Cozueml 2012 - Day 6

Diving.......We were treated to schools of Jacks and mantis shrimp on this day.  It's pretty rare to see one mantis shrimp yet we saw two!!

And finally - a picture of the two of us underwater!

Cozumel 2012 - Day 5

And more diving - making new friends - and learning to make guacamole!!  Pepe makes literally the best guacamole on the planet!!  And now I know how too!

After diving we drove around the back side of the island and snagged some more bird images!

Pepe and Ute

Grouper

Cozumel 2012 - Day 4

More diving - Yippee!!!!  Even though it was pouring rain - the diving was AMAZING!  We dove and dove and it felt like on every dive that nature was taking it up a notch.  We saw so many wonderful things and had such a good time with our friends!  The seahorses are back!!  The eagle rays are in!!  And life is everywhere just waiting to be seen!  Thanks to our dive guide extraordinaire - Roger - we saw all of these animals!

While it was dismal on top below the sea....yipeee!

fire worm

moray eel

scenic undersea view

Cheri Cat fish

Eagle Ray

turtle

angelfish

seahorse!!

Cozumel 2012 - Day 3

We awoke on this morning - to the sight of calmer waters and BOATS!  Yeah!!  Diving was going to be a reality on this day.  We assembled our gear - cameras included and got ready.  One thing about Mexico....the time schedule is +- 30-45 minutes from the time arranged.  The pace slows and its best not to fight it.  That said - on our first day we are on the dock ahead of the scheduled pickup and about 45 minutes later the Deep Exposure boat arrived!  It was great to see our friends - Pepe - Geovani -  Volker - and of course Roger our dive guide!!  Hugs and kisses all around.

Then it was off to the reefs.  Wow - things are even better than before.  Somehow Wilma did her worst and yet ended up pruning the reefs and revitalizing the area.  The fish life and the reefs are healthier than ever!

Enjoy!
John & Cheri

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

Cozumel Mexico - November 30, 2010 - La Francessa - Day 2 - Dive 4

Max depth of 70 Feet for about an hour

There were even more turtles!  Who could believe our luck?!  even though we weren't all that deep, there were gorgeous fans that were clearly very healthy and eating all that passed by them.

 

The anemones were abundant with little bubble shrimp playing hide and seek within the tentacles.  The yellowline arrowcrabs were hanging in sponges.

The angel fish were posing.

The schooling yellow fish were hiding in the coral troughs. 

 Even lobsters and crabs were out in the day time with the sun shining so bright; very unusual! 

 
Towards the end of the dive we saw a giant grouper laying on the bottom fast asleep.  Just as we were rising up to decompress at 15 ft, there were two puffer fish.

 Enjoy!

Cheri & John