U of A Scuba Club in Cozumel (photo by Tony Vilet)

Click the 'continue reading' link if you'd like to hear more about the trip:

Playa del Carmen

Cobà and Cenotes

We spent the first three days in Playa del Carmen, and luckily we had our friends waiting for us at the Cancun airport to carry us down to our hotel. We stayed at Quinto Sol, which was a very cool, open-air hotel with a tree growing in the middle of it. Sarah and I lucked out and stayed in a nice room on the top floor, well away from the din of Playa's 5th Ave.

Tree in the middle of Quinto Sol (photo by Sarah M.)

On day two, we headed out with Nolan in tow, to the ruins of Cobá. Our little rental car was well-equipped with air conditioning, making the drive into and out of the jungle quite pleasant. When we arrived at the ruins in Cobá, we hired a tour guide to give us a one-hour orientation of the site, and then we headed off on our own. There were temples and ball courts in various states of reconstruction, and hundreds more ruins covered in dense jungle due to neglect over the ages.

Sarah, Ross and Nolan at the base of Nohoch Mul

The Nohoch Mul, the Yucatán's tallest temple, rising to 42 meters, was Cobá's showpiece. It's also one of the few remaining Mayan buildings that you can climb, and climb we did. These pictures don't do justice to the steepness of the stairs, but I estimate the angle the stairs form with the ground to be around 50 degrees. The climb up was exhausting, but the climb down was harrowing: nothing but a loose rope and jagged steps polished by the butts of a thousands visitors stops you from careening to your death. A fall from any higher than the first few steps would certainly end in broken bones!

After Cobá, we headed further into the jungle to examine three very famous cenotes nearby: Choo-ha, Tancach-ha and Multun-ha. Each cenote had its own character, but we had the most fun jumping from the 5 and 10 meter platforms that were built into the staircase in Tamcach-ha.

Getting ready to jump into the cool pool of Tamcach-ha.

Xplor

Day three brought us to an adventure of a different type: a day at the adventure park Xplor. This was mainly a fun way to overcome fear of heights and darkness. The whole park is based on zip lines and underground rivers that you go through in massive courses, there was even a buggy course! The pictures here speak for themselves, so I'll let them do just that:

We had a brief siesta before heading off the see the night show at XCaret later that evening, but I've already talked about that before.

Cozumel

We met up at Blue Angel Dive Resort on Cozumel island just as the participants from the University of Alberta Scuba Appreciation Club were showing up, and right away we got to work with diving! There were seven Open Water Referral divers that needed to complete their four required dives before they were fully certified, so Kari and I jumped right in and got to it! This time around the training that we did amounted to seven Open Water, two Peak Performance Buoyancy, three Deep Diver, three Night Diver, one Rescue Diver and one Emergency First Response Instructor courses!

Here are some of the great photos that we took while we were underwater this year:

Thomas leads the ground down to the reef below!

As a proud and newly certified Open Water diver, Sarah waves hello!

We named the dog Indiana, but we call this one Nolan.

Kari and her Deep Divers celebrate their emergence from the abyss... alive!

A splendid toadfish shows off his pecks - a rare sight indeed!

Cozumel's invasive lionfish shows off his spines!

A caribbean reef octopus on the hunt after darkness falls.

A group shot showing all the different level divers on the trip.

Beach Clean-up

But it wasn't all fun and games while we were on Cozumel island. To give back to the community for their beautiful national parks, we all went out for an afternoon on the eastern side of the island to lend some elbow grease cleaning up the garbage that accumulates on the beaches there.

Matthew hauls one of the 34 bags of garbage back to the truck.

Juan from Chac-Choc tours helps bundle up some rope!

Nolan is ready for his Corona!

Fred loads the last bag into the back of the truck.

So with that being said, I'll leave you with this beautiful sunset from our balcony. I miss you, Mexico...

A view from our balcony at sunset. (Photo by Sarah M.)

This year we've got 15 divers coming down to Blue Angel Resort in Cozumel; for 7 of them, this will be their first time diving in Open Water! The rest of us have a big week ahead as well, with Night, Deep and PPB specialties running through the week, along with a Rescue Diver Course and my own Emergency First Responder Instructor course.

The 2011 U of A Scuba Appreciation Club ready for another boat dive!

When you are packing, remember that I put together a kick-ass to-do list, and if you're looking to read a little bit more about the Cozumel experience check out the Blue Angel Scuba School's blog and one recent traveller's thoughts on a her trip to the area. Our guidebook can be downloaded to assuage our friends and family and strike jealousy into their hearts!

Extremely soft sand near Coconut's bar.

Click continue reading for the rest of the trip:

The First Week

My friend Nolan and I arrived a week in advance so we could complete some scuba training with the very best scuba instructors, Kari and Matthew Atkins, and so we could tour around Cozumel Island and do touristy kinds of things before the rest of the group arrived. We worked with Kari to complete our Fish Identification and Underwater Naturalist certifications. We were ready to visit the reef when the rest of the group arrived!

Nolan saying hello (Kari in the background).

In addition the the dive training that Nolan and I did on the shore of Blue Angel, we also did a tour of the island. We rented a Tuk-Tuk (roughly translates to 'Death-Death'), and rode out to visit the San Gervasio ruins and visit the east coast of the island. In addition to dining at the finest restaurants we could find (I ordered a cheeseburger), we took the Tuk-Tuk out at 5 in the morning to see the sun rise over the ocean.

Driving a Tuk-Tuk through the city.

Gateway to San Gervasio (blur courtesy of our terrible tour guide).

View from Coconuts bar on the east coast of Cozumel Island.

The Second Week

The second week of the trip marked the arrival of the rest of the U of A Scuba Appreciation Club. In total we had 15 divers that participated throughout the week. Many of the divers were working on certifications of their own, some doing the Night and Deep specialties, while others completed their Advanced Open Water certification. I finished a total of 7 specialties and my divemaster course.

The U of A Scuba Appreciation Club ready for another boat dive!

Group shot on Palancar Bricks.

Nolan hovering about the sand at Paradise Reef. Best UW photo on the trip.

It was nice to have finished the Fish ID and UW Naturalist course before the group arrived, since it meant that Nolan, Kari and I were the de facto experts on IDing fish, coral, and anything else people asked about. For the most part I think we did a pretty good job, and we added a lot of different fish to our list. We saw a number of nurse sharks, turtles, seahorses, eagle rays and large groupers, in addition to the gamut of Caribbean fish that frequent the reefs. Some of the rarer fish included juvenile Drumfish and a few Splendid Toadfish.

The Last Days

The second week was filled with diving and studying and resting and eating; it didn't leave a lot of time for exploring the city with the rest of the group (who I hope had enough spare time to get some solid touristy stuff in). But the final few days with the group were action packed. For an extended surface interval before the group returned by plane we planned an excursion to Kari's secret tidal pool on the east coast.

Kari and Nolan protecting their beer in the tidal pool.

After the rest of the tour left, Nolan and I returned to the mainland to spend a few days before returning home ourselves. One of our big attractions was visiting Xcaret. Nolan spent a day visiting Chichen Itza, but you'll have to ask him about that.

Simulated Mayan ritual at Xcaret.

Sunset at Blue Angel.

I can't wait for next year's trip!!

A Conch shell and bottle on the Blue Angel shore dive

A Sharp Tail Eel hunts among debris on the sandy bottom

A peaceful Yellow Ray that I accidentally disturbed displaying his spine

A Spotted Eel watches curiously from his hidey-hole

Nolan did his first night dive with me, followed by massages on the beach to cap things off.

On Tuesday we rented a vehicular death-trap: the Tuk-Tuk, and did a tour of the island, stopping at the San Gervasio ruins, and continuing on to the east side of the island to see Coconuts bar and the beaches.  Thursday morning we got up early and headed back to a beach on the east coast to watch the sunrise. The Tuk-Tuk was returned (thank Ixchel!) sans incident, except for running out of gas that left us stranded no less than a single block from the gas station.

Here's a picture from the Prima Trattoria restaurant on Wednesday morning to give you guys a better look at the downtown and port of Cozumel.

The view from the Prima Trattoria of downtown Cozumel

The weather there looks pleasant enough too.

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We've been working hard on making this trip very affordable for students and members of the U of A Scuba Club and we're happy to announce that the price this year will be $650 which includes all hotel costs, diving costs (not including rentals) and breakfasts for 7 nights at Blue Angel Resort. To break it down a little further, the details are as follows:

- 7 nights at Blue Angel Resort in a shared room (choice of roommate available, added cost for a single room)
- 7 buffet style breakfasts at Blue Angel's amazing restaurant (note: this isn't a cheap continental breakfast; bacon, eggs, pancakes, fruit, coffee, etc... are all served!)
- 10 boat dives on Cozumel's protected reef, along with unlimited shore diving

The dates for the trip correspond with U of A's spring break, which falls between February 20th and 27th for the 2010/2011 academic year. The days are are also nicely aligned with a Westjet Edmonton to Cozumel direct flight, which avoids many of the travelling pitfalls we experienced last year due to travelling through the US. In any case, you are free to choose your own flights, but if you're interested in staying up to date with deals, I will be looking for specials on the Westjet flights mentioned previously. At the moment, these regularly priced flights are about $450 each way, or $900 total. I expect to get these flights half-price when the come on sale towards the end of the summer. In terms of renting gear, our sponser Ocean Sports is providing us with a fabulous rental deal over the course of the week. For last years trip, all told the rental was around $100.

Additional meals at Blue Angel's restaurant are extremely affordable. If prices remain similar to last year, you can eat happily and healthily over those 7 days for about $200 per person (about $15 per meal). I highly recommend this option, because it takes a load off in terms of planning, shopping for and storing groceries when on Cozumel Island.

A conservative estimate puts the trip cost around $1850 plus certification fees, although this can be as low as $1500 if a good deal on flights comes around. If you know you'd like to join us on the trip, please contact me using this address (cozumel@uofascuba.com) so I can arrange payment of your deposit to Ocean Sports through Megan Plemel (megan@oceansports.ca). Please feel free to address me directly with any questions. I hope you decide to come, it's a ton of fun!

Here are a couple of images from last year that might entice you a little... This first one is a group shot on our last day in the dive shop where we'd store our gear and get set up for our daily dives.

Here's a shot of the restaurant with the dive shop below. The view from the hotel is incredible: facing west you can see the sun set every day, along with the ocean and multiple cruise ships that amble by to stock the island's resorts with eager tourists.

A group shot on the boat, taken candidly. We're on our way back from two dives.

Enjoying some local entertainment while out for dinner in downtown Cozumel.

Preparing for a night dive off the beach at the resort.

Heading into the darkness!

First of all, let me say that the dive resort we stayed at was beautiful! There wasn't a beach, per se, to lounge on, but there was plenty of space to lie out in the sun. Our fantastic photographer, who graced me with his pictures, (I broke my camera two days into the trip) took all the pictures that I've posted here. On the right is a photo from the hotel overlooking the restaurant (above) and dive shop (below). The light blue water was the shore dive domain, and in the distance you can see the fence of the ray pen of the neighbouring property. The package we booked with Ocean Sports and Blue Angel included unlimited shore diving, even at night. There was a tonne of life at every dive site we visited, due mostly to the fact that the area was designated the Cozumel Reefs National Park by presidential decree in 1996. Also included in our package were two boat dives a day for five days with additional boat dives at $50 for two. Over the course of six days, my dive number more than doubled, with 18 logged dives by the end of the week. As a group, we had four divers earn their PADI Advanced Open Water certification, with Peak Performance Bouyancy, Underwater Naturalist, Underwater Navigation, Deep and Night dives. We also had one of our group complete his Night specialty. Our instructor for the week, Kari Atkins, who is in the photo above as well as the videos below, was pure, 100%, FDA approved AWESOME! I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, so before I bore you to death with all the little details, get comfortable, maybe have a bathroom break, and when you're ready, hit up the two videos below along with the commentary below. Both were produced by the Talented Randy Travis of RandyTravisUnderwater.com.

This first video is the Santa Rosa Wall, which was a little under an hour away from the resort by boat. As you can see, we descended to about twenty meters on the sandy shelf and then swam towards the wall, where the bottom slopes off into the deep. We were immediately graced by a nurse shark, which moved steadily against the current so that all of us had a nice view before we were swept away. The current was very strong, pushing us along the gallery of the reef. It was nice for me though, since I was suffering from blisters on my feet from all the activity earlier that week, and if you watch carefully you can see me with my fins crossed, still keeping up with the rest of the group. The dives on the wall were my favourites because of the large number of swim-throughs, small pseudo-caves made out of reef material, that were very interesting to explore and practice our buoyancy skills. Out of all the dives, this one was the most desolate of life, with a very low number of fish, eels and rays. You can compare this to the second video.

This second video was taken on Paradise Reef. This is where we did the Underwater Naturalist part of our Advance Open Water specialty. As opposed to the wall dive, this one was at a depth of about fifteen meters with a relatively sandy bottom. There was an abundance of life here, which was lucky since our requirements for the certification were to identify four types of vertebrate animals, four types of invertebrate animals, and two types of plants. You can see me and the other divers examining our waterproof identification booklets along the way, writing what we see on our dive slates. I bought my booklets so I could show everyone what we saw, since my camera was broken. It's funny what diving does to you; I remember being surrounded by dozens of species of fish and not being able to find any of them in the booklet, and at about fifteen minutes into the dive I hadn't written anything down. I was getting so frustrated and I finally recognised that I was stressed and came to a full-stop, took a few deep breaths and said, "I'm going to flip to a page in my book, and wait until one of the fish on that page swims in front of me." Sure enough, about ten seconds later I ID'd the first fish, and I completed the exercise over the course of the next ten minutes.

All in all, the week passed very quickly. Scuba diving tires you about pretty fast, and two dives a day is more than enough for most people to be asleep before their head hits the pillow, especially when you're wrestling with current on the majority of the dives. On top of the dives, we would walk into Cozumel city and get dinner and drinks.  Luckily, while we were there, there was a three-day parade many kilometers that went back and forth along the main drag in the evening. We all went out one of the evenings and enjoyed the festivities (and $1.50 one liter beers)! The restaurant at the dive resort was phenomenal, and even more impressive than how delicious and filling the meals were, was the final price, which hardly put a dent in my overall trip budget!

There is much more to say, but I'll stop here for now. If you're interested in more details of my trip, feel free to contact me or leave a comment below. I can't emphasize enough how much fun I had on this trip. I volunteered to organise the trip again next year with the help of the Scuba Club and Ocean Sports, so I count myself very lucky to be able to have another awesome experience next year!