In Reply to: Vis at PV? posted by Labugman on April 06, 2006 at 22:09:58:

Cozumel – August 2006

Like the swallows to Capistrano, we return to Cozumel each year in August, with a group
of family and friends. This is just another in a long line of Cozumel trip reports. If you
can't be there, you can live vicariously through pictures and words. This was the trip of
the turtles – we saw turtles on nearly every dive. Along with the classic critters, we
found some new and interesting ones. Enjoy.

Saturday: We left Los Angeles early in the morning, flying Continental
Airline's red-eye to Houston where we connected with our flight to San Miguel de
Cozumel. All went well, our luggage arrived with us, and we arrived at Scuba Club
Cozumel in time for lunch.

The lovely Sofia spoke those magic words that warm our hearts every time we return,
"Welcome home."

Scuba Club Cozumel

Scuba Club Cozumel is semi-all inclusive: room, meals, diving. It's located a short walk
south of downtown San Miguel on the water. A dedicated dive resort for divers, it's been
our favorite getaway on Cozumel Island for many years. The ambience of Spanish tile
and architecture is appealing to those of us who hate cookie-cutter hotels. The staff
members are gracious and friendly, attentive to your needs without being intrusive.
Unlimited shore diving is included in the price – take a tank and go diving whenever you
want on the house reef. The dive boats are reasonably fast, with heads, with marine
heads, oxygen, radios, and shade. Tanks are the ubiquitous Al-80's, filled to 3000 psi.
The food is great and varied: buffet breakfast, diver special lunches or order off the
menu, and choice of three entrees for dinner. Eat, sleep, dive – it doesn't get much better
than this. Oh, they also have free internet connection available in the bar for your email.
No phones or TV in the rooms – IMHO a good thing on vacation.

Lunch: Pan de pescado (sort of a stacked fish taco with mole sauce.)

After all of the formalities of checking in at the front desk, signing the waivers at the dive
shop, greeting the staff, we unpacked our gear and got ready to do a shore dive. The
water is no more that 22 feet deep near to shore in front of the hotel. The current was
moving slowly to the north and visibility was excellent. The water was a very
comfortable 83 degrees. We spent an hour and forty-seven minutes exploring the bottom.
Just beyond the Mayan temple, I found a flying gurnard. These strange bottom fish
resemble grasshoppers; they walk along the bottom using their fins as little feet, turning
over rocks in hopes of a quick snack. The long pectoral fins can be flared, exposing a
pattern of blue spots and stripes to frighten potential predators and delight underwater
photographers. Deborah motioned to me, frantically; she had found two more gurnards!
As we watched, the first fish joined the other two in their walk across the bottom. In
addition to the gurnards, we observed blennies, an octopus, and a mantis shrimp guarding
his hole. A small electric ray let me get up close – I wonder if small ones are lower
voltage than big ones – this one would be about 3 Volts.

Flying Gurnards (Dactylopterus volitans)

Mantis shrimp (Lysiosquilla sp)

The Mayan Temple off-shore in front of the Hotel Cozumel:

Lesser Electric Ray (Narcine brasiliensis)

Dinner: choice of Chicken marinara, Mexican flank steak, or BBQ shrimp; Kahlua flan
or apple strudel for dessert.

Sunday: After breakfast, we loaded up our dive gear and boarded the Reef Star
for the first day of two-tank boat diving. This year's group was the smallest we've had in
many, many Augusts of coming to Cozumel, only fourteen divers, with a few stragglers
joining us during the week. The first reef dive was at San Francisco; normally done as a
second dive, we had the reef to ourselves. Wayne got my attention in time to see a grunt
try to eat a brittle star – after munching on a few legs, the fish carried the star around in
its mouth for a while before deciding that it was not edible and spitting the poor starfish
out, sans a few legs. I found a spotted cleaner shrimp and switched to supermacro mode
for the shot. If I ever get a dslr camera, I'm going to miss the ability to switch from wide
angle to macro on the fly. For the second, shallower dive, we moved north to Paradise
Reef. There, the current was running counter to normal, so we drifted from the wreck of
the International Pier towards the south. I'm always amazed at the number and variety of
fish on Paradise – this is truly a photographer's pot of gold, with lots to see and plenty of
time to take pictures.

The dive group.

White Grunt (Haemulon plumeri) eating a brittlestar

Pederson cleaner shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni)

Queen angelfish (Holocanthus ciliaris)

Slender filefish (Monacanthus tuckeri)

Lunch: Chiles rellenos.

Our afternoon shore dive turned up a spotted jawfish in its hole, a golden moray eel and
lots of sailfin blennies in their holes.

Spotted Scorpionfish (Scorpaena plumeri)

Banded Jawfish (Opistognathus macrognathus)

Dinner: Mahi mahi in papillote, lemon dill chicken, or spaghetti al tonno – banana split
or coconut cake.

Monday: Palancar Caves is one of my favorite dive sites – apartment size
buttresses of coral, with overhangs and tunnels. This is also a place where you are almost
guaranteed to see turtles. Sure enough, we were met at the drop off by a medium sized
turtle who wasn't the least bit concerned to see divers. It's a good sign when the turtles
aren't afraid, it means that the divers aren't chasing them or trying to touch them. One
little turtle came up off the reef to let me take its picture but almost ran into the camera –
Hey, little guy, I can't focus that close! We finished the dive up on Colombia Shallows,
spending our safety stop looking for critters on the coral heads in less than twenty feet of
water. Tormentos had a very nice mild current, not too fast, not too slow. We did the
entire reef, Jesús booked down the reef at the beginning to show us a couple of pipefish
in the sand. Yes, I know the dive guides know where to look, but finding these little guys
among the debris on the bottom is not easy. The reef ends abruptly with a coral head
followed by lots of sand. On the coral head were some little blennies on the coral that
were not too shy to pose for me.

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Pipefish (Cosmocampus elucens)

Neon Goby (Gobiosoma oceanops) on coral

Lunch: Tortas de pollo.

The afternoon shore dive featured an octopus trying to get a helmet shell out of its shell
to eat. We went back to see the jawfish, only to watch as he/she took a rock, backed into
the hole and closed up for the day.

Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) eating a helmet shell

Purple Mouth Eel (Gymnothorax vicinus)

Dinner: Vodka penne, rib eye steak, or pescado Tikin Xic. Pecan pie or canolli cake

Tuesday: Turtles, turtles, turtles…and more turtles. Colombia Reef never fails
to disappoint, as soon as we dropped onto the reef, we spotted a turtle busily eating a
sponge, totally oblivious to the divers. After everyone else got through taking pictures
and gawking, I took my turn, shooting a lot of pictures to ensure a keeper or two. When I
looked up to join the group, they were nowhere to be seen. I knew which direction they
had gone, so I kicked down the reef in the general direction, hoping to catch up to them.
Colombia consists of a series of parallel reefs, and I didn't know which one the group had
taken, so I looked for bubbles in the distance and caught up with several different groups
of divers – not any of them belonging to me. Oh, there's a turtle, I stopped to take his
picture. Oh, there's another turtle. OK, I must have passed the dive group. So, I poked
around, taking a few pictures of turtles and looking under the reef. Whoa, a nice big
nurse shark...whoa, there are two of them in a low cave. I pulled my strobes out to the
sides of the camera and carefully moved into the cave and, with extended arms, took a
few Hail Mary pictures, hoping the sand wouldn't be blown out by the flash. Carefully, I
backed out of the hole, turned and ran into Jesús. Hola, Jesús, there are two nurse sharks
in this hole and I ran ahead of the group to find them for you…really. We finished the
dive on the shallower part of the reef and ran into some more turtles. I love this place.

Rules are meant to be broken, "Always shoot up." Looking down on the divers.

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum)

Jesús & Flying Gurnards

On Villa Blanca, the current was strongly running to the north and we hopped on the train
for a wild ride. Jesús rattled his noise-maker indicating he had found something. He
made a sign for small and beckoned me to hurry up! I thought to myself, it must really be
something if he is trying that hard to get my attention it was, a pair of purple crowned
nudibranchs following each other in an act called "trailing." Not only was this
interesting, but the nudibranchs were ones I had never seen before. I am a card-carrying
nudiphile, so this was very exciting. The rest of the dive was great, but seeing the new
nudies was excellent. A couple of spotted drum, some lobsters, and the seven cables to
the mainland were other highlights. We finished our safety stop in front of SCC, got
back on the Reef Diver for the quick transfer to the dock, just as the rain started to fall.

Purple-crowned Sea Goddesses (Mexichromis kempfi) preciously described as
(Chromodoris kempfi)

Spotted Drum, intermediate stage (Equetus punctatus)

Lunch: enchiladas verdes con crema.

Afternoon shore dive – we swam south, into a mild current, looking for the gurnards we
had found earlier. Just off the Mayan temple, we spotted three of them. This time, it was
obvious what was going on, two of the gurnards (males?) were aggressively blocking
each other as they followed the third (female?) gurnard around on the bottom. We went
back to look for the octopus we had seen before, but he/she was not home. Not too far
away, we found him/she in a piece of pipe. While taking a picture of a banded cleaner
shrimp, I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye – three little mushroom
scorpionfish, no bigger than a quarter were sitting together on the bottom. I have seen
these fish before and thought they were juveniles, but no, these were adults. On the way
back to the exit, I swam over two gurnards and didn't see them; George was behind me
and saw them.

Banded Coral Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus)

Mushroom Scorpionfish (Scorpaena inermis)

For dinner: BBQ shrimp, fettuccini Alfredo, or Pollo Valladolid. Upside-down cake or
strawberry mouse for dessert.

Wednesday: In thinking about where we wanted to dive, I decided on La
Francesa, part of the Palancar reef system that isn't often dived. We followed the wall,
swimming through the reef in tunnels that were opened up by the hurricane. A school of
barracuda buzzed the reef tantalizingly out of camera range. Deborah spied a huge
yellow-fin grouper while I had my head in a hole looking for lobsters.

Coney, yellow phase (

Spotted Drum (Equetus punctatus)

Queen Angelfish (Holocanthus ciliaris)

Chankanaab was beat up pretty badly by the storm last October but is recovering nicely;
the fish are plentiful and lots of lobsters and crabs hide in the deep hole of the reef. A
couple of big groupers were resting under ledges and I snuck in to get a shot or two
before they got nervous. I found a few yellow head jawfish, but none with eggs.

Black Grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci)

Yellowmouth Grouper (Mycteroperca interstitialis)

Sailor's Choice (Haemulon parra)

Rough Fileclam (Lima scabra)

For lunch, we had carne y frijoles con quesadillas.

Another long shore dive: we went to see the gurnards near the Maya temple; the odd
male was gone leaving the one male/female couple walking around turning over rocks
with their pectoral fins – very strange. I was able to locate the little mushroom
scorpionfish that we saw the previous day. On the way back to the exit point, I found
another banded jawfish in its hole north of the pier.

Flying Gurnards (Dactylopterus volitans)

Star Horseshoe Worm (Pomatostegus stellatus)

Dinner: Filet mignon, paella, or spinach fettuccini; cheese cake or lemon tart.

Thursday: Colombia Deep! We dropped on the last pinnacle, did a swim
through and crossed the sand chute to the main reef. Several turtles (ho hum), permits,
garden eels, and groupers were seen. The second dive was Bolones de Chankanaab (one
of my favorite dive sites) where we cruised from large coral head to the next, looking at
the various fish species, lobsters, crabs, etc. We did not encounter the submarine, but we
could hear the servo-motors whine beyond visible range. The current was fairly strong
and we finished the dive on Chankanaab reef itself.

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Caribbean Spiny Lobster (Panulirus argus)

Peppermint goby on coral (Coryphopterus lipecnes)

Peppermint goby on brain coral (Coryphopterus lipecnes)

Social Feather Duster Worms (Bispira brunnea)

Lunch: tostadas de pescado.

Shore dive – the current is going south and is very strong, so we opted to go north a ways
instead of with the flow. What a great decision, the strength of the current only got
greater during the dive, so we didn't go far. We visited the banded jawfish and found
three more. Deborah found a neat little crab we had never seen before, a gaudy clown
crab. A school of squid passed us and in pairs would rise towards the surface to fight;
when they did, they were oblivious to the camera so I could get close for a shot. Squid
battle (no, not the Iron Chef kind) is over in a second or two, but from the colors they
flashed during and after, it must be exciting. I took a few blenny pictures before we
returned to the well for our exit; another wonderful afternoon in the water.

Gaudy Clown Crab (Platypodiella spectabilis)

Caribbean Reef Squid battle it out (Sepioteuthis sepioidea)

Roughhead Blenny (Acanthemblemaria aspera)

Juvenile Spotted Drum (Equetus punctatus)

Chicken fajitas, broiled mahi mahi, fussili with broccoli and almonds; strawberry
shortcake or swan cream puffs.

Friday: Santa Rosa Wall was our first destination. We were plagued by more
damn turtles – they are so pretty and personable that it's hard to resist taking pictures of
them. When feeding on the sponges, they totally ignore the divers. For some reason,
they soak up strobe light – probably the green absorbing the energy. I shot wide angle of
the divers on the wall, coming around the formations and overhangs. The jacks that
school at the end of the reef were high in the water column with a few hanging out over
the reefs terrifying the jacks huddled under the reef.

Horseeye Jacks (Caranx latus)

Dr. Jeff

Slender filefish (Monacanthus tuckeri)

Yocab is full of fish. Yes, we saw more turtles! I stopped to take some pictures of a
couple of the larger Thurdilla picta nudibranchs that Jesús pointed out and a tiny, little
slender filefish hiding in a gorgonium.

Sak K'ol for lunch – a tasty Mayan dish consisting of a hard-boiled egg rolled in ground
meat with shredded chicken, in a white gravy. Very interesting.

Shore dive aka "the hunt for the seahorse." No joy – I searched and searched but could
not find the reported black seahorse. But, I did find a new nudibranch, Sea Lettuce –
damn small and almost unrecognizable as a seaslug; I saw something different and
looked closer, when I saw the rhinophores, I knew I had something new. To add to my
excitement, a sea biscuit sea urchin was out crawling over the sand.

Lettuce Sea Slug (Elysia crispata)

Pipefish (Cosmocampus elucens)

Sea Biscuit (Plagiobrissus grandis)

Hawaiian shrimp, Spanish stew, or whiskey linguini with mussels. Pear tart or chocolate
cake (don't forget to ask for a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side).

Saturday: Most of our group returned home, leaving only six of us. We opted to
return to San Francisco in search of a seahorse for Dr. Jeff. Well, the good news was we
found the seahorse, a pretty yellow and orange seahorse, on the beginning of the reef; the
bad news was that the current was ripping and the sand filled the water column so
photography was next to impossible. We spent the majority of the dive being swept
along in the water wind, carrying our useless cameras.

The second dive was Tormentos Reef (backwards) with the current running to the south,
but gently. Not only was the current more amenable to diving, so was the visibility. A
little nurse shark was sleeping under a ledge and a juvenile trunkfish let me get up close
for a picture. I lost the group when I stopped to photograph the trunkfish and came up
alone – unfortunately Deborah and the rest of the group found an eagle ray!

Nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum)

Baby Smooth trunkfish (Lactophrus triqueter)

Jayne & Cathy were at the dock when we returned to shore; they came for the second
week. The digital photographic workshop was scheduled to start on Monday. Although I
would certainly benefit from the workshop, I didn't want to skip any shore dives or
siestas to attend the classes! Decisions, decisions, decisions…It turned out that I was
able to squeeze in Bonnie's Pelnar's workshops and still get in an afternoon dive & nap.

Bonnie's website = href="www.theunderwaterphotographer.com">www.theunderwaterphotographer.com>

Bonnie has some great stories – most of them start out with, "we were drinking tequila"
and end with "somehow we all ended up naked." Other tales start with, "we were
drinking rum…"

File this one under, "You know you are in Mexico when…"
Bonnie gets in the mood for diving in Cozumel.

Carne a la Yucateca.

Shore dive with Jayne, Cathy, Jeff, Deborah, and George up the Mayan temple to find the
gurnards to show to the newbies. It was into the current, both ways! We found four
gurnards this time; two of them were making amorous gestures. Deborah, Jeff and I
looked again for the seahorse – I don't think it's really there. On the way back to the
hotel (into a wrong way current) I found a dark colored snapping shrimp.

Rusty Goby (Priolepis hypoliti)

Dark Snapping Shrimp (Alpheus sp.)

Sand Diver (Synodus intermedius)

Parradillada mixta de mariscos, chicken cacciatora, or lasagne; carrot cake or buñuelos.

Sunday: The currents were more normal – mild and running in the correct
direction at Palancar Caves. More turtles…of course and wide-angle opportunities. La
Palma is rapidly recovering from the hurricane damage; the small coral heads on the lip
of the drop off are teeming with life. This is a great place to see splendid toadfish…and
turtles!

Splendid Toadfish (Sanopus splendidus)

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Jorge (regtek) on wall

Pollo asado blanco.

Squid are fascinating creatures. You can see their intelligence in their eyes. We had
gone past the Mayan temple on our shore dive when we ran into six reef squid flying in
tight formation just above the bottom. We crept up on them and they let us get close
when we showed no aggressive actions. We looked at them while they checked us out.
Really cool! I was also able to catch a pistol shrimp out from his corkscrew anemone.

Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea)

Red Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus sp)

Mahi mahi, beef tips a la Mexicana, or penne with vodka. Upside down pineapple cake
or coconut pie.

Monday: We went back to Palancar Caves, but a different part of the reef –
more fantastic structures hanging over the precipice. We are getting tired of seeing
turtles…not.

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Dark School of jacks

Paso del Cedral WALL! Outside of PDC reef is a wall that is seldom dived. Jesús
dropped us off the edge of the drop-off in a mild current. Immediately we saw turtles,
several big black groupers, and a very healthy reef with huge sponges. Deborah spied a
free-swimming nurse shark and a very large turtle at the same time – she didn't know
which way to point. We followed the shark down the reef to where it settled in under a
ledge. Unfortunately, the shark spooked before we could drop to the bottom. The very
large shark took off down the edge of the reef. Near the end of the dive, we moved over
the sand to the regular Paso del Cedral formation. There are large numbers of porkfish
here for some unknown reason and they make for very nice pictures.

School of grunts & snappers

Porkfish (tastes like chiken?) (Anisotremus virginicus)

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Picadillo de res.

We opted to do a twilight dive from the shore. Working our way into the current over the
rocky bottom, we were rewarded with a bunch of neat little stuff. I caught a couple of
sailfin blennies fighting, two torpedo rays, and a snake eel that isn't supposed to be in
Cozumel. We even saw the squid that we had seen on previous days. Later, Deborah
kept repeating, "That was a wonderful dive!"

Sailfin Blennies fighting (Emblemaria pandionis)

Black Spotted Snake Eel (Quassiremus productus)

Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepiotehthis sepioidea)

Drunken shrimp, cheese stuffed chicken breast, or gnocchi. Apple strudel or chocolate
mousse.

Dive Cat

Tuesday: A big surprise on Palancar Horseshoe – no turtles! I concentrated on
my wide-angle shots, trying different techniques. I would swim in front of the group to
find a good place with an overhang or sponges and wait for the divers to come by –
frequently they were too far away or not in position. I was trying to get a nice dark blue
background with some color in the foreground. Wide angle is not easy. At the end of our
dive, I put a little yellow plastic seahorse on a sea rod and then gestured wildly to get
Jesús' attention. He fell for it, shook his rattle to get everyone's attention, and then saw
that it wasn't real. I flooded my mask laughing. The second dive was Paradise Reef.
We had a very weak current from the north that we swam slowly into while looking
carefully for the little stuff.

Jesús Zetina DM extraordinaire

George (regtek)

Spendid Toadfish (Sanopus splendidus)

Green moray (Gymnothorax funebris) with a banded coral shrimp on its head

Tamales de pollo.

Deborah and I did a two-hour shore dive alone; George, Cathy, and Jayne were going off
on a 9:00 PM night dive in hopes of seeing the coral spawn. Nine o'clock is too late for
Deborah and me. The shore dive was rather quiet, but the sailfin blennies were doing
their displays – swimming up out of their holes and flaring their fins. It is virtually
impossible to get a shot with the digital shutter lag of my camera. I would wait until the
blenny left its hole, press the shutter, and by the time the camera fired, the blenny would
be back in his hole.

Flamingo Tongue (Cyphoma gibbosum) What's a trip to Cozumel without a little
tongue?

Peacock Flounder (Bothus lunatus)

Penne Andaluz, New York steak, or seafood kabob. Kahlua flan or coconut cake.

Wednesday: Santa Rosa Wall (deep) is Jayne's favorite dive in Cozumel so, of
course, we had to do it. The big sponges on the wall at 90-100 feet make for some great
wide-angle shots.

Sponges on Santa Rosa (aka Jayne's Happy Place)

Gray Angelfish (Pomocanthus arcuatus)

Cardona (wall & reef) is a dive I have never done before. Located just south of Punta
Tunich, it is a low reef subject to strong currents. We started our dive on the wall and the
current was ripping. Turtles, sharks, big groupers and large schools of fish were hiding
under the overhangs out of the flow.

Black Grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci)

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Tacos de carne.

We opted to skip the afternoon dive and go for a night dive off the shore. There were
several octopi out hunting. Deborah found a tulip shell and I took some images of the
critter. After the dive, we raced to get to the restaurant before they stopped taking orders.
It's easy to lose track of time underwater.

Caribbean Reef Octopus (Octopus briareus)

Tulip (Fasciolaria tulipa

Spotted Goatfish with its pajamas on (Pseudopeneus maculates)

Broiled fish in saffron, pollo mole, or spaghetti Medteranean. Cannoli cake or lemon tart.

Thursday: Colombia Reef under fantastic conditions, flat seas, incredible
visibility, and mild current. Of course, we saw turtles, barracuda, groupers, permits,
southern stingrays, and too many other fish to list.

Deborah on wall

Porcupine Puffer (Diodon hystrix)

Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda)

Can you believe we did another new reef? Jesús and Ariel took us to Bolones Dzul Ha –
this one isn't on the maps and I think I will keep it a secret where it's located. Moderate
coral heads rise above a white sand bottom that teem with lobsters, large groupers, and
schools of fish. The white sand is a field of conch, but we did see evidence that someone
is fishing the area – I hope they are caught before they decimate the conch here as they
have done elsewhere. At the end of the dive, Jesús pointed out a juvenile spotted filefish.

Juvenile White-spotted Filefish (Cantherhines macrocerus)

Thuridilla picta Sea Slugs

Shore dive for two and a half hours! Woo Hoo! I finally caught a sailfin blenny dancing
out of its hole. Shutter lag is a problem on my camera; if I waited to press the shutter
when a blenny would do its display, the camera would fire after the blenny was back in
its hole! I can't tell you how many pictures I took, trying to catch the little devils in the
act. Finally, I decided that a half press of the shutter would give me focus lock and then
shutter lag would not be a problem. It was still difficult to time the shot, but I finally
captured a keeper!

Sailfin blenny display! (Emblemaria pandionis)

Blenny "What are you looking at?"

Adult/juvenile Scrawled filefish (Aluterus scriptus)

Vanilla shrimp, beef kabob, or fettuccini Alfredo. Cheese cake or carrot pie.

Friday: Our last dive-day in Cozumel: As soon as we dropped in on Dalila
Reef, Deborah started pointing at the bottom – a very large nurse shark was sleeping on
the sand, out in the open! I tried to sneak up on the brute, making little bubbles, but
he/she moved away a short distance stopping in an overhang. I crept up and took one
wide-angle shot before he/she swam lazily up current. The rest of the dive was fun,
especially when Jesús, inadvertently, got zapped by a little torpedo ray; I saw Jesús jump
and the little ray swim rapidly away. I don't know who was more startled, the ray or
Jesús.

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum)

Red Hind (Epinephelus guttatus) & grunt – "Are you guys still here?"

Our very last dive of the trip was to Seven Cables Reef (aka Villa Blanca). There was
very little current, so we got to poke around looking at the little stuff instead of flying the
seven cables. Ariel, the DM of the second group, motioned that there was a large green
moray eel under a ledge and that I should take its picture. Afterwards, I saw Ariel bring
his group of divers/photographers over to the see the eel. It was very nice of him to give
me first shot at the eel. Later, Jesus found an incredibly camouflaged crab – how he saw
it, I don't know. We carefully picked it up and put it on Deborah's wetsuit arm to take
the picture, otherwise you wouldn't know what you were looking at.

Spotted Moray (Muraena retifera) with arrow crabs

Spotted Cleaner Shrimp (Periclimenes yacatanicus)

Web Burrfish (Chilomycterus antillarium)

Decorator Crab (Brachyurus sp)

Chiles rellenos.

Seafood spaghetti, Pollo en salsa de cilantro, fussili with broccoli and almonds.
Strawberry shortcake or profiterole.

Saturday: It was time to return to CA and call the travel agent to make another
reservation to return to Cozumel! Both our flights were late taking off, but we didn't
miss our connection in Houston, so all was well.

Thus endeth the lesson.

I'm interested in what your favorite image was in this trip report. If you post a comment, please tell me which image you liked the best.

My web page: click here

Scuba Club Cozumel: href="www.scubaclubcozumel.com">www.scubaclubcozumel.com

Debbie Lanham: www.maduro.com

Camera: Olympus c5050/PT-015 with dual Ikelite DS-125 strobes and manual
controllers; Inon wide angle and macro lens adapters.