Cedric Beust, January 2003
I am just back from a one-week scuba diving trip to Cozumel, here is quick summary of my vacation.
Cozumel is a small island off the coast of Mexico in the Caribbean sea (Cancun is just across the water, you can see the main land from the island). Cozumel also has the reputation of being one of the finest scuba diving spots of the planet. I haven't dived enough around the globe to concur, but I can definitely say that diving in Cozumel had a huge impact on me.
Scuba diving
The west coast of the island is where all the scuba diving takes places. There are more than twenty spots indicated on the map, and I'm sure you can go through these several times and still enjoy your dives. You will typically have two dives in the morning and one in the afternoon, which is guaranteed to saturate your body with nitrogen for the rest of the day, but it's absolutely worth it.
Our dives were all in the forty-ninety feet range. I wouldn't recommend to dive deeper since it will probably bring down your number of dives for the day to two, and I haven't really seen a point in diving deeper than ninety feet (I am not aware of wrecks in the area). The visibility is never a problem, even when the weather is bad (I would say it varies between forty feet and at least a hundred feet with a good weather).
Note that the weather can go bad in Cozumel (and it actually did during our trip). Depending on the season or the proximity of a hurricane, strong winds might sweep the land and cause the port to close, which means no diving for anyone. It is very frustrating when it happens, so I would recommend you plan your holiday carefully season-wise (obviously, there's not much you can do about hurricanes).
The water temperature is amazingly constant, even at eighty feet of depth: between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (24-27 degrees centigrade). You will typically wear a 2-3 mil shorty or a skin. You don't need gloves nor a hood, but I have seen a few divers be more conservative and wear full body suits (still no thicker than 2-3 millimeters, though). Keep in mind that Cozumel is a National Park, and that you should touch the reef under no circumstances, nor pick up any kind of souvenir. "Se admira, pero non se toca".
A typical dive day looks like this: the boat picks you up at 8:30 am and then takes about one hour to get to the first dive spot, south of your location. . After your dive, the boat heads back north toward the hotel, stops at the second dive spot and waits for you to have a one hour surface time. You do your second dive, and then head for the hotel for a quick lunch. Some dive packages will allow you to do an afternoon dive, which is usually done no later than 3pm.
All the dives are drift dives, which can be very exciting. Nothing will ever come closer to the impression of flying than hovering twenty feet above the reef and staring down as the landscape passes you by. It's also a good exercise in buoyancy control if you happen to have an underwater camera with you (something I recommend for every single dive. A dive light is also a good thing to have with you, even during the day).
Both the aquatic life and the relief are great things to explore in Cozumel. The reef is interspersed with corridors and caves that are very easy to swim through, even if you are not comfortable with closed spaces. Another exhilarating experience is diving along a cliff wall, such as the Santa Rosa wall. Don't bother trying to locate the bottom, though, since it is about two thousand feet below you. Yup, it's deep and dark down there. Keep a close eye on your depth, your group and your ears so you always know how deep you exactly are. Once you are comfortable, I have no doubts that images from the movie "The Abyss" will flash before your eyes.
As for the aquatic life, you will pretty much encounter everything you would expect: psychedelic fish, monster lobsters, slick eels, sting rays and spotted eagle rays, carefree sharks, frightened octopuses (octopii? :-)), intriguing sea horses, majestic turtles, etc... You name it.
Tourism
Currency and language are never a problem in Cozumel: everyone in the touristy areas speak fluent English and dollars can be used to pay for everything. The change rate seems to be constant across the island: one dollar for ten pesos. It is perfectly okay to pay a fifty pesos bill with forty pesos and one dollar. You can also get cash from the ATM's, but I am not sure it's that useful
Be ready to bargain. Shop owners might be reluctant at first but we have been able to get cheaper prices pretty much every single time we tried. Some of them even ran after us after we left the store to agree with what we were offering. Also, the sea front shops are the most expensive. Don't hesitate to walk a few blocks inside the town and you will find store owners more open to negotiating prices.
There are a few ruins on the island, such as San Gervasio, but I would only recommend visiting them if you have nothing else to do (say, the port is closed and you can't dive :-)). The best and cheaper way to get there is probably to rent a scooter. The typical price is $25-$30, but we got ours for $20, which was probably too much anyway since it broke down (lucky us, we were parked in our hotel parking lot, and the owner refunded us completely, something I didn't expect).
There are a lot of hotels in Cozumel and for a better experience, you should make sure with the diving shop that they will be picking you up not too far from your hotel (we were staying at the Brisas hotel, which was a perfect choice since not only do they have a pier across the street, but this is usually the last stop that boats make before heading for the dive spot).
Miscellaneous remarks
I was very impressed with the professionalism exerted by the divemasters who were accompanying us. It shows in a lot of subtle ways, but there is no denying about the fact that they know their jobs very well. First of all, they are always looking for things of interest to show you, and they will bring tools with them to attract your attention when they spot something worth your attention (typically, hitting a metallic object on their tank). Some of them will bring a wooden stick to poke the lobsters and crabs so that they get out of their hide out for a minute, and they are indeed quite a sight.
Also, they were clearly watching every one of us very carefully during our dives and they were prolific with personalized advice to all of us once we were back on the boat (one thing that I learned: I kick too much, a habit I took in Monterey).
During one of our last dives, Anise's BC broke down: the hose connected to the inflating mechanism was leaking air and there was no way to fix it. I switched BC with her and it turned out to be a very interesting drill in buoyancy control. Not being able to inflate your BC with your tank is not really a problem in warm water since you are typically carrying about ten pounds of weight, which is not really enough to threaten your life on the surface (you can always dump your weight belt anyway). However, it was interesting to adjust my buoyancy at the bottom by having to manually inflate my BC instead of simply using my tank. It was also a good way to practice the final stage of an emergency swimming ascent at the surface, especially in rough waters (the waves were about two feet high).
Conclusion
Every single time I was diving, I was thinking "They didn't tell me that when I got certified". And as a matter of fact, if your only diving experience has been in cold waters (Monterey for me), your first dive in the warm waters of the Caribbean sea will be a shock. Nothing can really prepare you for the feeling of exhilaration that this experience will procure you. You will feel unique, like you're on top of the world and there is no limit to what you can do. Being weightless and swimming through these extraordinary landscapes sent shivers down my spine, and I can't close my eyes without getting flashes of the time I spent down there.
Belize trip report
Grand Cayman trip report
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