Last Day of Diving in Cozumel 2010

It has been a super week of diving in the beautiful waters of Cozumel. Sadly we have completed our final dives of this trip spending a little over one hour on Columbia Reef and then just over 90 minutes on Columbia Shallows Reef. Columbia Shallows is (as its name implies) a shallow dive, mostly less than 25 feet deep but it is amazingly beautiful. We hope you enjoy these final posts from these two dives. We salute our excellent Dive Master, Julio, and all the fine staff at Dive Paradise for another great diving experience. We will try to upload some short videos when we arrive back in the U.S.

Again, please leave comments.

Mulit-Level Flower Worm (Reva) She also has a movie of this worm in action!

Four Lurking Baracuda (Reva)
Peacock Flounder (Mitch) Also have a movie of this flounder flittering off into the sunset.

Male Parrot Fish - Finally some good color! (Mitch)

Beautiful Purple Arrow Shrimp (Reva)

Pipe Fish (Mitch)

Pipe Fish, up close and personal. Can you find his snout? (Mitch)

Golden Eel (Reva), She has a knack for finding eel.

Anemone Crab (Mitch)

Star Fish (Reva)

Brown Hind (Mitch)

Splendid Toad Fish (Reva)

We've now completed dives 16 and 17 on this trip to beautiful Cozumel. Today we dove Plantanca Gardens (down to 119') and Chhankanab Ballones (about 70'). We saw both large and small critters, but amazingly no turtles today. We saw some hugh Grouper. Be sure to look all the way to the end today for a look at just how big.

Enjoy, and please leave a comment. Last dives, and last post will be tomorrow. :(

Two Sea Snails (approx. 1 inch long) (Mitch)

Purple Fan Coral (Mitch)
Lettuce Nudibranch (approx. 1" long) - Can you find his antenni? (Reva)

4" Blister Worm (Reva)

Flower Worm - about 3" across- the bloom retracts when approached (Reva)

18-20" Parrot Fish - their color is hard to capture. This one is fair. (Mitch)

Small conch (2") in Sponge (Reva)

On our 2nd dive, we met this. Could it be drug trafficers from Ecuador, J.K. coming to visit, or the sightseeing submarine "Atlantis"? (Mitch)This is photo of a nurse shark and a BIG grouper. Can you find the grouper? (Mitch)

To give you some idea of the size of the fish, here is Mitch within an arms length of the Grouper (did you find it?) (Reva)

Okay, we're back! Today is Friday and we just completed dives #14 & 15. Here we share photos from those two dives. The first dive was on Planacar Caves and the second one was on Paseo de Cedral Reef (Cedral Pass). Both dives were fairly shallow, 77' and 55' at their deepest point, averaging about 45' each. The first dive was mainly through a series of swim throughs, running throughout the coral reef. Normally there's not much sea life inside the reefs, but sometimes you will see very large crab, nurse shark and a few other critters. Mainly you can see some spectacular beams of sunlight piercing through the openings. Once out and on the reefs there is an abundance of sea life. Some large, like the Nassau Grouper (divemaster estimated length at about 4 feet and 50 lbs.) to the tiny Anemone Shrimp, which Reva captured in a macro shot, which is less that 1 inch long and very difficult to locate. We hope you enjoy the photos, and please leave your comments. We'll try to post more after tomorrow mornings dives.

Looking Heavenward From 65' Deep Inside Palancar Caves (Reva)

Top of Cedral Pass Reef
Spotted Trunk Fish (juvenile, approx. 6 " length)(Mitch)

Nassau (or Black) Grouper (approx. 4+ ft. length) (Mitch)

Purple Sea Anemone (Mitch)

Dinner (Lobster) (Mitch)

Appetizer (Conch) (Mitch)

Reva found a new dive buddy! (Mitch)

Barracuda (3' long)(Reva)

Golden Sand Eel (Reva)

Crab Hanging In a Hole (pinchers 6"+-) (Reva)

Anemone Shrimp (1" long) (Reva)

Spotted File Fish (Reva)

Spider Crab in Sponge (can you find his blue pinchers) (Reva)

Looking toward the water surface from 22 ft. (Mitch)

Here are photos from our last five dives, two yesterday morning, one last night and two today. It POURED rain all day yesterday so we couldn't post. Here at Casa Martillo the WiFi doesn't work well (or at all) inside the condo. We have to sit on the patio to use it. I didn't want to sit in the rain working on the computer. It is beautiful today and we've spent most of the afternoon lounging around by the pool. We hope you enjoy these photos. Please leave comments.

Squid (night) (Reva)

Squid (night) (Reva)
School of Mutton Snapper (um-um good) (Mitch)
Octopus (night) (Reva) Octopus (night) (Reva)

Mitch and his 2nd Dive Buddy (Reva)

Balloon Fish (night) (Reva)

Blackblotched Eel (night) (Reva)

Rusty File Fish (?) (Reva)

Reef Fish (?) (Mitch)Banded Butterfly Fish (Mitch)

Spotfin Butterfly Fish (Mitch)

Blue Tip Anenome (rare) (Mitch)

Red Sea Horse (Mitch)

Queen Angel (Reva)

Black Sailfin Blenny (Mitch)

Spiny Star Fish inside a Sponge (Reva)Bluehead Wrasse (Reva)