Chrismas Eve in Cozumel
Trip Start
Dec 16, 2010
1
14
21
Trip End
Jan 01, 2011
Cozumel, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Friday, December 24, 2010
Today was fun. This morning we got up at 0700 to eat breakfast so we could do our dive refresher in the pool. That started at 0830 and we got done with it at 1030. During the refresher I learned that I now need double the weight to dive( 30lbs), which doesn't fit on a dive belt, they don't make wetsuits in my size because the fat should keep you warm and things that float in pools should not be seen by divers. UGH! Other than that it went fine. After the class we decide on our dive packages. It is much cheaper than 20 years ago. We will be diving 6 times in 3 days. At 1300 today we went on our first two dives. The first dive was awful for me because my weights where then wrong and I didn’t know it. I kept floating to the top and struggled with the weight belt. The next dive went much better. I only had trouble with my dive buddy and the sites were great. My dive buddy caused trouble in two ways; moving back and forth across the reef so fast that I had problems keeping up(she was funnier than the fish) and the second issue her tank fell off and I had to save her life with the dive master, who said they could hear me trying to get her attention underwater. I saw many types of cool fish, huge king crabs, and one moray eel. It was very nice underwater. I sometimes forgot we were underwater. We were only around sixty feet deep. I was able to make the whole dive of 30-40 minutes without using all my air. I did fib a little and went a few hundred PSI below their safety guidelines.:) We went back to the hotel and took showers and grabbed a taxi into town. Julie had some issue with her ears so we went looking for psuedaphed? But found out it is not sold in Mexico. Meth dealers have a monopoly? Found something close and went to eat. I had a nice grilled red snapper but Julie had a awesome grilled conch steaks with garlic and pepper. I have never seen so much conch in a meal. Julie cut it up like steak. We usually don’t get desert but they had a homemade coconut ice cream with Kalua. It was awesome. We were about to leave and they gave us shots of Salsa(Brand) Tequila, which burns going down. We then went back to the hotel and read until we feel asleep.
Julie:
The morning refresher in the pool was cold! We girls were wearing wetsuits, but we still froze.
It's embarrassing being fat & scuba diving. Wet suits are especially unattractive & you have to wear a lot of weight.
We signed up for 3 days of diving, because Russ is right, it is cheaper than it used to be back in the day. When you get my age you find yourself saying 'back in the day' a lot.
It's fun to get back into diving. The reefs were nice & I saw lots of fishies. Having a little buoyancy issues though. I did see a big crab hiding under a reef. The guides say he’s a king crab, but not the kind they have in Alaska. I ate a yoghurt between dives – not a good idea. I kept belching during my 2nd dive. Distracting!
Sorry I haven’t been keeping up with my blog – I’ve been having more fun reading my book than sitting around typing. I’ll try to get some more pictures uploaded. There will be no underwater pictures because I refuse to take one of those cheapo cameras down with me. They take crappy pictures. I will try to picture of us in our scuba gear.
We decided to go into town for dinner. The restaurant here is expensive & not the best. There are 2 restaurants across the street. I went to one & asked to see a menu. I was told no menu, just lobster. Sounds good, but probably expensive. We have to use some restraint.
We ate at Cozumel’s oldest restaurant, Café Denis. I had Conch cooked in garlic & chilies. There were 2 huge conch steaks on my plate. Russ was very jealous. I was nice & gave him some. Dessert was coconut icecream swimming in kahlua – yum! We got shots of tequila for wishing the waiter Feliz Navidad. I tried to teach Russ how to do tequila shots, but he didn’t listen.
