Painting of the Archangel Michael, for Whom the City of San Miguel Was Named

What? Another Cozumel trip report? Haven't we seen enough of those? ... In a word, "no!" For many of us, if you can't be there, you want to read about people who have recently been and see their pictures - to make a "virtual" dive trip. So, here's just one more in a long line of trip reports that somehow never seem to come often enough to satisfy the Cozumel dive-junkies; it includes an update on the effects of Hurricane Emily, a tale about the Island's patron Saint, a rambling narrative, and a whole bunch of pictures. Enjoy!

Painting of the Archangel Michael, for whom the city of San Miguel was named

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Every August for many, many years, we brave the terrors of Continental Airlines and make a return pilgrimage to our favorite dive destination, Cozumel, Mexico. Friendly people, loving friends & family, great food, fantastic diving, and warm water keep us coming back, again and again. This year we arrived a couple of weeks after Hurricane Emily struck the island.

The approach to the island, looking south towards San Miguel

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Splendid toadfish (Sanopus splendidus)

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Saturday - We caught the redeye out of LAX and connected in Houston with our flight to CZM. It was uneventful trip; I slept most of the way. Excitement started to stir as soon as the plane touched down on the island, taxied to the terminal, and then the excitement built when they opened the door to the airplane. We patiently stood in line at immigration to get our passports stamped, then collected our dive gear and bags before pushing the button that randomly determines if your bags get searched by customs. A green light passed us through to the chaos on the sidewalk where the tourists are sorted and assigned shuttle vans for the ride to the hotels and resorts. As we rode through San Miguel, I was curious to see if I could spot any damage from Hurricane Emily - there were a few boarded up windows, and some walls had been blown down, but the most noticeable change was the number of trees that were down or gone. The island was very lucky, even though Emily hit the island head on, no one died and the property damage was relatively minor. I'll bet firewood is cheap this year.

Peacock flounder (Bothus lunatus)

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El Grupo Lyle

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There are forty-one people in our group this trip. Over two weeks, the numbers changed as people left and new ones arrived - some staying one week, others for ten days, and a few of us for a full two weeks. My youngest son, Tom, brought his fiancÃ©e who is doing a referral, having completed her pool work at home and only needing to do the open water dives to finish her certification. RogerC, JudyC, BillDiver, Wireman, Regtek, and seamammal, and yours-truly represented D2D.

George (RegTek) and trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculates)

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Scuba Club Cozumel

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Sofia greeted us as we entered the gate at Scuba Club with a warm "Welcome home." We filled out the usual forms and waivers; got our weights; unpacked our dive gear; and went for a dive off the iron shore in front of the hotel. Visibility was poor, only about fifty feet, and the water was a warm eighty-seven degrees! A lot of the artificial reefs are gone, either blown away by the storm surge or covered in sand by last month's hurricane. While there were still many fish and lots of critters to look at, the life along the shore will take some time to recover. A good thing - most of the algae that we noticed growing on the sand on our previous visits was scoured off the reef. The turtle grass was still growing strong, out a ways from the sandy bottom along the shore. Raymundo said a batfish was living near the buoy line on the north side - a preliminary search was unfruitful, but a pleasant way to enjoy our first warm water dive since February.

Juvenile French angelfish (Pomacanthus paru)

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[The wireless connection at SCC wasn't working, so I couldn't send a postcard to the bulletin board! I thought I might try the internet cafÃ© by Chedraui the next day...or maybe do a shore dive instead.]

"Cozumel's Archangel, Saint Michael" or "How the town got its name".

"Approximately 90 years ago, when Cozumel was under the jurisdiction of the State of Yucatan (Quintana Roo was then still a territory), a group of workers were digging in an area just north of town. There they unearthed a statue of St. Michael Archangel carved from ivory, brandishing a sword of pure gold and wearing a golden crown. This marvelous event took place on the morning on the 29th of September, a day holy to St. Michael. The catholic population decided that the coincidence was too great to dismiss; from that day forward the town would be called San Miguel de Cozumel. Some time later, the statue was sent to the capital at MÃ©rida for restoration. Local rumor has it that the real statue never was returned and that, in fact, the one on display today is an exact replica rather than the original -- though this has never been proven. It is generally believed that the statue was a gift to the natives from Juan Grijalva, the first European to discover Cozumel in 1518. He allegedly explained its significance by introducing Christianity to the island, and the statue was housed in a Catholic Temple then located in the town's central plaza. In 1916, Colonel Isaias Zamarryra ordered the destruction of the Catholic temple, but pious members of the congregation however, with admirable forethought, took the statue and hid it away for safekeeping. Today the statue of San Miguel de Cozumel, Patron Saint of the island, occupies a place of honor on the altar of the island's principal Catholic Church (located at the corner of 10 North St. and Juarez Av.)"

The Church of San Miguel

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The Reef Star

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The Schedule - Wake up at six o'clock, get coffee for me, and tea for my sweetie. Meet some of the gang on the patio for early morning schmoozing. Breakfast at seven. Pack gear and get ready for the dive boats at eight. Once everyone is on board, settle in for the run down the island for the first, do a deep dive. Complete a surface interval of one hour, followed by a second dive on a shallower reef. Back to the hotel dock by one o-clock or so, then lunch, a nap and a shore dive before dinner. After dinner, download the camera, recharge the batteries and set up the rig for the next day, early to bed. Repeat! Wonderful. Eat, sleep, dive, mess with the camera.

Queen angelfish (Holocanthus ciliaris)

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Spotted drum juvenile (Equetus punctatus)

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Sunday - Our first dive on the reefs was San Francisco, along the edge of the wall. I was pleased to see no damage to the coral heads and sponges. It was as if there had been no hurricane! We had a moderate current to sweep us along. A big grouper was going into the current, swimming uphill, so to speak. Our dive master, JesÃºs pointed out a flying gurnard resting in the coralline algae. The second dive was on Paradise - with a great deal of trepidation as to what we would, or wouldn't find, I did my giant stride, retrieved my camera and descended to the reef. Here, too, you wouldn't know that a category four hurricane had recently hit the island. We poked along the low reef for a while before turning out on to the flats. We were rewarded with our first seahorse of the trip - a wonderful, slow swim with little or no current to worry about. The water was 88 degrees! After lunch and a nap, Deborah and I went in off the shore in front of the hotel. Deborah found a cleaning station where two scarlet cleaning shrimp were open for business. She then pointed out our second seahorse, just past the pier pilings. Two hours later (it's only about twenty feet deep), we exited the water in time to clean up for dinner.

Cleaning station Blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) & Scarlet-striped cleaning shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)

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Longshout Seahorse (Hippocampus reidi)

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I heard some disturbing news about Yocab and Punta Tunich - one of the dive guides said that the reefs were damaged by the storm. I hoped he was just pulling our legs. We would have to go see for ourselves.

Monday - Chankanaab Bolones! This dive site is on the western side of Chankanaab Reef in deeper water. Huge coral heads rise from a sandy bottom, home to many large lobsters and crabs. This is also the home of the Atlantis submarine - you can hear the whine of the servomotors and may be lucky enough to see the sub underwater with the tourists looking out the windows, delighted to see divers in the water. The second dive was at what used to be called Las Palmas - since the storm, only one palm is left and it is missing a lot of fronds. I will henceforth call this La Palma, or maybe El Tronco (the trunk). Highlights on this dive were a Spanish lobster, lots of eels, a big turtle, and a cornetfish. On our afternoon shore dive, we went back to the cleaning station that Deborah had found the previous day for some more pictures. The current had picked up, so we worked our way slowly to the South where we found the seahorse again.

Spanish lobster (Scyllarides awequinoctailis)

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Turtle ("Are they gone, yet?")

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My soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Neayka finished her open water scuba course and will join us on the boat tomorrow.

[I walked to the internet cafÃ© to check my email and post a few messages. When I got back , I was told that the wirelesss connection was now fixed at SCC - I would have no reason to leave again until it was time to go home!]

Tuesday - We ventured further south today, diving Palancar Gardens as the first dive and Yocab Reef on the second. I regret to say that we saw an awful lot of damage to the finger coral on the tops of the reefs. Some areas are simply piles of dead coral rubble. The sponges and other corals seem to have come through the storm intact, but the finger corals are badly damaged. There are lots of the usual fish, turtles, etc., but the hurricane damage is obvious. Don't get me wrong, only about ten percent of the reef is gone, the rest looks great. I don't know how long it will take for the finger coral to grow back, but I hope it isn't long. [DocV says finger coral is one of the faster growing corals.] Obviously, Cozumel has been hit in the past by big storms and will again in the future. Today's shore dive was into a strong current, I took some more pictures of the scarlet shrimp cleaning station before working my way South past the pier. We saw what looks like a pregnant yellow stingray and observed her for a while in hope that she might surprise us - maybe it wasn't time or maybe she's shy, but we had to leave before the blessed event.

Cleaning station Smooth trunkfish (Lactophrys tirqueter) & Scarlet-striped cleaning shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)

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We later found some baby yellow stingrays! (Urolophus jamicensis)

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Breaking my vow not to leave the hotel, I went into town to take a picture of the church, IglÃ©sia San Miguel and a snapshot of the statue of St. Michael above the altar that the town is named after - note the chubby legs!

The statue of St. Michael

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Tom's fiancÃ©e, Neayka, newly minted open-water diver, joined us on the boat for her first boat dives. She did really well, great buoyancy control, smooth in the water, and good air consumption. Way to go! I want to brag on her a little - she learned how to swim in order to be able to take scuba lessons.

Silhouette of the happy couple

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Wednesday - This would ordinarily be hump-day, but we were staying two weeks! Palancar Caves looks great, the sand has been blown out from under some of the coral heads, making the swim-throughs bigger and revealing some new ones. The current was still strong, but the visibility was better than yesterday. At Tormentos, we found the current going the wrong way and did the reef backwards, starting at the final coral head, going over the sand dune, and finishing at what is normally the beginning. (Roger says in this case this reef should be called sotnemroT). It looks like a different reef from the other direction. There was a little thermocline at the start of the dive and the temperature dropped to 84 degrees - it's hard to believe that a three-degree temperature change can feel so much colder! A lot of the finger coral is down here, but it's not as obvious as elsewhere because there was less of it to begin with. My future daughter-in-law found a seahorse - on her own! We took her on her first night dive off the shore in front of SCC. The octopi came out to play. A squid was spotted, and a large barracuda stalked behind the divers in the dark.

Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus)

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Caribbean reef squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea)

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Ever notice, Mexican blankets in Cozumel are always "almost free"?

Some of the divers in our group walked down to the new Cozumel Palace. They weren't allowed in, but word has it that a room costs $400/night! That includes booze/food, but no diving. I think we won't be staying there.

<IPosted on D2D by scubbabubba, 7/16/04

"withÂ·drawÂ·al:

1) removal from a place of deposit or investment

2) the syndrome of often painful physical and psychological symptoms that follows discontinuance of an addicting drug

For those of you who regularly go to Cozumel, what can I do? It hurts so bad! I really don't want much... I want to hear tanks banging to wake me up. I want to eat banana pancakes for breakfast. I want friendly local people around me. I want to smell the sea air, stinky dive gear, and garlic cooking. I want to drift effortlessly over, under, and through the beautiful coral. I want the DMs and boat captains having fun with me...or making fun of me...it really doesn't matter. I want more of meeting other divers and making new friends. I want... I want... I want...I'm having withdrawal symptoms and so is my bank account.....HELLLLLLLPPP"

Coney golden variation (Cephalopholis fulvus)

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Stoplight parrotfish terminal phase (Sparisoma viridae)

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Thursday - Reef report from the South. Colombia Reef has some damage on the top of the reef, again to the finger coral. There was a fine layer of sand all over the sponges and corals, and sand continued to reduce visibility a little. A moderate current made for an easy ride through the sand chutes, in-and-out of the reef. A couple of turtles posed for the picture-takers and pleased the rest of the divers. Chankanaab Reef looks like it did before the storm - great! The DM pointed out a green moray hiding under the coral. Large lobsters were walking around in broad daylight - something that doesn't happen much in areas where they are hunted. We saw a "log" barracuda - must have been five feet long (I know things look bigger underwater, but this was one huge fish). I did a "solo con dios" shore dive in the afternoon. The water is only a little over twenty feet deep for a long ways offshore in front of Scuba Club. If I get in trouble I can always stand up! I went back to the cleaning station for some more shots, went out a ways to the turtle grass where I found a slipper lobster and a neat peacock flounder. Working my way back to shore perpendicular to the current, I made one more pass along the artificial reef before heading back. I wonder if I can talk Deborah into moving to the island.

Turtle

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Green moray eel (Gymnothorax funebris)

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I checked weather.com before leaving to come down to Cozumel. The forecast was for a sixty percent chance of rain and/or thunderstorms every day. We had nothing but sunny skies all week! It was hot and humid, but along the shoreline, it doesn't get much above the mid-eighties with a cooling breeze. We get acclimated to the heat and use less and less air-conditioning the longer we stay.

&lt;B&gt;Painting of the Archangel Michael, for Whom the City of San Miguel Was Named&lt;/B&gt;

<B>Painting of the Archangel Michael, for Whom the City of San Miguel Was Named</B>