Our last day

The storm stayed away for our last day of diving but was in full force when we woke up on our last day. It was so windy on the water that there was no one allowed on the beach or in the water.  We're lucky our last day of diving didn't get cancelled because there's definitely no diving today.  They didn't even have breakfast on the beach dining area.  Everything was in the building instead. 

We had a lovely morning taking it easy. Even with the wind, the view from our room was still gorgeous as the colors were still beautiful. Here are some pictures from the hotel, more to come...

Wonderful trampolines suspended over the water so you can lie out in the sun/under the umbrella and listen to the crashing ocean waves or take a dip in the ocean from the conveniently adjacent stairway down to the water below.

Sunset views from our room

Windy morning

Dive day 5

We were lucky to have a full last day of diving despite forecasts of thunderstorms.  We went to Palancar Gardens and Paso del Cedral again.  There wasn't as much large creatures though we did see an eagle ray from far away. However, the last dive was super beautiful with great colors.  At the end of the dive though I saw a nurse shark swimming about and for a bit it swam towards me but then decided to turn around. 

Pregnant Crab

 Southern Stingray

 Jellyfish in the waves

 Painted Sea Slug

 Yellow Stingray Hiding

 Cozumel Splendid Toadfish

Dive day 4

What an incredible day! Though I think I stayed under too long and got a little too much nitrogen.  I've been feeling a bit discombobulated... I can't recall exactly how many turtles we saw on each dive.

Here are some pics:

Lionfish

 Baby Drumfish

 Blacktip shark from far away

 Crab over something?

 Eagle rays!

 Splendid toadfish

 Purple tipped Sea anemone

 Nurse shark sleeping

We saw 5 sharks, 4 splendid toadfish, at least 3 turtles, and 3 eagle rays!!

One of the sharks actually came below us and circled a platform on the reef offering a fantastic opportunity for a video (coming soon). I chased down the eagle rays and got some video too but the very strong current made the video very choppy.

Dive day 3

Today we went to Palancar Bricks and then Cedar Peak and finally we saw eagle rays!! 2 of them, and the second one was huge but alas too far and I couldn't swim fast enough against the current to catch him. So far I've seen at least 1 turtle on every dive.  It was a great day!

Flounder

 Lobsert hanging out on the reef

 (Can't remember)

 Tilefish

 Eagle Ray!!!

 Queen angelfish

 Christmastree worm

 Stoplight Parrotfish

 Sea Cucumber pooping?

Day 1+2 of diving

It's been a number of years since my last trip to Cozumel. I had forgotten how strong the currents can be on the drift dives (though nothing compared to that last dive in Thailand). These first 4 dives have been great, although I have yet to see any eagle rays, despite it being eagle ray season. On our first dive, we missed this group of 4 rays while we were in swim throughs. However, we have seen 5 turtles, 2 sharks, and 2 Cozumel splendid toadfish.

The water is super clear though I think there's definitely less marine life than when I first certified here in 2004. They tell me that the hurricane that swept through here about 10 years ago really your up the reefs but they're starting to recover.

I'm diving with blue project Cozumel and it's been very good. I picked them because they do small boats with more personalized attention and later pickups (8-9am). On our first day, we got a private divemaster. On our second day we had 4 in the group but the divemaster let the ones who were low on air surface together and I got to stay under a bit longer. I stayed down so long on the second dive, I almost reached deco time!

I still have my 10 yr old sealife camera which still works but I'm looking to upgrade soon.

Pictures to be uploaded below:

Swim throughs:

Sea anemone

Cozumel Splendid Toadfish

Big turtle

Hey, what'you looking at?

Mommy sea lettuce and baby sea lettuce

Nurse Shark

Baracuda head

Didn't get the fish I was aiming for but this picture is still nice

Arriving in Cozumel, Mexico

This is my 5th trip to Cozumel. This is where I originally got certified for diving back in 2004.

For the first time, I'm staying on the south side of the island. It should be good since most of the dive sites are down here and should make for shorter boat rides and later pickups in the morning.

I'm staying at the Fiesta Americana and diving with blue project. Can't wait.

Here's the view from my balcony and a view flying over playa del Carmen.

Trip highlights - part one

The bad: having to reschedule our flights to France within 2 hours of our scheduled trip was definitely suboptimal. It made for an extra tiring first day with 7 extra hours in airports. However, I have to say that's expedia worked very hard to make everything work out and gave us a $50 voucher for the inconvenience.

The highlights: our favorites were the boat ride through the calanques, kayaking the gorges du Verdon and that refreshing swim in the river, amazing panoramas driving through the gorges, the symphony of colors of ochre in Roussillon, and of course driving and tasting through the Rhone valley.

I have to say that the weather was super cooperative throughout the trip. We only felt a couple drops of rain in Roussillon and in the vineyards though there were some storms at night and evenings. But for the most part the days were sunny and beautiful with great lighting for our lovely drives. Unfortunately, the lack of rain is probably bad for the Rhone region as it will probably mean a tough harvest for the vineyards.

Places we stayed:
Villa d'orient in Marseille - we had the Mauve room which is the top floor with a view of the calanques and our private terrace overlooking the calanques. The room was small but had everything we needed and the view was beautiful. There was also a good breakfast in the garden - simple but complete. (I wouldn't stay in any of the other rooms because they seemed too small but ours was great.)

Auberges des Salles along lake st Croix - we got a room with a terrace overlooking the lake and the view could not have been better. However, there was a problem with the AC which sucked but we were cool and not bitten with the terrace doors open at night and they gave us a 25% discount. We opted out of the 12 euro/pp breakfast and got breakfast in town which we ate by the lake - I highly recommend this option.

Maison des ocres in Roussillon -  spacious room in little hotel with a pool. Nice and efficient, good price.

Wine B&B in chateauneuf du pape - when I saw that this B&B was run by a master sommelier in chateauneuf du pape, I was sold. It's in a classic three floor restored building with a large garden complete with grape vines and a fountain. We stayed in the Carmen room and had a nice view of the rooftops and mountains. The room was furnished with classic matching furniture. Only complaint would be that the bed is a little small - like a full bed. We attended the apero fun she organized and learned a lot about wines from the region and tasted 2 wines we liked (we went to the cave of the first one and bought 2 bottles of chateauneuf du pape white from domaine Mayard, called la Crau de ma mere, tried their reds and also really liked their red by the same name.)

Last day - wines, Arles, Marseilles