Mexico3

In desperate need of some Nitrogen?
Cozumel and the Mayan Riviera are an easy destination to get to.

Our SCUBATREKKERS crew dove almost everyday and we still had time to see some of the land based attractions... Superior... Margaritas... and weren't there some Mayan ruins too?

OK... Mexico it is! After many weeks of paging through dive magazines, surfing tons of internet websites and talking to dive buddies at Ocean Adventures, we finally decided on Cozumel and Akumal to be the place to go for the SCUBATREKKERS Diveclub trip of 2001. Belize, Honduras & Cayman Island we will visit you at a later time... promise.
Our crew came from almost every corner of the world. Sandra & Bruno flew from Los Angeles via Dallas, while Aldie chose Mexico City and Mario took the long flight from Switzerland. We all met on the airport of Cancun and celebrated our arrival with a cold Superior cerveza... aahhhh!
Tanya & Daniel flew from Miami directly to Cozumel and while we still struggled with our divegear, they were already hanging loose on the pool bar of the Plaza Las Glorias.

Are we able to make it to Cozumel with all our luggage this time? Of course not! After a very short flight from Cancun to Cozumel on this incredibly small plane, a ground agent informed us that our stuff did not fit in the plane! He promised to deliver it later on that night. Just like last year on Bonaire Sandra & Bruno arrived at the hotel without luggage... just this time also Aldie & Mario had to sleep in the same pair of underwear. At the Plaza Las Glorias we had the next surprise. They were overbooked (despite the fact that it all looked pretty empty) and had only a room left for Mario & Aldie. For Sandra & Bruno the receptionist could only offer a time share room not up to the standard of the hotel. But he promised to give us a nice oceanview room the next day as well.

Oh well... after unloading our hand luggage in our rooms we went down to the hotel bar, where we met with the rest of the crew. Let's drown the arrival frustration in Pina Coladas. We are in the Caribbean... what more could we ask for?

I think I don't have to mention, that our stuff did NOT arrive the same evening, right? A new day... a new smile! And our diving vacation was about to begin, yeah! While Sandra & Mario skipped the first morning of scuba in rental gear (Mario also did not have swim trousers...), Aldie, Tanja & Bruno jumped into the magical ocean of Cozumel. It only took one minute underwater, looking at the colorful fish and the spectacular reef to forget about all our troubles.

Totally relaxed we returned to the Plaza Las Glorias just to find our smiling dive buddys at the pool. Our luggage finally turned up... it was at the hotel since last night, just the hotel staff didn't care to inform us about it's arrival - even when asked for it. I guess, this is Mexico... everything is muy tranquilo! Also Daniel was showing off a huge happy smile on his face. But I strongly suspect the cocktail in his hand and the pretty senioritas splashing around the pool for his condition. Nevertheless, everybody was happy now and vacation time could start. The same afternoon also Sandra & Mario joined the dive party and we all had a blast to put on our own gear instead of the rental stuff. Queen Angels... we are coooooooooooooooming!

The first week on Cozumel past way to quick. Our daily plan was to be ready on the dive dock to be picked up by Dive Paradise at 8:15am. We dove a deep wall as the first dive and a shallower reef as number two. In the afternoon, hardcore divers Aldie, Mario & Bruno did another shallow dive while the girls and Daniel enjoyed the pool or went on a trip around the island. Cozumel is truly a divers paradise and that's pretty much all that you can do on this island.

The Dive Paradise crew was with some exceptions very nice. With our divemaster Martin we discovered two splendid toadfish, reef sharks and even seahorses... wow! With him Mario & Bruno also signed up for a night dive. His tank banging was almost constant, when he saw some other great little creature to show us. Also the snacks on board our boats were great and we even enjoyed these slow moving vessels... despite almost everybody else was passing us.

It is just not possible to determine which dive site was the best. Everyday we decided that the site we dove that day will be the favorite. Any place around Palancar Reef is just awesome, but also Santa Rosa Wall is "one-of-a-kind" truly breathtaking (not what you want while on scuba...). The new wreck C-53 is among Aldies top dives, while Bruno loved Paradise Reef for all its little critters to photograph. For Sandra one of the main attraction was the dolphin commotion around the boat on the ride to one of the dive sites. She swears that one of the animals was actually smiling at her. Barracuda Reef is Daniels "Best of"..., he did his very first (and only) Discover Scuba Dive on this rubble of junk.

Before we knew what's happening, it was Sunday. Aldie left very early in the morning. Tanya & Daniel followed soon after, back to Los Angeles.
But lucky us... Sandra, Mario & Bruno had another week in Paradise. But we changed location and went to the mainland to Akumal on the Riviera Maya. Cozumel is a true paradise for divers... what are you all waiting for?