After two epic trips postponed until 2022 and 23, respectively, Shelli and I decided that now was the time to celebrate the anniversary of the pandemic and fly south at the end of February. Be assured, we did not take this decision lightly. After hearing reports from other travelers that blazed the trail to Mexico in the weeks and months before us, and situation reports from our buddy Kim in Coz, we felt we could take the risk. Sure enough, the scariest places on our trips were the American airports. I am happy to report, we encountered almost zero of the entitled, Free-dumb on our whole trip. Whew!
Everyone in Mexico was being safe and following the rules. However, there was this one story of a couple, who refused to wear masks entering a restaurant because it infringed on their constitutional rights. Yep. They were Americans. In Mexico. Okay, let’s move on to the fun stuff. We came here to get away from the goddamn pandemic, after all, didn’t we?
Without a doubt, this was our favorite trip to Cozumel yet. The diving was epic and we got to dive on sites we had never been to before. It all started with an upgrade to First on our 4 hour leg to Cozumel from Denver. We stepped out of the plane into beautiful 82 degree weather, breezed through customs (sort of), and met our good buddy, Kim, who was waiting for us outside the airport to whisk us away us to our digs at Casa Caribe, an Airbnb in downtown San Miguel. It was like magic. I know, I’m totally overselling it so far, aren’t I?
Our first morning, Sunday, our driver, also named Kim, picked us up early and took us to the marina to board our first boat of the week. Diving with Dive GalaxSea Cozumel is always a great experience. Owner and Divemaster, Kim Rogers (another Kim!) is an excellent divemaster and guide. If you’re looking for a great dive experience with an ethical operator, we can’t recommend Dive GalaxSea Cozumel enough. For us, we got the added bonus of getting to hang out with a truly great friend after we spent the day blowing bubbles.
Our first dive was on Columbia Reef at the mid-level. The feeling of back-rolling into warm water and being able to see clearly to the bottom, 70 feet below, is hard to describe. For us it was like coming home. We managed to pull off 13 dives over 6 days and almost all of them edged up on an hour or more, each. Fast drifts, slow drifts, huge coral bommies, sandy flats, incredible swim throughs and the usual massive array of critters. Some notables were: the giant lobster in the video from Cozumel dive trip number two – even bigger and more bad-ass. Multiple sightings of Spotted Eagle rays, more than we’ve ever seen. Some huge Hawksbill and Green sea turtles. The biggest rainbow parrotfish we have ever encountered, another rarely-seen blue parrotfish with the brightest blue color scales. We were surprised that we did not see a single shark until our one night dive. We came across a ledge to find a nurse shark crashed out on the sand. One of its free-loading remoras was getting really antsy about our dive lights, so it decided to depart the area. We encountered it under another ledge further along in our drift, but it wasn’t gonna be rousted twice.
Three dives really stood out. One was our dive on Punta Sur, the farthest south we have dove off of Cozumel and our deepest dive to date. We hit The Cathedral (Devil’s Throat) swim-through at about 80 feet and a had a long descent through a massive chamber, finally exiting at about 124 feet into the deep blue. The other two were at the northernmost sites we have dove, Barracuda and San Juan. Both have some serious current and it is pretty exhilarating. Barracuda is a chain of huge undersea hills. On your right are the sand flats below you and on the left, the deep blue. It was a total rush. The amazing sight on that dive was the Spotted Eagle Ray cruising against the fast current, not 20 yards from us, like it was nothing. San Juan was our last dive, again with the current, but over a less mountainous landscape. I took about four minutes of GoPro video just flying low over the reef like a Snow Speeder in Empire. Fortunately, it did not make it into Shelli’s video, so you can keep your lunch. An hour later we were up in the swells waiting for pickup, and we lamented the fact that this was it – 24 hours from now we’d be jetting our way home. Bittersweet, for sure. This, of course, did not stop us from having one last post-dive soiree (there were many) at one of the east coast beach bars, The Liquor Box Coconut Cabana – aka Bar Miami. Best Mojitos you’ve ever had. No lie.