80 degree water, 150 foot visibility, sea turtles, barracuda, huge parrot fish, reef sharks, rays, lobster, sea anemone and invasive lion fish are all pervasive on the Palancar Reef in The Palancar Underwater National Park on Isle San Miguel de Cozumel.
The diving in Cozumel is fabulous. Warm water, great visibility, with predominately drift dives, which is not a complaint but an observation. With fantastic visibility drift diving the reef allows the diver to view a great deal of real estate and aquatic life with a minimum of effort.
The resort has a fully accessorized and staffed dive facility, Aqua Safari, with multiple dive boats that pick up at the resort dock twice a day with the option to do additional night dives. Do not miss the night dives. The population of octopus, virtually unseen during the day is dramatically apparent at night.
Cozumel is the northern tip of the Palancar Reef which extends south to Belize. The reef is experiencing an infestation of lion fish, an invasive species with voracious appetites and no natural predators in the Caribbean. The Mexican government and local dive facilities are attempting to limit the damage done by lion fish by subjecting it to predation from the planets apex predator - man. Hunting lion fish is encouraged, and the Plathar Restaurant on the island will clean and prepare your lion fish catch when you bring it in. Lion fish is an amazingly tasty white fish which goes down quite nicely, particularly in fish tacos with a beer. If you don't remember the name of the restaurant take heart in the knowledge that any and every taxi driver knows where it is.
It is also worth mentioning that a couple of times a year the island has lion fish hunting competitions with awards given for size and volume.
Caveat: The Palancar Underwater National Park does not otherwise allow fishing and /or marine harvesting. The lion fish are invasive and predatory, wrecking havoc on the aquatic environment. However, game laws are strictly enforced in order to maintain an otherwise pristine marine sanctuary. Leave the conch shells where they lie.
The resort also has full PADI training available via Aqua Safari. My daughter, age 13, received her Advanced Open Water through PADI instructor, Jordan, at Aqua Safari Diving, who is an excellent instructor.
The Aqua Safari dive boats are demonstrability slower than other providers in the area, however, the service is a substantial mitigating factor. It is a bit irritating however to see boats pass you by as if you are a bicycle on the freeway on the way to and from the dive areas. But your on vacation. Do you really need to hurry?
The Cozumel Palace Resort food and service are superb. The staff awaits your beck and call and are always friendly, courteous, attentive, and for those so inclined willing to help you with your Spanish. The restaurants, there are 3 separate restaurants in the Cozumel Palace, are gourmet quality and vary between the various resorts. Additionally, the Cozumel Palace sets up different dining experiences several times a week, outside in the evening for a variety of interesting dining experiences. The resorts in the Palace chain allow interchange between the several Palace resorts on the island and The Cozumel Palace Cancun. The interchangeability with the other Palace resorts in Cozumel and Cancun was flawless and extremely convenient. Being able to enter a relatively local resort establishment to eat or drink whether on the island or the mainland was wonderful, and the Cozumel Palace Cancun is adjacent to the ferry, allowing you full resort enmities while waiting for the ferry on the mainland. It also allows a for a comfortable jumping off place when awaiting tours which are available to a variety of locations and Mayan ruins.
The island itself has Mayan ruins ,and the history of the island can be quite interesting, and there are tours available. The island was initially populated by Mayans attempting to flee the Mayan Fury, a civil war that broke out between Mayans, half Mayan and half Europeans and Europeans (consisting at that time of both Spanish and English). the original inhabitants were half European and half Mayan and left the mainland seeking to escape the wars hostilities.
The island can be circumnavigated in a half day by taxi, and for those who enjoy biking, the island has wonderful maintained wholly dedicated bike trails, in many case completely separate from but adjacent to the roads.
The Palace resort has a system of prepaid credit available as part of the purchase price. The resort credit is a bit strained. The amount of times you hear, "this isn't covered by resort credit" is not well presented in the resort literature. After 10 days I ended up with an additional $2,500.00 bill and $119.00 remaining on my resort credit.
We had a severe problem near the end of the trip, as the room became infested with "No-see-em's", a swarming, small black, biting tropical fly. I reported it to management and asked that they fumigate the room or give us another room. I realized that another room would be difficult as The Cozumel Ironman Competition was going on. The front desk said they would fumigate and I confirmed with staff when fumigation was going to occur so we could be out of the room. After leaving the room for a day, so fumigation could be accomplished, we went through another miserable night - my 13 year old daughter Torie counted 165 bites on her body and her older sister was in similar condition, but disinclined to make comparisons, so I approached the front desk again the next day to inquire as to what they had done. They told me that in spite of the fact that they said they would fumigate, all they had done was change the sheets. In response I had Torie stand in front of the desk person who was visibly flustered at the site of bug bites every where on a 13 year old girl. They asked if we wanted a doctor and agreed to fumigate.
We had itchy reminders of our vacation for a week and a half after the coming home.
We went to the last day of the Whale Shark diving (snorkel only) season which was arranged through the resort. It was utterly fantastic. The vendor had high speed boats and a firm working knowledge of Whale Shark locations. We dived with the Whale Sharks (upwards of 40 of them) and the vendors provided us with great video they took of us doing the dives, after the fact. We didn't actually know that the vendor was taking video at the time, so it ended up being a pleasant surprise after the fact. Although if I had known it was being done at the time, I would have smiled more...
We also dived Xenotes, also arranged through the resort. Diving in inland fresh and salt water caves, although they are careful to call them "over hangs" and to stress that you are never more than 400 feet from an entrance. I had never done this before. It is a very different environment. I have been diving for 45 years, and I realize now that I have been self-assured in an "up and out" mentality. When you're in a cave, and there is no "Up and Out", rather your only escape is 400 feet away, through a dark and meandering cave, it's a very different situational experience, and an event that tends to heighten your awareness and causes you to become heedful to details which you might otherwise customarily take for granted. The cave structures are dynamic with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Bouncy control is a much more important issue when the ceiling is pointy. But, the real thrill in cave diving is haloclines and thermoclines between fresh water resting on top of much warmer, denser, salt water. These clines create optical illusions which are rarely or ever photographed effectively but have an almost hallucinatory effect when diving. Not only is there an ephemeral rippling effect, but divers diving from one cline to another may temporarily disappear in whole or part in front of the divers behind them. This combined with immediate moves between thermoclines, where the fresh water may be 12 degrees colder than the underlying salt, creates a unique and stimulating experience. I would caveat that if you have any tendency toward claustrophobia, you will not enjoy this experience.
Having vacationed and dived in the Maldives, Philippines, Fiji, Tahiti and Mediterranean I can assure you Cozumel has comparable diving, great service and the particular quality of only being 5 hours by plane from virtually anywhere in the US.
