Psykokristin's travel blogs:
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The diving in Cozumel better be good!
Entry 26 of 42 | show all | print this entry |
I've just reached Cozumel, taking the ferry there from Playa del Carmen. I haven't been here for more than 2 hours, but I am not impressed so far. I've found a hotel and negotiated a good price for 6 days and I've found someone to dive with for my stay. I'm praying that the diving will be worth staying here. I thought Playa was pretty tacky but it's a great place compared to downtown Cozumel, Playa del Carmen has at least got a beach where you can relax. Here in Cozumel, there are jewellery shops and horrible souvenir shops everywhere, it's noisy and polluted and the cruise ship tourists are swarming the place. The diving is supposed to be superb, but if it isn't, I'll go back to Playa and do some more cenote diving instead. I'll give it a couple of days first to see how the diving is. I might rent a car since I want to get to the beaches and relax there after my dives during the day.
I had a great two cenote dives yesterday. I went to Grand Cenote and Chac Mool, they were both excellent with beautiful colours and formations. They were much less crowded than Dos Ojos. At Chac Mool there was only the guide and myself so we had the whole place to ourselves. I have newfound respect for cave diving though, as a small incident made me realise that you really need special training for diving in caves. I was in a very dark area with almost no visibility due to something called a halocline. The freshwater caves of Yucatan are connected with the sea, and a halocline is formed where freshwater and salt water meet in the caves. When salt and fresh water mix it looks like a clear thick soup. It's hard to describe, it's see through, but you can't see your own hand in front of you, it feels like you have impaired vision all of a sudden. Anyway, I was in the middle of this halocline when I realised that the salt water made me more bouyant so I started to ascend without wanting to, there was also a weak current, pulling me up a bit and there was nothing to hold on to to keep me down towards the bottom. I had taken off one kilo of my weights, so I was only diving with one kilo which isn't a lot to keep you down, but it was sufficient for freshwater only. I started to feel very uncomfortable for a while there, and we turned back and got out of the halocline so I was neutrally bouyant again. Uncontrolled ascents is bad enough in the ocean, in a cave they must be avoided at all costs since you hit a roof and can get stuck in there. The dive was beautiful, but the little incident made me realise the dangers of cave diving and I'll look into getting certified for it. At the end of that dive we even saw tiny fresh water turtles, very cool looking creatures! And the last dive lasted 75 minutes which is a new record for me!!
I ended my day of diving yesterday by watching the sunset and drinking pina coladas from the rooftop bar at Basico, which made a very relaxing end of a long day. I had been clubbing the day before with 12 fraternity guys from Holland. Some of them snorkelled with me the day before at Dos Ojos. I felt very safe with them and got less "do you want a Mexican boyfriend?" offers from guys on the streets... But clubbing and diving doesn't really mix so I won't be doing much of that in Cozumel. It was fun to go out one night though.
Oh by the way for those who are curious about my neck, it's still "in" place, but it's hanging by a thread so I need to relax and sleep a lot these days...
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| 26. | The diving in Cozumel better be good! - Cozumel, Mexico Nov 18, 2006 |
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