Chuck Hopf sent this to rec.scuba.locations. Chuck now has his own home pages.
Travel: Continental Airlines DFW-IAH-CZM. After years of avoiding Continental because of their somewhat irregular schedules, I was pleasantly surprised. We were on time going and missed our connection because of weather returning. I don't hold the airline accountable for weather and actually do prefer that they fly around rather than through thunderstorms. Continental got us the next available seats and on standby on the next flight and gave us a voucher for a meal. I was impressed with the service by the reps. Though it is not a practical airline from Dallas for most destinations, I will put Continental back on my list of OK to fly airlines.
Lodging: La Ceiba - Not fancy but clean as usual.
Meals: So many restaurants so little time. Eating in Cozumel is an adventure in itself.
Diving (the important stuff): Aldora Divers. Dove four days with Antonio as the DM the first day and Memo the remainder. The service of the crews and divemasters was without par. The steel tanks really make a difference in the bottom times and the policy of diving computers is a lot nicer than the standard 45 minute dive.
El Cedral 97FSW 72 minutes 82F at surface 75F somewhere viz great We were the only divers on the boat or for that matter on any boat that I could see. Saw a nurse shark (Jeannie's first shark of any kind), a lemon shark, jew fish, groupers, and lots of other wildlife.
Columbia Shallows (night dive) 31FSW 67 minutes 82F
Personally, I think Columbia Shallows is one of the best spots I have ever seen for a night dive. There is always a wide variety of things to see and do. We found squid, octopi, crabs, sharp tailed eels (never fewer than 2 at a time and once about 8), sat and watched the luminescence for about 5 minutes. Jeannie says this was the first really good night dive she has done.
Punta Sur - Devil's Throat 121FSW 55 minutes 80F I don't see the big deal with the Devil's Throat but the cathedral next to the end is pretty. I am not big on swim thrus since I am kinda large and don't fit into lots of openings that others fit into. These were some fairly nice ones though and except for the throat, the word that springs to mind is surreal.
Santa Rosa 88FSW 64 minutes 83F
Santa Rosa is Santa Rosa. Since this was our second dive, there were very few other boats out at Santa Rosa. Found a juvenile drum, a small stingray covered in sand, several morays, etc etc.
Maracaibo 173FSW 27 minutes 80F
The flashing red light in the rearview mirror is probably the SCUBA cops coming to give us a ticket for exceeding the 130FSW limit for recreational divers. Neat dive. Saw a Venus Girdle and several other types of jellyfish that I hadn't seen before.
Tormentos 62FSW 61 minutes 82F
Current had turned and was running N to S. Most of the boats were putting divers in at the S and taking them out at the N meaning everyone was swimming into the current for the entire dive. We chose the lazy way and did the dive from N to S. Found an arrow crab, several morays, cleaner shrimp. We fed the groupers and some morays along the way. Nice dive.
Barracuda 109FSW 31 minutes 81F
A short dive but we had seen the entire wall and were on our way to Havana. A really wild ride in a bitching current but not real interesting since everything was going by so fast there was really no time to see it.
El Cedral 65FSW 56 minutes 83F
Shooting video so the view was limited. Lots of eels and fish feeding and a nice swim thru with silver sides lurking in the side passages. Help stamp out resort courses!! On this dive a group of about 30 came walking (thats right walking not swimming down the reef) and while I had m face and hands a few inches from a spotted moray taking pictures, a prepubescent male idiot (or is that redundant?) landed on my back to see what I was doing. He got lucky since I wasn't carrying a knife. This practice needs to be banned or at least limited to reefs that are already dead (IMO.)
Costs: 1074 airfare and hotel
538 diving
300 meals
85 rent video camera and housing
About 2000 for four days of diving.
A happy diver,
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