We were hoping to do a dive trip this December and when the deal came up at Lynnhaven – an all inclusive trip to Cozumel – we couldn’t pass it up.  We were joined by 10 other Virginia divers – some of whom we had briefly met either at Lynnhaven or on a local dive boat but most were complete strangers to us at the start of the trip.  By the end of the trip, we had 10 new friends we hope to dive with again.

We arrived in Cozumel on Saturday mid-day.  After a quick lunch at the hotel Casa Del Mar (little did we know at the time that we would in all likelihood be eating the same thing for lunch and dinner for the next seven days – Fajitas Mixtas or Enchiladas Rojas)  Scott and I hit the beach for a quick shore dive.

 From that point on, our mission was to get as many dives in as possible – and we did fairly well.  We had hoped to get about 15 dives in and ended up with 22.  We are truly suckers for the water!

 While we had a great time, the diving in Cozumel is very restrictive – but we were lucky to have two very good dive guides in Joaquin and Sergio.  They accompanied us on almost all of our boat dives.  Because almost all of it is drift diving (with the exception of some of the shore dives, although the current can rip along the shore at a pretty good clip) dive operators require you to have a guide on all boat dives and they monitor your depth and bottom time.  As Scott and I like to explore, this took a little getting used to.  In fact, on the second to last day of the boat diving, Scott, Will, Stan, Dave, Robert and I moved from the top of the wall to the side of it and ended up getting caught in a swift current.  When we surfaced, we were a good half mile away from the rest of the group.  Fortunately we were with a good group of divers and we had all the necessary tools we needed to surface – a safety sausage and a line.  We ended the dive no differently than we would have had we been with a dive guide and were no worse for the wear. 

 The animal sightings during the day consisted of spotted eagle rays (ranging in size from about a two foot wing span to an eight foot wingspan), turtles, splendid toadfish (indigenous to Cozumel), scorpion fish, nurse sharks, lobsters, crabs, French angelfish,  queen angelfish, parrot fish, spotted yellow rays and more.  We also saw seahorses on one of the dives – this was something neither of us had ever seen before.  They are truly remarkable creatures that have an amazing ability to blend into their environment.  We definitely would have drifted right over them had it not been for Joaquin and Sergio. 

 Throughout the week we did four night dives (two from the boat and two from shore) and they are all definitely worth mentioning.  Night diving by far remains one of my favorite kind of dives – it is relaxing but what’s more some of the most amazing creatures come out at night.  On the shore based night diving, we saw some incredible squid, a conch, sea stars, a mutant crab (seriously, the thing was freaky), cleaner shrimp, eel and a small octopus.  From the boat we saw a large sea cockroach, rays, eels and some of the largest crabs and lobster we have ever seen.  Interestingly enough many of them were out in the open – this is something we really have not seen in the Caymans or Bahamas.  But the absolute best animal sighting of the week was the octopus.  He was probably about two feet long and he changed colors rapidly.  We played with him for probably about 10 to 15 minutes….it was an incredible experience.  

But don't take our word for it...check out the pictures!