Dive Trip to Cozumel

Hey guys

Planning a Cozumel trip from the Hotel Cozumel. Any advice?

Is diving in Cozumel difficult?

I may have to go solo. Would be safe? Must I take a buddy?

Would be easy to buddy up with someone?

Yes I know I am a Florida Key diver. That is my comfort zone! Well I speak Spanish well also long experience on Mexico during my Ph.D work.

Any advice is welcome

Thanks a lot

It depends on your diving abilities/experience, but i wouldn't classify Coz as difficult diving. There is a rare phenomenon of down currents (100+ dives there and never experienced it) that your divemaster can tell you more about. Finding a buddy there shouldn't be hard, but since all the diving is drift, you pretty much stay together as a loose group anyway.

I stayed at the same place this past Feb. and liked it.

You do not need a dive buddy unless you do some shore diving.

Unless you selected the 'all inclusive' option, I would accept the sale pitch arrangement presented the second you enter the general area of the airport. You get breakfast and a sales pitch that is not hard to turn down...you also get a rental car for the week for about $80 - it normally runs about $50/day. It was great having a car for the full week for the low price.

I would not dive with Hotel Cozumel. They all seem pleasant enough but their diving is shorter in duration. Based on discussions with others, they limit you to 50 min dives. I went with Aldora and was doing 70-80 min dives in the same regions/depths. With Aldora (and likely other higher priced locals), you not only get faster boats and longer dives, you get better divers on the boat on average. I found this point to be quite pleasant. Our entire boat (5-7 folks) would dive 70-80 min with no one running out of air early, which seems to happen often with beginning divers.

Do a search on wetpixel for 'Cozumel" and you will find quite a bit of info.

They guy at the front desk at Hotel Cozumel in evenings - named 'Angel', if I recall correctly, was a great wealth of info for selecting restaurants that were good and low priced. We would strongly recommend The Mission (not the one near the square - go to the original one). A great meal on cloth covered tables, cloth napkins for about $12 plus drinks.

You do not need to speak spanish to do well there but it can never hurt.

Hey guys

Planning a Cozumel trip from the Hotel Cozumel. Any advice?

Is diving in Cozumel difficult?

I may have to go solo. Would be safe? Must I take a buddy?

Would be easy to buddy up with someone?

Yes I know I am a Florida Key diver. That is my comfort zone! Well I speak Spanish well also long experience on Mexico during my Ph.D work.

Any advice is welcome

Thanks a lot

There are some sites, more to the North, where you can get strong currents (real strong, like Barracuda which according to various places usually runs 2-10 knots. Not sure I know of anyone who hit it at 10 Knots, but 4 Knots is something I hear alot.), while others may have some currents or none at all. The DMs will usually have a good sense of what is going on on a given day. Some sites will usually have some current running, but most of the time it is not too bad. And when it is running a bit more, kind of fun just to go with it. Make sure you have a whistle and sausage just in case and are comfortable with situations where you may get away from the pack. There have been a couple of times I got caught in a current and sort of found myself semi-solo and wound up on the surface just hanging out at the end of the dive by myself As to whether the diving is difficult, there are a range of sites for various skill levels. There have been times when I am on a dive boat where people have asked not to go to certain sites based on their skill/comfort level, things like the Devil's Throat, which is around 130-140 feet with some tighter spots, but overall I do not consider Cozumel difficult diving for the most part.

Many good places to eat if you get into town. Best times are usually when the cruise ships are gone for the day or on days when ships are not in. Even when there are ships, usually walking a couple of blocks off the water will find places that are a little quieter.

Hey guys

Planning a Cozumel trip from the Hotel Cozumel. Any advice?

Is diving in Cozumel difficult?

I may have to go solo. Would be safe? Must I take a buddy?

Would be easy to buddy up with someone?

Yes I know I am a Florida Key diver. That is my comfort zone! Well I speak Spanish well also long experience on Mexico during my Ph.D work.

Any advice is welcome

Thanks a lot

I was in Mexico the first week of this past April. A place called Puerto Aventuras just over an hour south of Cancun. Stayed at the Hotel Catalonia, which is an all inclusive. And that included all you could eat/dink/consume. Dove with Dive Aventuras and they are located about 5 minutes from the hotel. In fact, they set the whole trip up, less airfair for our group (6 of us). The package included transportation to and from the airport to the hotel, 6 dives, 2 of which were Cenote dives and the hotel. Sight seeing (Mayan ruins) can be arranged through the hotel on Friday. I choose to dive, I can see the ruins on the discovery channel. The dive shop will spoil you rotten. Drop your gear off the first day and they secure it for you. Show up the next morning, put on your wetsuit and they carry your gear to the boat, set up your tank with bc and regulator and break it down after you dive, carry it back to the dive shop, rinse/clean it and store it overnight. If you don't bring your own gear, you can rent it from them. The dive boats can handle twelve divers and it takes less than ten minutes to get to the dive sites. Very easy currents, incredible viz and well trained divemasters. No need to worry about a buddy, it's pretty much a group drift dive.

Here's their website: www.diveaventuras.com. It was a great dive trip, I highly recommend them.

Bob

Planning a Cozumel trip from the Hotel Cozumel. Any advice?

Is diving in Cozumel difficult?

I may have to go solo. Would be safe? Must I take a buddy?

Would be easy to buddy up with someone?

Yes I know I am a Florida Key diver. That is my comfort zone! Well I speak Spanish well also long experience on Mexico during my Ph.D work.

Diving in the Florida Keys is very different from diving in Cozumel. In the Keys, you generally don't have Divemasters go in the water with you. However, in Cozumel, virtually all of the diving is drift diving and the Divermasters go in the water with you. It's not so important to have a buddy as the entire group drops into the water at the same time, stays together drifting along the reef. The Divemaster looks out to make sure everyone is with the group. Then, at the end of the dive, he puts up a marker and the boat comes to get everyone at the conclusion of the safety stop. I heartily agree with Drew to always carry a whistle and especially a safety sausage. I've had to use mine several times when I came up far away from the boat. Once those in the boat see your safety sausage, they will come to pick you up even if you're far away.

The currents vary quite a bit, some days there are ripping currents, other days the current isn't so fast. I've found it helpful when the current is really ripping to drop down and hang amongst the coral heads. Down there, the current isn't quite so fast. If you find that the current is ripping, you may have to give up the idea of using your camera to take images.

Diving in Cozumel can hardly be considered difficult. I actually went there immediately after being certified with just 15 dives under my belt and I did fine.

Later, when I was more experienced, I felt comfortable diving the Devil's Throat, but that's not a dive for the inexperienced.

Speaking Spanish may be helpful but is hardly necessary.

As others have said, there are many excellent restaurants in Cozumel and to me, that is one of the best parts of going there. The food is excellent and inexpensive. If you can, go to the Town Square on Sunday. The families all go there and it is a fun experience to hang out.

Shopping, if you're into that, can be lots of fun. Just don't offer anything near what the merchants are asking. You can have a lot of fun bargaining and picking up things like jewelry very inexpensively.

Have fun!

Ellen

Thanks a lot to all you. I am leaving Monday morning. See I will get my Splendid Blue Toadfish! hehee I know is the hardest one to find!

Diving in the Florida Keys is very different from diving in Cozumel. In the Keys, you generally don't have Divemasters go in the water with you. However, in Cozumel, virtually all of the diving is drift diving and the Divermasters go in the water with you. It's not so important to have a buddy as the entire group drops into the water at the same time, stays together drifting along the reef. The Divemaster looks out to make sure everyone is with the group. Then, at the end of the dive, he puts up a marker and the boat comes to get everyone at the conclusion of the safety stop. I heartily agree with Drew to always carry a whistle and especially a safety sausage. I've had to use mine several times when I came up far away from the boat. Once those in the boat see your safety sausage, they will come to pick you up even if you're far away.

The currents vary quite a bit, some days there are ripping currents, other days the current isn't so fast. I've found it helpful when the current is really ripping to drop down and hang amongst the coral heads. Down there, the current isn't quite so fast. If you find that the current is ripping, you may have to give up the idea of using your camera to take images.

 

Diving in Cozumel can hardly be considered difficult. I actually went there immediately after being certified with just 15 dives under my belt and I did fine.

Later, when I was more experienced, I felt comfortable diving the Devil's Throat, but that's not a dive for the inexperienced.

 

Speaking Spanish may be helpful but is hardly necessary.

 

As others have said, there are many excellent restaurants in Cozumel and to me, that is one of the best parts of going there. The food is excellent and inexpensive. If you can, go to the Town Square on Sunday. The families all go there and it is a fun experience to hang out.

 

Shopping, if you're into that, can be lots of fun. Just don't offer anything near what the merchants are asking. You can have a lot of fun bargaining and picking up things like jewelry very inexpensively.

 

Have fun!

 

Ellen

Hello, im a dive master here in México.

Diving in Cozumel is gorgeous, all the dives are wall dive with a drift dive, they are not difficult. Yo do not need a buddy cuse they recieved many alone divers, so ther you can find you budy.

You can bring you own equiment so the dive prices will be cheaper, but if you dónt want to carry anything you can rent it.

And welcome to the riviera maya you sure will enjoy youself.

I recomend you also the diving in Cancún.

Good luck and enjoy

Roberto

El Buzo, Diving in Cancun and the Riviera Maya