12 years ago. This reef was also not too deep at 50-60 feet and built up in some areas but barely above the sand in others. There were more fish here and some other notable creatures including a green moray eel, several more spiny lobster, two varieties of trunkfish, puffer fish, and a couple of nurse sharks hiding in the sand beneath overhangs (presumably waiting for a meal to unsuspectingly come their way!) After this dive, we traveled back toward the resort and stopped at Paradise Reef for the second dive which was also fairly shallow at 40-50 feet max. This was a smaller reef and we covered the length of it with the help of the current over an hour’s time, which I think was my longest dive to date. I take in a lot of air so I usually am the first one up, and even at an hour underwater I was first to head up on both these dives. There were more trunkfish and lobsters here as well as a spider crab. Usually the guide finds the interesting critters first and has a light to point them out, but I actually found a couple of the lobsters, the spider crab, and one of the sharks myself so maybe my spotting skills are improving!
We ventured downtown again for our final dinner on Sunday evening. I turned into a sweaty mess on the walk over though, so we ended up making an impulsive decision to eat at a tourist restaurant across from the ferry dock because I refused to walk any further in my sweaty, grumpy state. Thankfully, our meal was fine, and I haven’t had too much difficulty finding meals without gluten (simply swap flour for corn tortillas). So much delicious seafood!
And, with that, our trip was over. We waited until the dive boats had left on Monday morning before heading down to enjoy a quiet breakfast before we packed up for our afternoon flight. The primary goal for this trip was to get Kurt in the water (or should I say, underwater) since we don’t have any other dive opportunities in the works for this year. Mission accomplished.
What’s great travel report. Loved the details! Thank for sharing,
Dad