Cancun/Cozumel, Mexico

Explorers members who went: Josephine Palencia

Flew from Pittsburgh to Cancun, Mexico and stayed at Blue Bay club (bluebayclub.com). There were 22 of us, 15 total divers.

We dove for 4 days doing 2 dives/day going with with mantadivers.com.

In Cancun, we dove Black tip (Punta Negra)-60ft), Garampin (50ft), C-58 (80ft), Santo Remegio (night dive0-saw the most beautiful 2ft octopus, lots of bluefishes, 1meter wide turtles (caught a ride), lots of lobster, stingrays.

Then went to Cenote to do cave/rn diving at Chac-Mool. I did 2 dives with Nitrox (enhanced air). Proceeded to Cozumel (one of the top dive spots in Mexico/world for coral wall diving) and had spectacular dives of Palancar caves (90-100ft). Probably one of the best dive sites I've seen. Definitely going back to Cozumel. Then proceeded to dive last at Chankanah (50ft).

Too bad I didn't have a camera to take photos during cave/rn scuba diving so adding one that would give an idea of Cenote's chacmool.

-J. Palencia

Summersville Lake, WV

Explorers members who went: Mahin and Josephine

We drove down to Summersville Lake, WV to join about a dozen scuba divers do night diving, 2 days of boat diving (cool Pontoon boats). We had barbecue, slept in camping tents and trailers. Freshwater scuba diving is harder to do than saltwater diving. Good place to do navigational and peak-bouyancy dives. So if you can dive freshwater, you can dive anything.

-J. Palencia

Pompano Beach, FL

Pompano Beach, FL

Explorers members who went: Josephine

There were 14 of us divers: (12 men, 2 women). We mostly dove wrecks and drift dives. I did about 4 dives/day (2 morning dives, 2 afternoon dives) for the span of 6-7days.

Highlights of the florida dive:

3 sharks (10 ft, 6 ft, 6 ft) hammerhead, nurse shark, and another hammerhead. 2 giant turtles (around 150-years old) - 4 ft diameter, 3 ft diameter. I swam/hitched a ride with the 2 ft diameter turtle. 2 giant eels (cute photos eh?). 2 huge barracudas (1.5 m and 2.5 m long). The dive master said it's the biggest barracuda he's seen in his 20 years of diving. The huge barracuda occupied the entire hull length of the ship wreck. 2 giant jude fishes as big as bookcases (5 ft x 3 ft) swimming with with 5 ft diameter eel. The boat dive master put some fish bait so there was a meeting of the big creatures on the wreck.

-J. Palencia