VIDEOLIGHTS

©2008 Roger Roth

A Cozumel Paradise – Part 1

            Because I haven’t visited Cozumel in about 15 years, I decided it was time to revisit this convenient dive destination.  With so much concern about dying reefs all over the world from coral bleaching and the like, I wondered if the reefs there were as healthy as I’d remembered and filmed in 1993.  To my delight, Cozumel was mostly the same as before except for the fact that one of my favorite shore dives is now replaced by a cruise ship pier.

            Upon arrival in Cozumel, my daughter Carmen and I took a 10 minute taxi ride to Hotel Cozumel and checked in for our all-inclusive stay.  This hotel promised to be much nicer than the hotel I’d stayed in 15 years ago.  By the end of our stay, the entire hotel staff more than proved this to be the case.

            We were supposed to have landed before noon, but since there were weather delays in Houston, we didn’t arrive until dinner time so we meandered to the restaurant for a good meal and a couple of drinks.  It seemed too late to do a check-out dive and we were too tired anyway from a day of flying and airports.  After dinner, we took our dive gear from our room through the tunnel under the main road and directly to Dive Paradise’s dive shop which is open until 10PM.

            We showed our C-cards, filled out the necessary paperwork and I ordered my nitrox for the next day’s three dives.  Then we placed our gear in the huge lockers provided and strolled 10 steps down a short sidewalk past a small beach where a couple were watching their children splashing and swimming in a roped off area.  A few more steps found us on the dock and we looked out over the calm, multi-colored blue water in anticipation of tomorrow’s dives.

            By 7AM we were again in the restaurant for breakfast and an hour later we’d ascertained which of the dozen or more Dive Paradise dive boats we’d be diving from and boarded after the crew took our gear and loaded it on the boat.  Since we hadn’t requested to be put on one of their faster 6-pack boats, we’d been scheduled to be on Aries, a 44’ boat with a large beam designed for up to 24 divers.  We only had 14 divers so there was plenty of room for gear and the camera rinse tank was large enough to accommodate my video rig as well as a couple of other still cameras.

            Other than a refresher class in my pool in Cincinnati, Carmen hadn’t been diving in over 12 years since she was 18 and dove in Grand Cayman.  After being greeted by two dolphins riding in the bow wave and two more riding our wake, our first dive was a drift dive over a site called Delilah.  Carmen was not weighted heavy enough and one of the divemasters Gato noticed immediately and brought her some more weight so she could descend.

            Delilah surely set the stage for some exciting diving.  We drifted past a number of schools of schoolmasters and other snappers, honeycomb cowfish, banded Butterflies, many large Gray, French, and Queen Angels, large barrel sponges and even a 4’ nurse shark.  Best of all, Carmen was comfortable in the water as if she’d been diving yesterday.

            The second dive was the C-53 shipwreck.  During the dive briefing, Gato told us that he would guide us through the wreck but anyone not wanting to penetrate could stay outside with plenty to see on and above deck.  We decided to follow Gato inside and I was very impressed with Carmen’s buoyancy stirring up little silt, rarely hitting her tank going up and down stairways and through small holes in walls and decks into dark chambers that soon led to more open rooms.

            Lunch was poolside for a couple of hours or more with a couple glasses of beer watching a naked lady showering.  Well, the naked lady was a statue under a shower head that turned on every few minutes, but the entertainment was the 4-year old girl who sat at the lady’s feet waiting for the shower to turn on again.  When it did, the little girl got up, went behind the statue and used her Nerf ball to wash the lady’s rear-end until the shower turned off.

            An afternoon dive at Los Palmos Wall revealed huge spider and arrow crabs, a couple of huge barracuda, two separate black groupers in cleaning stations, some very large rainbow parrots, a teenage spotted drum, one moon jellyfish that drifted with us, more Angelfish, a small shortfin pipefish, and a couple of yellow stingrays, one of which was pregnant.  At lunch, I’d begun to teach Carmen how to model for my camera so on this dive she began to point at subjects then let me follow up with close-up shots.  And she did a great job of posing behind a walking hermit crab that had left its trail in the pure white sand.

            After rinsing our gear, we headed back to the room to drop off my camera gear then strolled back poolside where Daniel cordially always had a beer and lime ready for us.  We met up with some other divers and discussed the days diving, the wonderful service we were receiving, other dive trips we’ve made and even our hometowns.  Friendships were easy to make and will be ones we keep and cherish, as usually is the case.

            Dinner in the restaurant was tasty and meant that an umbrella drink would soon follow for Carmen with Jim Beam being my drink of choice for the evening.  Daniel again kept our glasses full while Karioke progressed in the bar.  A moonlight stroll to the dock would top off our first full day of diving together, already having formed many memories that will not soon be forgotten.

            With another day of Paradise under our belts, we retired to our room to dream of what we’d done together, the fun we’d had, and what might be in store for us in the following days.  Sea Ya!

Critter Corner: Angelfish can grow up to 18-24’ long, depending on the species.  Cozumel is one of the places I’ve dived where you can count on seeing many that are mature and very close to these sizes.  Crabs, cudas, and numerous other critters also max out size-wise in Cozumel.

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