As we are going to Cozumel, Mexico this coming February, 2021 and probably many of you are wondering how it is to dive in Cozumel on these unprecedented times, I decided to repost an excerpt of a trip report posted on undercurrent.org by Gregory S. Bruce from WA, USA. And by the way, I used to work for Blue XTSea Diving mentioned here in this report. In addition, you can find out more about our Rey Diving trip to Cozumel here Cozumel trip.
The report says:
“We flew directly into Cozumel instead of flying into Cancun, shuttling to Playa del Carmen and doing the bag drag and ferry across to Cancun.
…Immigration and customs went very smoothly. We were in first class and were among the first few people off of the plane and there were no other planes that had arrived just prior to us and we walked through Immigration in about 2 minutes. Our bags arrived about 7 minutes later.
…The only real change in this whole process is the need to fill out a 1 page and brief COVID health questionnaire. You can fill it out online and print it out ahead of time (United Airlines sent us a link)- or you can get the forms on the plane and fill them out while filling out your customs and immigration forms.
…We dive with Blue XT Sea and were down at the boat promptly at 8am to be greeted by old friends (Captain Edwin and DM Pedro Pablo) and were pleased to encounter some folks diving with us on the boat that we have enjoyed being with on past Blue XT Sea trips. Off we headed down south to Palancar Gardens for dive 1. The ride down was smooth and quick. We had 6 divers + Captain and DM. Water temp was 82. Visibility at the Gardens was a little milky, but a solid 65+ feet. After a nice surface interval, we went to Punta Tunich and visibility was 100+ and water super clear.
Water temps varied between 78 and 80 the rest of the trip. We were there for 10 days, but lost 2 days of diving to strong north winds on Xmas day and the day after. We had some big upwellings of colder water from the deep that also brought thousands of non-stinging jellies that were mostly pretty to look at and seemed to hang around in the 5-45 feet range of the water column. Never found them to be a nuisance or distract from the diving. The reefs were much healthier than a year before when the Stony Coral Tissue Disease was wreaking havoc. I really did not notice the after affects of the disease on the hard corals. Pleasantly surprised.
We had numerous turtle and spotted eagle rays throughout our 21 dives. Most restaurants were open for inside and outside dining with social distance measures in place for the most part and everyone masked up unless eating or drinking. The entire island felt very safe and our hotel was very much on top of sanitizing and maintaining a healthy and clean environment. It was a pleasure to not have all of the cruise ship masses. Things were much more quiet, but in a very pleasant way.”
