For spring break, Jeff and I hopped on a flight to Cozumel for a seven-day dive trip. A few times we got to connect with our friends Jay and Emily and their daughter Abriana and her friend. This is essentially a trip report with reviews.

We dived seven days straight with Raul Platas, whose business is Bottom Time Divers. His operation is small, and you know when you sign up that he’s who you’re diving with. He’s enthusiastic and safe, and he checks in daily to make sure you’re not revisiting sites you’ve already been to. The largest number of divers on the boat was six, and we never had more than four people per divemaster. Raul doesn’t have his own dock, so he does pick-ups at the marina and other docks that are convenient (for us it was at the dock for Dive Paradise, which was a three-block walk from our digs).

Devil’s Throat: We dived this on Easter, and we quite enjoyed the irony. The hype of the depth and tunnels gave me pause, but I trusted Raul. The experience was fantastic, and it was much more than the checklist dive that we were imagining it to be. The entrance starts at around 80 feet and can take a few different routes, all of which exit significantly deeper than they begin, starting at about 120. Raul took us down the deeper throat, with my computer clocking 133 feet as my max depth. When we descended from the boat, we dropped straight to the mouth of the throat (I’ve heard of one shop that had divers traveling a ways before hitting the opening—while I know it can be hard to nail it and find the opening immediately, Raul did it right as a guide, hopping out of the boat first to make sure we were in the right place before getting everyone in the water). After that, we did some awesome swim-throughs and swam around tall coral towers. We were floating along high above the white sandy bottom, with solid visibility; it felt much more astronauty than I’ve ever felt. In the end, it’s my most memorable and maybe my favorite dive of a wonderful trip. It did take some arm-twisting to get Raul to take us down there, and we did pay a bit extra to head that far south (which wasn’t actually much farther than many of the other dives we’d been doing). But Raul planned it well, and we logged more than 50 minutes on that dive. (I should add that even with a solid guide, Devil’s Throat should be taken seriously—it’s not a dive for beginners.)

A few other memorable dives: Dalila, Paso de Cedral, and the wreck C-53. On C-53, we penetrated the wreck, but it didn’t feel much different from typical swim-throughs (just longer, but plenty of space and the way out was always quite clear). It was quite comfortable for us as non-wreck-certified divers who also have no interest in becoming wreck-certified. We didn’t see as many creatures (except for an awesome seahorse) but the wreck was certainly worth it. Overall I enjoyed the variety in sites and was particularly drawn to coral formations planted in white sandy bottoms, as well as the beautiful canyons and swim-throughs. Most of the diving is drift diving.

We commonly sighted stingrays, eels, scorpion fish, turtles, flounders, juvenile spotted drumfish, splendid toadfish, cowfish, a huge number of both queen and French angelfish, trumpetfish, and of course many of the usual creatures. We were surprised to not come across more of the invasive lion fish.

And along the way, we enjoyed watching a few king crabs, coral banded shrimp, pygmy filefish (we think), balloon fish, and porcupine fish.

Particularly memorable were two nurse sharks swimming in sync at Paso de Cedral, a lobster scaling a coral wall right after we passed through Devil’s Throat, two small flounders gliding together above the sand at the Villa Blanca Wall (and then a king crab and lobster within reach of each other), a seahorse clinging to turtle grass near the C-53 wreck, a huge eagle ray gliding through Palancar Bricks, and what Raul guessed was a pregnant stingray at Blue Angel.

Most afternoons we dived from shore. We didn’t dive with Dive Paradise, but we used the dock you get to through their shop (it’s public), and we did rent tanks from them four afternoons for shore diving. They were very friendly and helpful (we got to know Angel well—we enjoyed our daily greetings and routines). It cost $6 to rent tanks and weights. We ate at the resort buffet there almost every day, as it was so convenient being dropped off and then heading into shore dives.

Along most of the coast the current runs south to north. From Dive Paradise, though it was swimming against the current on the return, we preferred heading north toward Scuba Club (there is more debris from storm damage, like concrete, but it does also create more niches for creatures). Along that stretch in front of Dive Paradise (most times we did a giant stride off a concrete wall just off the south side of the dock), we always saw stingrays, scorpion fish, anemones, and arrowhead crabs, and we saw a handful of eels, usually balloonfish, hermit crabs, and peacock flounders. We also got to see some sexy anemone shrimp heading up current from Dive Paradise (which in addition to being very cool are worth seeing so you can say that you saw sexy shrimp). We didn’t take advantage of it, but Dive Paradise stays open until 9, and we were told it’s a great place for a night dive.

One day after diving we had Raul and Manuel, his boat captain, drop us off to shore dive at a spot south of our usual Dive Paradise. The boat traffic was too heavy in front of Blue Angel South (and the Turquoise Mixology bar), so we walked five minutes to Blue Angel North. I think tanks and weights were $7 there, and it was just a walk-in entry. It wasn’t our favorite shore dive (it’s right next to the stingray and shark pen, and you can see them through the chicken wire), and there’s a lot of debris. But we did see a lot of cool, small creatures—juvenile spotted drum fish, juvenile French angelfish, and crabs, along with lobsters and lion fish near the pen. We saw what we think was a juvenile scorpion fish, and seahorses are reported to hang out there as well. Among our favorites was a small crab peeking out of a pipe.

Every morning we “cruised” on our little dive boat past gargantuan cruise ships, which were fascinating to look at day after day. It worked out quite well, because they were at port during the day when we were out diving, and then by the time we were enjoying sundowners the throngs of people had made their way to the ships and they were sailing off into the sunsets.

When I talk diving, particularly with non-divers, we frequently have the conversation about “dived” vs. “dove.” Here’s what Merriam Webster has to say: “By the time most native speakers of English are adults, they’ve got irregular verb inflections down. Give/gave/given, bring/brought/brought, take/took/taken, dive…hmm. Some would say dive/dived/dived, and some would say dive/dove/dived. Who’s right?” Read on!  

Land

We stayed at Villas El Encanto, a fantastic boutique hotel with an abundance of foliage and birds (including Pavarotti the peacock), and at least four resident dogs. It’s a block from the coast, on the southern end of the main drag in town (and about five minutes from the airport). We got along great without a car, but we did rent one for a few hours our last day to drive around the island. (We grabbed beers with a gorgeous view from Coconuts Bar and Grill.)

We did a 24-hour rental from HTL, they showed up to drop it off at our hotel 15 minutes after calling for them, and they showed up again at the hotel to pick it up. We got the cheapest thing we could—a pretty beat up, very small white truck (when I asked Jeff for the blog what kind of truck it was, he called it a s*@tbox)—$50 with liability (it’s another $30 for collision coverage). We couldn’t get it into reverse, but I was driving and Jeff is strong. 🙂

Food

Most of the time we were on land we were eating, and boy was it good food. We enjoyed some meals at waterfront spots as well as authentic Mexican.

Our first stop was El Muellecito Cozumel, which turned out to have a fun vibe with large frozen drinks, big music, and a view over the water. It seems that free appetizers on Sundays are common at restaurants; when we returned on our last day, we were brought so many (delicious) appetizers that we couldn’t even finish what was brought for free.

Pique is very authentic and cheap and delicious (and not off the radar of foodies). We went there at the suggestion of Raul, who raved about the Pique Gringa special (sort of like a pizza-shaped taco), and Jeff was thoroughly satisfied. I don’t eat meat except for a small bit of seafood from time to time, so I had the quesadillas with mushrooms (along with their fantastic salsas). So simple, but I craved them and we returned with friends. We also both times bought pastries from a boy carrying a bin-full. Delicious—they turned into my breakfasts.

Rolandi’s is right on the water. A bit more upscale, but very reasonably priced for us as Americans. We had pizza. I love good sauce, and they added a bit extra for me on the margherita, which turned out to be among the more memorable pizzas I’ve had. We returned a couple days later for another, and they brought out some pretty phenomenal garlic bread as well.

Jeannie’s is just a few doors to the north, and it became a regular spot for us to enjoy a bucket of happy hour beers, sitting at a table on the sand just off the water to watch the sunset. The staff there were extremely friendly. We did have a couple of meals there as well, and they were solid.

Nopales was among my favorites, and I would seek it out again. Authentic, inexpensive cuisine, and we were entertained by a young daughter of one of the staff who climbed and explored everywhere she could. When it was time for her to leave with her mother, she strapped on her own helmet before climbing in front of her mom on their motorbike—a common sight because most people drive motorbikes. Then a deluge of rain hit and the sides of the streets briefly flooded. Half of the restaurant’s tables were under leaks in the roof, some with a steady flow. We moved tables and went on eating, watching while staff created a small walkway out of red plastic coke bottle racks to bridge from the curb to the street. The rain passed in time for a lovely evening walk back to the villa.

We hit Turquoise twice, once enjoying some mixed drinks in the evening in the open-air bar, where the teenage girls enjoyed sitting in swings. And then again for lunch beachside, where we got to watch an enormous cloud of foamy bubbles emerge from a machine, people-watch folks arriving on the dock after diving, and enjoy the awesome pig that roamed the place—including the bar.

Los Sera’s is partly known for its pizzas, and the people-watching was top-notch as a crowd waited outside for take-out, most with helmets in hand or still on, most looking a slight bit grumpy from waiting. It was quicker to get a sit-down meal. While watching the crowd we also watched them shave the meat off a pig carcass, al pastor (please forgive the vegetarian’s description, but I’m told it’s delicious).

We didn’t make it to Otates, which was highly recommended but had tricky hours for us. On the list for next time.

I highly recommend churros in the plaza at night—the scene is as awesome as the warm cinnamony-sugary fried deliciousness. And that’s probably as good a place to end as any.