From: ellene@microsoft.com (Ellen Mitsue Eades)
Subject: Re: Any infomation from Cancun and Cozumel
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:41:51 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp.

In article <lg82ffINN7kv@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu> clinard@cs.utk.edu (Michelle Clinard) writes:
>In article <pltjha.1.0@vtt.fi> pltjha@vtt.fi (Juha Hakulinen) writes:
>>I need information from Cancun and Conzumel at december. All comments are 
>>wellcome. 
>Me too! Me too!  We're going down the week after Christmas, staying
>at the Fiesta Inn, on Cozumel.

What a coincidence. I just got back from Cozumel and stayed at the
Fiesta Inn, and I just subscribed to this group for the first time.

About me & my opinions: I'm a new diver, got less than 20 hours of
diving under my belt, about half & half Puget Sound and tropics. I'm
also a cold wimp, but oddly enough, I seem to do OK in the Sound with
a wetsuit, though my SO uses a drysuit.  And, of course, this has
nothing to do with Microsoft.

General info/preparedness stuff: Bring *lots* of sunscreen.  Read a
good book on diving in Cozumel (the series by Pisces Press, available
in most bookstores, has a volume on Cozumel) so you get a feel for
what areas you want to dive.  Most of the dives are drift/wall dives,
so be prepared for fast current and WATCH YOUR DEPTH GAUGE.  

Fiesta Inn: It's an average-to-good place.  The all-you-can-eat breakfast
is too expensive, though -- take a quick hop into town and grab something
downtown.  The inn is a rather long (20 min.) walk from town, but you can
do it, or there are always taxis running along the main street that will
take you for a few hundred pesos.  (Also, the currency is changing over
in January and they're chopping a few zeroes off the rates, so be aware
of this if you're going after December).  Best thing about the inn is
that you can walk across the street to a small man-made beach and a 
dock with a ladder down into the ocean.  Beware of ironshore, the hard
limestone that makes up most of Cozumel; wear boots always, and gloves
if you have them.  Oh yes, one more thing: bring proof of your hotel
reservation.  When we showed up the desk guy told us we didn't have a
reservation, but he changed his mind and found us one when we showed
him the travel agent's confirmation sheet.  (I hear this is a common
problem in Mexico).

Spend some time snorkeling.  We walked across the street and into the
water and spent a *wonderful* afternoon exploring something like a
100-foot stretch of reef; it was so varied and interesting that I never
got bored with it.  Within about 50 feet of shore, in 25 feet depths,
were every kind of fish I saw on the scuba dives except the groupers,
and all kinds of coral formations and interesting rock caves.  Be
careful, though, and don't touch anything you can't identify; it's
fire coral area. 

Food: Cozumel has great food.  We had some memorable dinners at Pepe's
Grill and Santiago's Grill.  Get one of the "Mexico on $40/day" books
or its clones and look for good places.  Also, strike up conversations
with people.  We were headed for Morgan's one night (a well-known
Cozumel restaurant) when our cabby informed us that Pepe's was just
as good and much less crowded, so we let him take us to Pepe's instead
(He said he used to work there).  Indeed, it was excellent; we had
lobster that was incredible and were treated to live mariachi bands
for half the night.  I wouldn't bother with places like Carlos'n'Charlie's,
but that's just because I don't go to Mexico in order to feel like I'm
at Cheers; your mileage may vary.

Diving: We went through Tom Hartegan's Dive Paradise, located behind the
Hotel Barracuda about 10 minutes walk away from the Fiesta Inn.  They 
have slow and fast boats, morning and (if you have 3 or more people)
afternoon dives, and you can tell them where you want to go or let them
pick.  We did Tormentos Reef, Paraiso Reef, Chankanaab, and Santa Rosa 
Reef.  Except for Chankanaab they were all drift dives, the first three
around 55-60 feet and on the last dive I went down to 84 feet.  The
sea life was very abundant and beautiful: millions of grunts, several
morays, lobsters, crabs, tame groupers looking for handouts, starfish,
zillions of angelfish of various kinds, clowns, nudibranchs, damselfish.
The guides were pretty good and obviously knew where the interesting
things were, and found lots of stuff for us to look at.  I recommend
the fast boats, as you waste less time and get more diving in.

We also did a night dive, which was both great and disappointing: great
for the different animals we saw, such as octopi and rays, and 
disappointing because we were on a cattle-car boat of about 16
divers in 2 groups, several of whom were complete yahoos.  I really
got angry at one guy who kept shoving in front to see things, kicking
up sand, and then *poking* the animals with his light; I wanted to
turn off his tank.  Beware of yahoos.  My advice is to get a group
of 3-4 people you like and trust to dive with, and get a private
dive so you don't have to deal with crowds of rude people.

In December the water will be chilly enough to call for shorty suits
or skins.  I got quite chilled on the deep dive and got a shorty for
the night dive (this was in October, and the water gets colder in
winter).  Also, if you are doing multiple dives, the surface intervals
can get very cold; bring a windbreaker for the boat.

One thing I didn't do that I wish I had had time for: visit the
ruins of San Gervasio on the island.  We continued on to Chichen
Itza, though, so I had all the ruins my heart would desire a
few days later.  GREAT trip.

Enjoy yourself,

Ellen Eades
-- 
Ellen Eades					Microsoft Corporation
"Just call me F.G.M.  I hate excess verbiage."  _Twice Upon a Time_
Newsgroups: rec.scuba