Trip Report: Cozumel 2004

The 6 of us on this trip; myself, Brent, Jack, Mark, Kenny, and Cledith, tried something a little different than our standard ‘Continental via Houston’ itinerary and we paid the price. Our ATA flight was pushed back 5 hours thus depriving us of the opportunity to dive the day we arrived. Then we find out that they limit luggage to only 50 pounds per bag. So much for bringing any tools, parts, spare gear or even much in the way of snacks. Next time… Continental.

Once we got to the resort, things started going a little better. We stayed at the Scuba Club Cozumel. This is a smaller gated resort near town. The Scuba Club has about 60 rooms. It is laid out in the traditional Spanish pattern with only a brick wall facing the road. The gate opens into a courtyard surrounded by the rooms. The architecture is a little unusual in that pretty much no two rooms are exactly alike. Each varies a little in layout. The rooms are all air conditioned and are clean and comfortable. Conspicuously missing are TVs, phones, laptop data ports, and the like. The only TV is in the bar/restaurant area and it was only turned on once the whole week when the restaurant manager was watching reruns of “COPS”.

The resort is right on the water. None of the resorts on the north side of the island have a beach per se, but there is a fake beach running right up to the seawall. They also have a swimming pool.

Scuba Club Cozumel is one of the few resorts in that area that has their own dedicated dive fleet. Most other operators contract with private dive operations to pick you up at the dock on the way to the dive sites. Scuba Club has 2 really nice boats, 2 nice boats, and 4 converted fishing boats (avoid the latter if you can!). We had requested one of the nicer boats and were assigned to the Reef Cat for the week. This is about a 40 foot catamaran with twin engines. Not exactly a fast boat, it was comfortably laid out with reasonable gear storage. One thing Cozumel dive boats seem to all lack is a camera rinse tank. They always give you a big plastic trash can full of water. OK I guess, but a built in tank would be better. The boat crew was pretty good about helping you with gear and cameras. They were quick to see who needed a little extra help getting suited up and who really didn’t want any help (like me). They were really adept at replacing blown o-rings quickly.

The typical Cozumel dive schedule is a 2-tank boat dive in the morning. The boats left the dock at about 815 for the ride south to the dive sites. Usually the boat rides were 45 minutes to one hour. That is one of the few disadvantages to the Scuba Club. It is kind of far from the dive sites. We typically did the furthest site first so that we could spend some our surface interval on the return trip. The first site was typically a deep reef like Columbia or Palancar. The farther south you go, the more deep reefs with more vertical structure you see. Broken walls may descend 75 feet or more and some seem to just disappear into the blue abyss. Usually the shore side of the reef tapers off in nearly white sand. The depth of the first dive was typically about 60-80 feet. We bugged our divemaster for longer dives and he really did accommodate us. All our dives were set up so we could spend an hour diving if our air or computers allowed. The second dive site was typically a shallower reef like Tormentos, Yucab, or Paradise. These more centrally located sites usually presented as a flatter reef with sand on both sides. Usual depths were 30-50 feet. Typically we saw more cool coral structure and more turtles on the first dives and more tropical fish on the second dives. Pretty much all the dives in Cozumel have significant current. Swimming against the current in some areas is next to impossible. Therefore all the dives were done as drift dives. The boat followed us and when one got tired or low on air, they just surfaced and the boat would pick them up.

The visibility in Cozumel is truly fantastic. Some sites had over one hundred feet of visibility. The fish life is pretty fantastic, too. I have never dived anywhere else where there are so many angelfish. Big ones, too. French and gray angels 6 inches thick and 18 inches long! Lots of queen angels, too. We didn’t see as many of the large black groupers as we have seen in the past. I think too many of them end up on the dinner table, even in Cozumel. But there were still tons of fish to be seen. After diving in places like St. Kitts and Roatan it was amazing to see how many fish can be on a reef. We also saw turtles on ¾ of our dives. The hawksbills are really doing well there. Several dinnerplate sized juveniles were also seen which means more turtles for the future.

In addition to the boat dives, the Scuba Club also offers unlimited shore diving. While it is possible to make it to the reef from shore if you are a really good swimmer and really good on air, it is not for the average Joe diver. Instead, the area right off the dock offered some entertaining diving in 20 feet of water. The bottom was coral rubble and sand which while at first glance seemed barren, was actually teeming with critters. Several fish habitats have been constructed out of old scuba tanks and concrete rubble. These habitats are literally crawling with moray eels and fish. It was not unusual to see 20-30 grunts finning in formation next to one of the habitats. Also a large population of sergeant majors had moved in and around the rocks. At night the morays would grab a few and chow down. A little farther offshore is a patch of eelgrass. Sharptail eels, yellow rays, goatfish, and yes, even eagle rays were commonly seen right off the resort. We even found a seahorse in the eelgrass one day. The night dives off the dock were really cool. The eels all came alive and were actively hunting all the smaller fish. If you were lucky and in the right place you got to see them grab and eat one. Octopus were commonly seen, too, as were puffers, crabs, and the occasional lobster.

There were always tanks available during the day. Just grab one, suit up, and jump in. When you finished the dive, there were rinse tanks, gear lockers, and showers right there at the dock so you didn’t have to schlep all your stuff back to your room.

The package at Scuba Club Cozumel also includes all meals. Meals are served a couple ways. Breakfast is buffet style. Lunch is served in the bar area and dinner is served in the upstairs restaurant. Portions are not huge by American standards, but the food was tasty. There was a bar on site, but since each room had a fridge and the grocery store was like 2 blocks away, we opted to just do our own drinks on our patio.

The staff at the resort really did a great job. Every time I hung out a towel to dry in the sun, the maid would be knocking on my door with new towels 5 mintues later. The beach and walks were swept up almost constantly. Almost everyone there spoke at least rudimentary English.

Early December seems to be a good time to go to Cozumel. The weather is still really nice, the water is still 80F, and the resort is rarely crowded. The week we were there they only had like 50 people while the resort can hold as many as 120. The town is all decked out in Christmas lights if you are into that sort of thing (as opposed to Scrooges like me).

I am already looking forward to my next trip to Scuba Club Cozumel.