First Lionfish in Cozumel

Well the dive gear is washed and stored away after a great dive trip to Cozumel, Mexico. Dave, Dale, and I flew out of Austin and arrived in Cozumel after a very bumpy plane ride. When the pilot said we were going to hit turbulence....he meant it. We checked into our hotel, unpacked, made a trip to the Mega store for snacks and went out to eat at Casa Denis. Alison picked us up the next morning at the pier and we were off for our first dive. The diving was great, the water warm and the visibility great. We saw turtles, lobster, crabs and lots of other creatures. We enjoyed a different restaurant each night...La Choza, Toro's, Especia, Wet Wendy's, and Alberto's Beach Bar. Adrian greeted us with open arms at Especia and we enjoyed the beautiful music of Abraham. The mango margaritas at Wet Wendy's were the biggest I've ever seen and very good. That evening we went to the square, enjoyed a band playing and watched the locals salsa dance.


Our second day on the boat we were the only divers.....very nice and two more great dives.
Cozumel was pretty quite during our stay, with lots of tourist from the interior of Mexico.
A Toro's we tried the fish tacos, they were very tasty. The third day of diving Alison pointed out a Toadfish, which I had never seen, plus we saw a seahorse. Lobsters seem to hiding in every nook and cranny.....sure would have been good eating with some butter. Our last day of diving was going great, we completed our first dive and moved onto the second dive. Alison said we were going to dive Delila reef. We slipped into the water and made our way down to about 60 feet. As usual Dave and I were at the back of the group, with Orlando the other Dive Master....I was busy taking pictures. I saw Dave motion for me to come and look at something he had spotted. I swam over and looked in the opening in the reef only to spot the lionfish Dave had found. I was so excited I could hardly take pictures......my first lionfish. Orlando called the other divers back for everyone to get a look. Alison surfaced to get a net to try to capture the creature, but he got away. Lionfish are new to the Cozumel area and are very destructive for the reef system, they eat lots of small fish. Dave and I were so excited, a fitting way to end our dive trip.

The next day we had a rent a wreck, toured the island, stopping at El Cedral and several beach bars. We also had a chance to see the turtle nest on the other side of the island along the beach. Each nest had been marked with the date the eggs were taken, they move them to a safer location away from predators.
Our final dinner was at Alberto's Beach Bar were we had a table at the water's edge. The food was good and the setting was very relaxing....made me want to stay.
The next morning we packed, had lunch and made our way to the airport for our trip home.
I left Cozumel with 99 dives in my logbook, some great photos of the lionfish, and a relaxing vacation with Dale.