In Jan 2004, I went to Cozumel. It was a quickly planned last minute trip. Flew into Cancun as the fare was much cheaper, and timed it well to catch the bus to Playa del Carmen and caught the ferry to Coz. Stayed at the Hotel Flamingo which is on the north end of town a few blocks from the town square. Quite a nice place, though not luxury. Friendly reception staff, once originally from San Francisco.

Booked diving through the service associated with the hotel, Aquatic Sports. They were ok, but will try someone else next time. Those of us booked with them (and there were only two when I was there) took a taxi to their center slightly south of town. From there, we got on their pickup and drove further south to the marina near the El Presidente hotel. There, we got on their boat, a slow chugger. It was comfortable enough for two, at any rate. On the way to the reefs, passed left and right by the fast 6-pack boats, but as a result, ran into only one group underwater

For the first day, we were guided by the owner, Sergio Sandoval. He's a very nice guy, but not a particularly great guide as he takes a camera down and that is his primary interest. Also, he uses an aggresive computer algorithm and as a result, I had to follow him 10 ft above him because I was running out of NDL towards the end of the dive with my Suunto. He also didn't follow the pre-dive plan -- ascent at 750psi, which was disconcerting to my newbie buddy. But he was good company above water. Here I am with him on the boat.

On subsequent days, we were guided by Sergio's son, Sergio Jr, who was a much better guide and more attentive to safety, checking gauges more often, and doing a proper ascent and safety stop. Here he is relaxing betweeen dives.

The dives were all quite nice, but there was noticeable algae growth on some of the reefs, and fish life wasn't great. Also, Sergio Sr did some swim throughs that were pretty tight and seem to me problematic with great potential for diver damage and silt damage to the coral. The main reason for these swim-throughs was to take our pictures.

All in all, a decent trip. Couple of dives in the morning, lunch, siesta and general relaxing, repeat.

Did another quick trip down to Coz with scubaboard.com folks. This time, flew directly to Coz, so much more convenient. Stayed at Caribe Blu, just north of town. Nice basic hotel with its own pier and attached dive shop (Blue Angel). We dove with Christi of Blue XT Sea. This trip, compared to the last, was much better, especially dive-wise, as Christi's outfit is top notch and we did better sites. Lots of nice swim throughs. Sight of the trip was at Santa Rosa -- drifting slowly along, we saw, in the distance, what looked like smoke along the wall. It was a huge school of silverfish, just really beautiful to see. Also took Nitrox certification with Christi.