Gaurav, Michelle, and Dan made some poor financial decisions and spent part of our winter breaks in the beautiful isle of Cozumel!
To top our bad monetary decision making we started off the trip with the terrible decision to walk from the airport to our hotel in San Miguel, dragging about 150lbs of dive gear and assorted luggage. Weather on Cozumel was glorious ~80°F and sunny for our entire stay and a welcome break from the Pittsburgh winter. However, still in sweatpants from the airplane the walk was a harsh introduction to the heat. Thankfully, after changing out of our now disgustingly sweaty clothes the week made a turn for the better.
We spent a total of 4 days diving for a total of 8 dives at the various reefs in the national marine park that surrounds the southern half of the island. (Some of our dives marked in pink below)
Cozumel Dive Sites. Some of the ones we visited are marked in pink
Our first two days we were spoiled with some incredible wildlife including a few massive turtles, a few giant eagle rays, a couple of Moray Eels, a rare Splendid toadfish, and even a sand shark. The large wildlife took a break for our second two days of diving, but we were still kept company by countless schools of fish and coral formations.
Overall, diving highlights include the coral formations of the Palancar reef. These coral towers soar 20 to 60 feet tall, and swimming between them was an incredible and unique experience. For Gaurav, a highlight was seeing a giant eagle ray breach from under the water. A once in a lifetime experience Michelle and I missed because they were keeping a wary eye on a 7ft long Moray Eel that had decided to swim out from its rock and over towards our dive group.
Post diving our afternoons were full of good food, and good company. Some notable food spots include Guisados for some incredible tacos, and Zermatt Panadaria for some of the best pastries I've had in a long while. Our exploration around town also necessitated digging up the corner of Dan’s brain that once was reserved for my high school Spanish classes which provided just enough residual speaking ability to get around and not embarrass us too much.
Final notes on Cozumel (9.5/10): we had an awesome trip full of some incredible diving! If you decide to go just make sure to brush up on your Spanish before you go, rather than frantically once you are already there ;)