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1. COZUMEL
General
information.
Cozumel is a world famous diving area. The reefs are
spectacular, with a prolific number of sponges and interesting coral
formations. Fish are in abundance, including groupers, cowfish, wrasse, angel
fish and Cozumel’s Splendid Toadfish.
Dive sites accessible from Cozumel include
the Palancar Reef. Stretching for about a mile, this
is characterised by enormous living coral boulders and deep channels. It is a
good place to see chubs, creole wrasse, groupers and
snappers - to name but a few. Another excellent site is Santa Rosa Reef, where
you can find large angelfish squirrelfish, barracuda and a tremendous variety
of small tropicals.
The majority of the boat diving in
Cozumel is drift diving. Divers drift effortlessly,
generally in a mild current over Cozumel’s fantastic kilometres of reef.
Cozumel News!
Cozumel’s
Scuba Fest
The build up to Cozumelfest
started over a year ago, with representatives from Cozumel, located 12 miles
off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, visiting countries in Europe such as London and
Madrid, to spread the word about this island’s special marine environment.
Beginning on the 6th December 2012, this
underwater festival opened with Mexican music and an enactment concerning
Ixchel - Cozumel’s Mayan goddess of fertility. A presentation alluded to
Cozumel’s marine delights, which divers visiting the island were able to
experience firsthand the following day. With sightings of Caribbean reef
sharks, numerous turtles, sea horses, southern sting rays, multitudes of
tropical fish and even a splendid toadfish, it was clear that Cozumel deserved
its underwater festival.
A number of marine related presentations and films also took
place. A film made by Jean Michel Cousteau, linked to his Ocean Futures
Foundation, about his father Jacques, brought home how special the undersea
world is. A tribute to Ramón Bravo, another leviathan in the marine world, and
a presentation about the Clipperton project, which aims in part to draw people
together with various disciplines to confront international issues such as
waste and plastics in the oceans, drew further attention to the need to protect
this resource. Young members of Cozumel’s Foundation of Parks and Museums also
spoke about their marine conservation projects, involving the monitoring
turtles and fish. Opening up the diving spectrum, additional presentations
featured cave diving, diving in mountainous regions and decompression.
Alongside Cozumelfest was also a small expo featuring
companies such as GoPro – the camera company, Mares, PADI and DAN.
One of the festivals highlights was when Leo Morales, who
lost a leg to cancer, dived to 124.968 metres (410ft), creating a world record
for a diver with a disability. Breathing trimix Morales, accompanied by some other
divers for part of the way, took 7/8 minutes to reach the seabed next to
Palancar reef, where he was able to spend another 2 minutes. The ascent took
around two hours and was achieved by switching the breathing gas mix at four
stages. The last stage was at 10 metres where a nitrox mix of 80/20 was used.
Visitors to Cozumelfest were also invited to watch, and even
take part in, water based activities including wind surfing and a sailing
regatta. For those with enough energy after all the days’ events, salsa and
rumba dancing was on offer in Parque Juárez - Cozumel’s main square. Here,
visitors were invited to taste the infamous lionfish, whose numbers are now
being reduced by an elimination programme lead by Mexico.
The Festival ended with an account by Leo Morales of his
record breaking dive and a thank you to the organisers. Judged a success, Cozumelfest continues to take place every December.
With thanks to Hotel
B Cozumel for hosting me during Cozumelfest.
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