Cozumel: Left Me Wanted More

The trip that I dived all day, did my first night dive, saw an Eagle Ray, and did everything I could to save a few bucks.

I wanted to do a trip where I could just dive until I dropped.

It’s Covid time. I thought it was not that much more dangerous to travel to Cozumel, especially that I was just going to dive and dive, and stayed in a hotel far away from crowd.

In fact, there was no crowd here.

To save money, I stayed in Villablanca at $55/night. It did not have wifi, and I needed to walk 30 minutes to get to Centro or the marina. I would only go as far as saying this place is livable. I figured that, I could just rough it out since it was just me. I would done differently if I were with a girlfriend.

I definitely considered renting a scooter, but eventually I didn’t muster the courage to slash $25/day $125 in total on it. But I did have one day of scooter for my last day here.

Day 1 did not start with a bang. I was late to my Scubatony dive trip because my clock was still in Denver time. I scrambled. I walked over to Cozumel Scuba Life, and got on their morning trip. The departing dive boat literally turnaround for me.

I was not very comfortable in my first dive since 12 months ago. But I managed. I basically tagged along a family from Dallas, a dad, a son and a daughter. The dad told me that his Christmas present for his kids every year is always an experience, instead of presents. I like that. The dive master was Jorge, and I liked him. The highlight of that dive was a giant sea turtle.

The second dive was part of my advanced open water dive course. I had an one-to-one instructor, Aldo. The peak buoyancy performance class was harder that I expected. I needed to knock down a row of weighs with my regulator in my mouth. I failed miserably. We dove through a natural underwater tunnel, and saw a huge crab (probably 2’ wide). The highlight was a big black barracuda hiding underneath a reef. It was a really cool experience. Along for the ride include 4 friends (LA and DC) and an English lady living in Mexico city, working for Volaris. They could stay in the water for over 60 minutes while I could only stay in there for 45 mins. I still had long way to go before becoming a pro.

The last dive of the day was a night dive, my first night dive ever. It turned out to be the best dive I had ever had. Maybe it has to do with my mask not fogging anymore, or that I had a flashlight in hand, or that I was getting comfortable in the water. I dove with a family from Littleton CO and the mom was a badger(!) and an Englishman named Paul living in Houston. This night dive was full of surprises. To begin, we saw octopuses, big lobsters and crabs. To end the night in a very high note, a 6’-7’ long Eagle ray made an appearance. The Eagle ray was so gracious in its movement. We tracked him for few minutes and he disappeared in the abyss. I thought I would be nervous of the water and darkness, but, best dive ever!

Today, wind was too strong. I had to settle to be on land. But that was ok. You can’t always expect things to go according to plan, especially when the mother nature is involved.

Well, I actually caved and rented the scooter from Friday through Sunday for $60 in total. I justified it by being able to return it at the airport, so that I would at least save $15 on the cab ride to the airport.

I had to say that having a scooter was so liberating. I wandered around the town, and did a loop around the island for 2 hours or so. The water and beach on the other side of the island was much prettier. Clearer water and finer sands.

I stopped by this place called La Choza for late lunch/dinner. It was probably the best food I had here so far. I got something called Mole Chicken, which used a paste consisted of cacao and supposedly 19 other ingredients. The chicken breast was dry though. This was probably the most authentic restaurant in the island I had been so far. I would come back.

At night, it was just more time spent in Jeanie’s the restaurant. It had become my favorite stop every day. Fast wifi, live sports, affordable drinks and food, friendly staff and good ocean view. You couldn’t ask for much more than that.

Next day. Its mid-morning now and the wind is still blowing. I am just hanging out at Starbucks, perhaps to do some reading and writing. Wind, please slow down.

I just received an email from both ScubaTony and Scuba Life Cozumel about the dive trip cancellation due to high wind. I immediately switched my flight to this afternoon (direct flight!) to head back to Denver.

That concluded my dive trip to Cozumel. I was hoping to dive 3 days but ended up only diving one day (3 dive trips though). While disappointed by the cancelled dives, it was a great experience. I got more comfortable with diving, and I know that I enjoy diving. I have already booked a trip back here to dive again over MLK weekend. I also bought more than $1,000 in diving equipment for my future dive adventure.

One thing that I came to grasp this trip is the uncertain nature of travel, especially when mother nature is involved. You could plan the perfect trip but there are still elements of chances that could totally change your trip. I have make peace with this uncertainty and its outcomes. There may be unexpected rainy days, but hopefully there would also be unexpected rainbows after the rains.