Another great day in paradise has passed us by. Yesterday we were up early and down to the docks by 9 am. We met our new friend Wilberth and he suited us up for the dive ahead. We had a 20 min boat ride out to the world-famous Palancar dive site. The waves were big enough to provide a fun ride full of salt spray, good thing it was a sunny day! Since it was our first time diving in a while we decided to dive on the Palancar Gardens, which is not as deep as some of the other Palancar sites. We fell into the abyss of the ocean and floated with the current down to the gardens of coral. The water was amazingly clear and warm (80 degrees F) and we could see a multitude of colors and textures covering the giant reef shelves. We followed our dive master through numerous coral caves bursting with colour and past amazing animal life we have never seen. We were able to see a small sea turtle, some giant grouper, a massive trunk fish, the biggest lobster I have ever seen and many more types of fish that were new to me. The first dive lasted 45 minutes and I reached a maximum depth of 95 feet, fairly impressive for our first time diving on Cozumel. We hit the beach and had a quick lunch of various fruits while we waited for our 1 hour interval to be over. After feeding the fish with our left over papaya, we all got back on the boat and headed for the next dive site Cedar Pass. This dive was not as deep, and was a whole different experience. We drift dove with the current along a large plateau of corrals. The animal life here was much more abundant and we were able to see the biggest sea turtle I have ever seen! The pictures don’t do it justice, but it was twice as big as the turtle we seen at Punta Sur with Chantel and Paul! There was a giant green moray eel with a body as thick as my leg, a nudibranch, a pipe fish, a cool tube like jelly fish, a sting ray,a few barracuda, grey and black nurse sharks, a massive grandpa parrot fish, giant angle fish bigger than a trucks steering wheel, schools of new species of fish I have never seen before, more lobsters, crabs, topless mermaids, etc. It was unbelievable! After 45 min at 55 feet of depth Liz was running out of air so I headed back to the surface with her. Everyone else surfaced over the next 15 minutes and we swapped excited stories about what we had seen. We headed back to the apartment and soon Tati and Chris (Daryl and Nakitas German friends) were calling us to hangout. We had a good time socializing and swapping stories but soon it was time for El Moro. After another great meal we considered calling a taxi but we waddled home instead.
P.S. Mandy and her boyfriend Scott will be joining us from Jan 5th to Jan 12th (the same day Dave arrives for a month) which will be super fun. We are probably leaving this apartment at the end of this month so we can move into a house, so hopefully we have settled in by then and have a room ready for them! We are looking forward to more good times with more friends!!
Diving pics provided by Daryl and Nakita (superstarphotos.ca)
cozumelomuerte 
Yaaay!! Scott can’t wait to scuba dive (I am a little terrified) and I want to see crocodiles! And turtles! Thanks so much you guys!
Do you guys have any diving experience? We would need to preplan a suba lesson for you if you don’t. We can go to Punta Sur and see the crocs any day you want! We can’t wait to see you again!
Scott has had a lesson! I am happy to leave it to him and avoid a lesson and session 😀 How much do you think we should budget for food per day? Does 5000 pesos for the week for us sound reasonable? I have no idea! hahha
It breaks down like this. To do a whole lesson and dive through our friend Wilberth it will be more expensive becasue you don’t have experience but it will also be way cheaper than anywhere else. We have to talk to him, but since your first dives will be off shore instead of a boat it will be even cheaper than the boat dive we went on. I would expect well under 100 dollers each including the equipent and all you need. Our boat dive was 60 CAD each and shore dives for us would be around 30 CAD each. Your food budget depends on where and what you like to eat. Street vendors and taco places are the cheapest (and some of the best) and generally work out to less than 10 dollers per meal per couple. If you want to go check out the fancy places you can expect more! Examples: Liz and I like tacos(5-25 peso, or 0.40-2.00 CAD each) and tortas(15-40 peso, or each), if you want a meal at a tourist place or a super fancy resturant it can be 8-50 dollars a dish depending on the place. Also, you might have to make some exceptions as a vegetarian, people here really like meat! We like to buy groceries and make breakfast at home so that is even cheaper! We can make vege meals and go for salads at Hugo’s resturant anytime.
Be aware of these expenses also: Travel from the cancum airport to the Cozumel seaport. Taxi from the Cancun airport directly to the passenger ferry port in Playa Del Carmen is around 500-600 peso (around 300 peso a person) or you can negotiate a better rate when you first enter the cab. The ferry is 144 peso (12 CAD) each and we can pick you up right on the other side. We will give you our Mexican cell # so you can call us before you leave for Cozumel. You will have to pay this again on your way home.
The other option is we drive to Cancun and then drive you back. This is more expenseive(500 peso ferry each way plus fuel), as well as slower (the car ferry does 15kph and the passenger ferry is over double that) and it would be a 6-8 hour day for us because the car ferry only runs a few times a day vs. the passenger running almost every hour. We suggest you just take the passenger ferry!
Room and Board. I know you were expecting to pay 100 USD a week to stay at an apartment for a week. They jacked up the rates to 400 a week so we just rented a giant house instead. You can rent a room from us for the same cost and it will be bigger and better anyway!
Water: the cheapest way to buy it is in the big jug, it is 75 peso for the giant jug and then 25 peso when you return it for a new one. You might not have to worry about water because booze is CHEAP! A 60oz bottle of bacardi is un 20 dollars, that usually lasts us a couple weeks or more. A case of beer is 90 peso (7 CAD).
You can easily live off 5000 peso per week just be aware that you might have to pay extra for the touristy stuff( Punta Sur 14 dollars each, bars charge 25 peso a drink, scuba is extra, etc.)
Just ask if you need more info!!