Diving in Cozumel

“Some of the best diving in the world” is what I have heard about Cozumel. It was made famous by Jacques Cousteau when he visited here in 1960 and introduced the world to the amazing corals and tropical fish on Palancar Reef. I had high expectations. I was not disappointed.

A bottlenose dolphin greeted us as we entered the area, and once we stopped at the dive site there was a loggerhead turtle basking on the surface.

Once descended I was immediately impressed with the absolute beauty of the reef. Large colourful coral and fish enmasse lured me in. Within 2 minutes of the dive, we saw a Nurse Shark. I was also very happy to see a pair of Scrawled Filefish, which was on the target fish species on the Marine Conservation Project, but didn’t see one. Also on the target fish list was the beautiful Sargassum Trigger, a massive Goliath Grouper, about 4 foot long, and the very elusive Queen Parrotfish. Also quite prevalent on the reef, unlike at Punta Gruesa were Queen Angelfish.

About a third of my way through the first dive I became incredibly thankful of all my diving training when the cap of my regulator broke and I found I was breathing water. I quickly yanked out my secondary air source hose and started to breath again. Yes, I was in Mexico! But this kind of thing can easily be avoided by diving companies if gear is maintained regularly. Needless to say, all the other divers and the staff were not impressed with the equipment I hired. Neither was I and I was sure to complain once I returned the gear.

My diving continued without any other problems and I enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The current was quite strong and I enjoyed the feeling of flying over the reef. I saw many lobsters hiding away in caves, some lovely big Midnight Parrotfish, and Ocean Triggerfish.

I was really impressed with the diving here. It’s going to be really hard to top.