Cozumel Mexico - December 4, 2010 -Dalilia Mountains - Day 5 - Dive 7

We're diving again!  Yeah!  The only catch is hat we need to get ourselves down to the marina.  Ok...we'll bite....where's the marina?  All the way through town and before the hotel zone, you will find it. So, we loaded everything into our car and struck off.

Max depth of 75 Feet for about an hour

As we prepare to jump for the second to the last time, the sun breaks and the light pours into our beloved deep.  Check the air, check the weights, check the right hand release and go go go its time to dive!

Sploosh!  We're, a quick trio back to the boat to grab the cameras and we're on our way down!  Scan scan scan, no eagle rays in sight.  Down deeper we go.  Soon we are at the bottom and the hunt begins.  We see 3 HUGE bump headed Parrot Fish.

Another magical dive.  As I was enjoying the usual suspects, I noticed a sea urchin.  As I swim close to check it out I saw a flicker of white and black.  Could it be?  Ah indeed it was an adult drum fish!  These little drummers swim vigorously back and forth as they beat their drum.  He was lodged in between pink and orange coral which made a lovely backdrop for a video. 

There was a stunning gold cleaner shrimp on carpet anemone.  Cheri fiddled with the strobe until she got the perfectly lit shot she was craving. 

Enjoy!

Cheri & John

Cozumel Mexico - December 1, 2010 - Santa Rosa -Day 3 -Dive 5

Max depth of 77 Feet for about an hour

A scrawled cow fish greeted us as we descended to depth.  These are long fish with electric blue lines and black dots.  Their dorsel fins ripple as they zip along.  The stop light parrot fish of both the green as well as the red variety were abundant and eating the reef in big bites.  If you hold your breath and listen you can hear them crunching.  Mr. and Mrs White file fish were checking us out.  

And again the health and color of the reef raised a joy deep inside of us!  As we were swimming along we heard the calls of splendid toad fish - one of Cheri's favorite fish and certainly a Mexican special!  As far as we know they are mainly found in Cozumel.  With their purple and yellow they fit right in!

Cheri looked down and saw a juvenile spotted drum fish!  This was a rare find indeed and one that Cheri was thrilled with.  She even had the presence of mind to shoot images as well as video the little guy!  

You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYWzGQMfY5g. 

She looked to her left and there was a carpet anemone.  These are usually homes to all kinds of invertebrates.  This one was no exception.  There was a spotted cleaner shrimp!  These little guys have so many 'hands' that for a long time I thought he was 2 shrimp!

Today the dive masters had guaranteed me a sea horse sighting.  So for lunch there was tuna fish in the shape of a sea horse!!

Enjoy!

Cheri & John