Scuba Diving: San Francisco Wall & Palancar
Alex Salas of Alex Adventures Cozumel
Staying on the island for 11 days and scuba diving was something I really wanted to do. However, I had had 2 teeth extractions before we left for this beautiful island and was told I would not be able to dive from my dentist. He had said it would be an extreme amount of pain and the risk for dry socket. Well......I was feeling really great, my stitches had fallen out, I wasn't having any pain, and I had been snorkeling every day that we were here. We were ending the week of our trip and decided I would give it a try.
Soooo, I decided to send the following text to the diver that had talked to me before going on vacation and had told me that he would take us out to 2 reefs buy boat, brief refresher class since we had done the discover scuba so many times, and only charge us the price as a normal diver. I had told Ana (the person we had rented our house from) about this person and she said she didn't know of him but looked him up and said he seemed like he's a nice person, loves his diving and....loves animals, which in her book that meant nothing but positive signs. ;) LOL
I decided to send him the following message: "We really want to scuba. I've been snorkeling with the snorkel in my mouth with no problems. My stitches are already gone and it's closing. Is there any way we can still do it?
To my surprise he replied with "wanna dive tomorrow? We can dive shallow 60 ft" Now I have to admit I was in complete shock when he replied like that. I honestly had hoped we would be able to talk him into letting us dive, but I figured I'd have to really work for it.
My reply was "Remember we are discover scuba and can only do 40'" He said we could do Palancar at 40' and is was a great reef. He ask me what size fins and BC we were and where in town were we staying and then gave me directions on where to meet at 8:30am the next morning.
SAY WHAT???? WE ARE GOING DIVING!?!? I couldn't believe it! I was so happy yet somewhat nervous. I mean I knew I could snorkel with no issues of the snorkel bothering my mouth, but I had no idea what air was going to do to it. I predicted it wouldn't be an issues...but you never know.
Ok, it was time to head out. We were to meet Alex (or dive instructor) at 8:30 at the new marina and it was now 8am. You know I hate to be late. But...first a quick run to the bano while mi familia was waiting in the car.
We pulled into the marina, parked on the street area because the parking lot is next to nothing there, and then started walking to the building he told us to meet at and then the urge came over me again...I raced to the bano and was there for quite some time hoping to accomplish getting it all cleared out and hopefully I wouldn't have any other issues. This was an important day for us! Meanwhile, Alex is texting me saying "where are you at?". I told him I stopped to use the restroom and we would be there in a moment. Nothing like being rushed while taking care of business right?
We met up with Alex and headed straight to the boat. There was another older gentleman already on the boat that was going diving and had his own personal instructor. I guess this guy comes here every year and goes diving with her and she seemed to know everything about his family and children.
We headed out of the marina and was excited for the day...although I was a little nervous about my "situation" and what might happen.
Along the way, we stopped to pick up 5 other divers at a resort. They had been diving every day with them and still had a few more days to go. That's just crazy to me. I can't imagine going diving every single day while vacationing. I mean it's beautiful and fun and I'm sure you could see something different every day but still. Not something I would want to do. (They were all certified and not diving to complete their certification).
So we were almost to where they were going to take us (which was the San Franciso wall) and they started getting our equipment out. They ask if we wanted to wear a wet suit and pulled a few out. They handed one to Sakari and said that it should fit her and ask if she wanted to put it on. It fit but just a little loose around the legs. Hubby said he didn't want one because he struggles to get it on and off. They handed me one and I figured why not. Maybe it would hold in the diarrhea right?
We had arrived and they had told us that we could either step off the boat or plop backwards. I was all about going backwards...until they told me to "come" and I stood at the side of the boat wondering how do you sit down and roll off??? I guess you didn't. You just stepped backwards. Yea, that wasn't any fun so I decided to go frontwards.
For some reason I was the first to go off the boat. As I entered the water I was quickly drifting away. I was kicking to try to stay in one place and Alex kept saying come this way...as I was desperately trying while trying to take a video of the hubby jumping off as well. I didn't realize it was going to be such rough waters. I had read several times on the cruise forums about certified divers saying that the waters at Cozumel was drift diving and now I knew what they meant by that. I remember some divers saying it could be very dangerous while our instructor stated that it would be an "easy dive" and we'd just float along. All these scenarios were going through my head. Fear started to over come me and when he kept telling me to come over by him and I was really having to kick to do so, anxiety started to creep up on me. The hubby was kicking to stay there as well and then it was Sakari's turn to jump off the boat.
All of a sudden they yell "LOOK DOWN!!! LOOK DOWN!!' There was the biggest Spotted Eagle Ray ever! It was so beautiful and graceful and there was a diver swimming along by it and it made him look like a very small person. I really didn't want to miss Sakari jumping in either so I was holding my camera up toward the boat, with my face in the water watching the Eagle Ray and hoping that I got her jumping off. I don't know what I was thinking. It's not very often you see an Eagle Ray and I will see Sakari jump off the boat plenty of times in the future...but for some reason the camera was on her. I did hand the hubby the Gopro prior to jumping in, so I was hoping he was catching the video for me.
Sakari jumped in and immediately started taking pictures. I'm so glad she was able to capture one picture of it. Sakari has become my backup camera these days. Every vacation I have always brought at least 2 camera's and sometimes 3....just in case! You never know what could happen (and has happened to me in the past) like I bring camera's and batteries and extra everything! Well, now I just bring her as my backup. LOL A pretty good backup wouldn't ya say? She does an excellent job with her photography (and at her arts school, she actually takes a photography and photoshop class and her teacher has been very impressed with her work all year). I think she's a natural but her favorite photography is macro. She absolutely loves the macro setting so I let her have my "good" newer camera every time.
Once the Eagle Ray was out of site, Alex was telling us to "go down". Sakari was already down and the hubby disappeared out of my site and I'm still struggling with the water. I start to go down and I was getting into my head for some reason. All the surroundings and the bottom of the ocean was way down there and I looked up and I started to panic. I don't know why. I haven't done this in years now. I used to have an issue when I first started doing these dives and then I had over come any of the issues for quite some time. But today...today was different. I wasn't feeling comfortable and if I'm not comfortable yet, it's not going to work. Alex was yelling and pointing down. I told him to hold on a minute. I was doing some deep breathing and he floated over to me and grabbed my BCD hose and started deflating me! I'm shaking my head no and struggling to stay afloat and this is when I really started to panic. How dare him do that when I said I wasn't ready? He kept telling me to go down! I kept telling him to wait...l don't know what's wrong with me and this hasn't happened in a long time. Then he said "close your eyes" and started pulling me down again. Like what the heck! You can't just pull someone under water.
I did some more deep breathing and looking up at the sky and then I was somewhat ready. I eased myself into it and deflated my bcd on my own. Both Sakari and the hubby was watching me. They knew I was struggling. Maybe I just wasn't used to "jumping in and going". We had always went over skills and everything and this time all we did was went over the hand signals. Not that we don't know everything and have done it many many times before. I guess I was just not prepared to jump and go. As a matter of fact, we didn't even do any paperwork prior (or after) either! There was no record of us diving. What if something happened?
Alex had the line up with the buoy and signaled for me to grab it. I latched on and we swam. This helped a lot. I'm not sure why. It was like a kid holding their security blanket. Sakari actually took a picture of me holding the line.
I swam along like this for awhile before I finally felt at ease and let go. Taking pictures are my meditation and helps relax me and I was snapping away and trying not to think of all the things that were racing in my head. I will share some of my pictures but I'm going to warn you right now...I have NO IDEA what happened and the pictures are HORRID! They are not my normal pictures for sure. In the beginning, I know that I still had my camera on the land setting instead of underwater. They turned out green. I have tried to color correct them the best that I can but they are terrible.
Hubby was still worried about me and kept asking if I was ok.
It was right at this point that I noticed I had my camera on the wrong setting. Geesh! So, I switched to the underwater setting and continued. However, once I returned home and just now looked at my pictures...they are still horrid! I have no idea what's going on with my camera. I've had this issue in the past once before. Maybe it's just getting old and I need to buy a new one. I'm not sure. Sakari had the newer camera and her pictures turned out a lot better. Not only are mine weird colors but they were blurry as well. Like nothing is crispy focused like normal.
It was gorgeous down there! So much sealife and coral. The coral just went on forever and so many beautiful colors! There were so many MASSIVE corals down there too! I'm so bummed that my pictures didn't show the beauty of this area!
Now Sakari's picture has some of that annoying blue tint going on too but she was messing with her settings off and on (I could tell once I looked at all the pictures she took in a row because they would change and a lot of times she would also forget to take it off of the underwater macro setting and she'd get blurry far away pictures). I also think the clouds have a lot to do with it too.
But, here are her pictures up to this point.
Then Alex spotted this guy. He was huge! Sakari and I LOVE crab legs and this thing could have fed us both! See how blurry my pictures are compared to hers?
I have to say, there were a lot of beautiful anemones down there. I don't think I have seen as many as we did this day on any other dives.
Sakari went into macro mode and did her thing...
She was really pleased to see that Sir Pedro San Migual had found us here...we were pretty far down from Buccanos and he still managed to come swim with her. ;)
Now one of my favorite fishes is the trigger fish...which I have mentioned many times before, but I have never seen as many as I did diving here. They were everywhere and HUGE! Here's a beautiful Black Triggerfish (maybe a Durgon) and they can get up to 16" long! Sakari did manage to get pretty close to a lot of the fish. It's like they know she's one of them! (just look at the difference between mine and Sakari's pictures...ugh)
Now I have a collection of reef books that I look up fish that I may come across that I've never seen and want to know what they are. In this book, it tells you all about each fish and how they react to divers. Take note that this is what it says about the Black Triggerfish: Reaction to Divers: Wary and keep their distance. Usually move away when approached. Will retreat into crevices where they lock themselves in place by raising their stout triggers. But yet notice how close Sakari can get to them! However, people have them in aquariums and I've heard they are friendly and you can train them to eat out of your hand. Hmmm
Heck, I can't even get a clear picture of the hubs and Sakari...everything is blurry. BTW, hubby had the GoPro and it completely stopped working. We've only had it worked once on vacation. The last time, we couldn't even get it to turn on. I had worked on it prior to leaving and finally got it working again (it's so random) but right when you need it...it stops. **edit, after looking at the pictures, it seems as though it somehow got turned on during our entire boat ride and the battery had ran dead is my guess**
Here's a collage of my crappy pictures...let's just get some of them out of the way so I can hang my head in shame and go on with my life after this embarrassment. Go ahead and use your imagination about how colorful these corals were in real life. Close your eyes as Alex would say. #rollseyesinstead
A large barracuda was spotted in the distance. I've just never seen so many of them before on one trip.
A white spotted filefish...which is hard to tell from my picture, but it was beautiful. (They are part of the Triggerfish family so I adore them as well).
And another type of white spotted filefish
This blue tang surgeon fish was definitely invading her space!
Blue Parrot
Stoplight Parrot
Sakari got up close and personal with a Honeycomb Cowfish!
Back to Sakari's up close pictures that she does so well with...
Then she took this beautiful picture and I just love it! The colors were so pretty and look at the Brittle Starfish hiding in it!
A few pictures of us...
Then we spotted this gorgeous Queen Angelfish!!! She was a beauty! Or should I say "he" since the males are always so pretty in all the species.
We spotted a stingray trying to hide itself by shuffling the sand over top of it. Of course Sakari went to explore.
And daddy having a little bit of fun
It had a friend which it was hard to tell if this smooth trunkfish was a friend or just an annoyance to the stingray at this point.
A Yellownose Goby...these are cleaner fish.
At this point, I was starting to feel like we were just getting too deep. I went to clear my ears and the right didn't want to pop. I tried several times, but then it started to hurt. I decided to check our depth (which I shouldn't have because this started my brain in overload again) and seen that I was around 45' and the hubby was further down than me and Sakari was way down.
I also looked to the side and could see a drop off. I knew we were diving the wall area and that's where the other divers on our boat went to and .... if anyone has ever read some of my other reviews... walls freak me out!! Like totally freak me out. I have managed to go slightly over one in Roatan, but I would not say I overcame that fear by doing it and have no desire to do it again.
Sakari must have noticed the wall too because she managed to get a picture as well.
Here's the problem...not only was there a wall there going off into the deep blue but the current was carrying us that way as well. Also, the current was carrying us sideways. So, you couldn't really stay facing forward because it would make you go sideways. It was uncomfortable. I was fighting it. I was getting tired. My back was starting to hurt from bending sideways trying to straighten myself out. My ear was still hurting. My anxiety started up again and I could tell I was about to panic again. I wanted out! I wanted out now!
I started to ascend a little and Alex grabbed ahold of me and pulled me back down, which really made my ear hurt more. I motioned to him and said "up" and he asked "up?" and I said "yes" and then gave him the "ear" trouble signal. He shook his head up and down and he knew I was done with it. We started going up. I think Sakari captured this moment perfectly. I think they display the fear I was having at this very moment. Looking down and then up.
The hubby could tell I was having issues again and panicking. He came up to check on me. Sometimes he can calm me and other times it won't work. This time it wasn't working. I was so over this dive and struggling in the water with the current and now my ear. I just needed to go up and get out!
Alex had come to us and grabbed me and held me down. What was he doing? He wasn't going to let me go up! Oh my gosh I'm going to stay here forever. Please, don't make me continue! Of course I knew this was for our safety and there could be boats over head, but he signaled that we could start going up and here he was saying no and pulling me down once again. Sakari came up to me and he grabbed her and held onto her as well. I tried to take my mind elsewhere and took a picture of us as he held onto us.
We started noticing a lot of jellyfish around the area. Both Sakari and I took a few pictures and was really hoping they wouldn't get close to us as the current carried them by. Of course mine didn't turn out and hers did. I am now finding out that these are called Spotwinged comb jellyfish. They do not sting and they will light up in the dark if you wave something in front of them. How cool...but nothing I will ever get to see because swimming in the ocean at night would scare the crap out of me!
After a few minutes went by, Alex signaled that we could go up. But first, there was a huge school of Horse-Eyed Jacks swimming by and Sakari and I just had to get some pictures! They were pretty big in size and the looks on their faces was if they meant business.
I was never so happy to have my head out of water and that's just not like me. I would be in the water every day if I could. This was just not a good experience for me. Something was really off for me. It really didn't help the entire situation with being pulled under in the beginning. That was just not cool and to me on the dangerous side. But I was up and my BCD was inflated and now all I had to do was wait for the boat to come pick us up so my heart would start beating a normal rhythm again.
Once the boat arrived, I couldn't wait to swim over to it and get out and back to safety. I was the first one up. I took off my fins and handed it to the guy on the boat and then I took off my bcd and tank and climbed out. I'm honestly shocked I had enough strength to do all that after fighting the current this entire time but I knew I had to do it. I'm just glad that my foot was doing ok. Being in the water is good for it. It's weightless and no pressure but there was a lot of kicking and movement this time around. I knew I would pay the price later. My ear was still hurting a bit and I just didn't understand that. I have never ever had any issues with my ears and clearing them and actually I don't even have to hold my nose and blow to clear them. I simply swallow and it clears. It did continue to hurt for about another half hour and then it finally went away. I didn't have any problems after that.
I did want to mention that I did see a porcupine puffer fish and also a snowflake eel but my pictures are so bad that I can't even find them in the hundreds of pictures I took. :( I knew that Sakari didn't get to see the eel because she was off doing her own thing a little ways away from me. I thought she had seen the puffer, but I didn't find any pictures of it.
Our dive was from 10:26 until 11:07, so 41 minutes total. Alex acted like that wasn't a very long time and I know that had I not had issues, we would have been down there a lot longer.
Once we were back on the boat and safe, I noticed the older gentleman was already on the boat. We went to pick up the other divers at the wall as well. Then we just sat there. I had no idea what they were doing. I took a few pictures at 11:43 of us just sitting on the water right in front of Alberto's so it had been at least 30 minutes of everyone sitting after the last person got out of the water.
Then they started handing out these little plastic containers with snacks in them. I guess it was lunch time. Each container had individual areas with something different in them. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it. That's so unlike me. However, I did find a picture online that was posted by him that I'm going to share, although ours was a lot fuller and had cookies in it.
It had a large piece of cake with icing on it, charritos puffed snacks (which were something like cheez-its), there were a few pieces of slices pineapple, and some of the miniature chocolate chip cookies. It all really hit the spot because we were starving after only having a small egg salad sandwich that morning. They also had bottled water and pop. Of course no diet. :( I had to suffer and have a regular.
So everyone ate and we continued to sit there for awhile. I was kinda cold and was trying really hard to stay sitting in the sun but of course the boat kept moving. I took my wetsuit off and pulled out the towels and bundled myself up. The wetsuit didn't do much good because my bathing suit was wet as well.
Then they started up the boat and we moved to Palancar Reef. Then they stopped. Hmmm, were they doing a second dive? I watched them change out the air tanks and people were gearing up again. I already had it in the back of my mind that I wasn't going. My wetsuit was off, I was getting dry, my ear was feeling better, food in my belly, and I didn't want to go through the same anxiety as I did last time and I was so afraid that would happen again. I wasn't about to risk it as much as it killed me. Safety first! The hubby ask several times and I assured him..."I am sure". My stomach was rumbling again and I wasn't sure if my diarrhea was about to kick in again.
Him and Sakari geared up again and waited to be told to jump. It was time for them to go and they must have noticed they were in the wrong position because they told them to hold up and moved the boat. It was really drifting.
I took one last picture of my beloved family and I had hoped to see them again soon. By me not going, I still had that anxiety of not knowing what was happening down there and if they were safe. Sakari had that look of "mom, we will be fine"
The hubby was armed with my camera now, instead of the non-working Gopro, and I told him to make sure he got some good pictures!
Sakari was in and immediately at it...no time to waste
We will start with mi esposo's pictures because...it won't take long to view those. I take about 300 pictures, he takes around 22 pictures. Seriously...I counted! I'll share a few with you.
He spotted a squirrel fish. This was a time that I hadn't seen any on this trip so glad he was good at capturing one. They have a tendency to hide in or under the rocks. It's too bad the color of the picture didn't turn out. They are a pretty red color.
Then he spotted a Scrawled Filefish. These unique fish have beautiful spotted skin and a fun interesting fact is that they can change their colors depending on their surroundings just like an octopus does.
Now when Sakari isn't taking pictures, I have started to notice that she puts her hands together...like you see real divers do, instead of using her hands/arms to "swim" like a swimmer. I said something to her about it when we got home and I seen this picture and she made a comment about it too (being like a real diver and starting to do that). I guess she doesn't have much of a chance to practice this skill because she's always busy taking pictures. I'm so glad she outgrew the ear troubles she used to have with equalizing them. For awhile, she didn't even want to dive and would beg not to but I would assure her that we wouldn't go deep and she was enjoying her shallow 20' dives. Now, she gets excited again to dive. She's just a natural at diving and so good at it. I wish I could be like her.
So there you have it! The extent of the hubby's pictures.
Now I will show you Sakari's pictures since I can always count on her.
Spotted Cowfish
Yep, I was up there...
There were a bunch of Caribbean Reef Squid in the distance. It's too bad they weren't closer for a better picture.
THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN....SOMETHING MAJOR HAPPENED.... but, I will leave this until the end of the dive because I had to wait to find this information out, so you will have to wait too. :(
This part is pretty amazing as well....Sakari found a GROUPER! I think it might be called the Speckled Blue Grouper but the coloring on the pictures makes it hard to tell. It seems to be the only Grouper I can find online but yet in my book, it sorta has the markings of a Rock Hind Grouper. If anyone knows, please comment below so I can mark this appropriately.
Looks like it was trying to mix in with it's surroundings. Good find Sakari!!!!
Then the big one moves....and then there were two!! Oh my gosh I'm so jealous! I was missing out! I love groupers as well because they are usually hard to spot and not plentiful on dives like a lot of the other fish you see all the time. Then there's that look...those big lips...there's just something about them that makes me giggle. It looks like they are having a bad day and pouting.
Another Black Trigger
Then they found a very large Green Moray Eel hidden under the rocks.
They were getting all the good stuff and they were closer to shore than when I went. Why couldn't I have went on this dive instead of the one I went on?????
A few macro shots
Adult French Angelfish
I don't know how she manages to get so close to these fish and they act like she's not even there. The fish whisperer I tell ya!
Here's a (too) close picture of a Smooth Trunkfish
Banded Butterfly fish
Sakari managed to capture a good picture of another White Spotted Filefish
Goby
Then there was a momma Goby and all her babies I assume. They were all lined up.
Like I don't even know how she spots these on the sand. They blend in so easily. I guess her prescription mask is working!
Two more beautiful Spotted Filefish
And then she found this beauty...I don't think I have ever seen one before. It was a beautiful Sargassum Triggerfish. Just look at those markings! Now my book says they are very wary of people and dart into holes and you can't get close to them. Hmmphhh, they haven't met my hija yet I guess.
An Arrow Crab hanging out in this beautiful coral and there's also an anemone inside there too! The color of this coral was just stunning! Man I'm really missing out!
The dive was loaded with Stingrays of course.
Sakari loves to go over someone and catch pictures of the bubbles they make. She always manages to catch one that looks like a jelly fish. LOL
Off in the distance they could see all the other divers. Our divers on our boat and a bunch of other divers were down there with them. I guess it was a popular spot.
Sakari managed to get one last picture coming up and that was of another Spotwinged comb jellyfish
Looking at the times of the photos both the hubby and Sakari took as their first and last picture, it appears that they were only diving for 34 minutes. That sure doesn't seem right unless it was awhile before they started taking pictures, which I can't imagine. I mean it seemed like forever when I was sitting on the boat.
My stomach was still rumbling and at one point I headed to the bathroom. Bathrooms on boats are just so small and this was seemed extra small to the point where it was hard to even close the door and have room to sit down. I weighed my options and I just couldn't go. I couldn't do that to the other members on the boat and I'm not even sure where all that stuff goes? I pulled myself together mentally and emotionally, just like when I was diving, and held it in. I had really hoped this day was coming to an end soon.
Now the other older gentleman that had his own instructor had geared up for this second dive only to decide not to go. He said he also decided it would be best not to go and he wasn't feeling well. He said he could feel his heart racing and he said he was better play it safe than sorry because something wasn't right. I was really hoping this guy was not about to go into Cardiac Arrest on me! What was really weird was every time he bent over, to put on booties or fins or his wetsuit on and then again to take all these things off, water would POUR out of his nose...like POUR...like a faucet type of pour. It was so strange. His nose wasn't dripping and it wasn't like snot or had any consistency, it was clear and looked like straight water out of the faucet turned on. When he lifted back up to a sitting position, it would stop. Off and on. I kept wondering how this was happening and where was it all coming from??? Like when you are diving you have a mask on. Water isn't getting up your nose. What the heck?
I kept looking around to try to see where my family was at. My worry-body-self couldn't help think of all the things that could go wrong. At one point I ask the other instructor that stayed back with the older gentleman "are we still around where they are at?" "Where is the balloon showing where they are?" She was completely confused and didn't understand what I was talking about. I tried to explain it and she said "Ohhh the sausage". I had no idea that's what it was called. She pointed in a direction, but I didn't see it. Maybe her eyes were trained better than mine. I never did see the sausage, but I was never so happy to see their heads surface.
Sakari gave the success and she looked proud of it!
So they come up out of the water and Sakari is so excited and the hubby has this weird look on his face. She couldn't wait to tell me what she had seen....
"We seen a shark!!!" Wait, no way! I thought they were messing with me and didn't believe them and the hubby confirmed it and started to describe it. He said "My heart was pounding so hard and it was coming right at me! It was HUGE" They couldn't stop talking about it and told me I'd see it once I get home and downloaded the pictures. Hmmm, I guess they weren't lying. But, when they described it, I was pretty sure it was a Nurse Shark and I was right after seeing the pictures.
I'm so sad that I wasn't able to experience this and all the other wonderful things they were able to see on that dive. It sounds (and from the looks of all the pictures and videos) it was a wonderful dive. At least I have swam with the sharks on an excursion before but it's just not the same as scuba diving and one come along...as long as it's a nurse shark! I would probably freak out if it was anything else.
They did say they were down with the rest of the divers and at one point they were down 70 feet. YIKES! One of the guys on our boat mentioned 73'.
Here's the video that the hubby and Sakari made during their dive. There's a lot of interesting things in it. You can also tell just how fast the water was taking them and he was following the fish around and going as fast as them while floating. He did confirm that I probably would have never liked it on that dive (not because of what all they seen of course) because the water current here was worse than when I went on the dive. He said it was really bad. Double YIKES!
Here's a video of Sakari and the hubbys during the second dive. This is why he didn't get many pictures. He was busy taking pictures. I think I'm going to just get him a good Gopro and let him do the videos so we get more during vacations. There's a lot of interesting things in this video and he did a pretty good job of capturing the area and fish...if only he wouldn't scan the area so quickly we'd have us a really good video. LOL
We started heading back and dropped off the group of people that we had picked up at the hotel and then headed back to the dock at the marina.
Once we returned, Alex disappeared somewhere so we decided to go to the bathroom. We looked all over for him and found him in his van in the parking lot. We stopped to pay up with him and to my surprise he had charged us $20 for the wetsuits. He never mentioned anything about having to pay extra for wetsuits when he handed them to us. I thought that was a little crappy of him. At least if he would have told us it was extra, I could have made the decision to not wear mine but I still would have let Sakari wear hers...although hers didn't do much good either because when she took hers off, she was wet underneath including her bathing suit. I just don't like surprise charges like that.
Also, since he didn't do any "classroom" work or have us fill out any paperwork, testing and so on like they normal do, we didn't get any books for him to write in to show our dive. I was pretty bummed about that as well. I guess I'll just have to write something down myself.
Final Thoughts:
Well, I can't really say I recommend this dive instructor for several reasons. I know he gets good reviews online but my experience was far from that. I thought it was very unprofessional of him to be pulling me down under water when I wasn't ready. You just don't do that! That created more panic and fear for me and could cause accidents by doing that. I think my anxiety during the course of going down increased by his actions and it made the dive worse for me.
There was no instruction, other than hand signals, no paperwork, no books being signed at the end to show that we did the dive. I'm big on keeping records of our dives and now I have nothing. He also didn't even talk to us before or after the dives like most instructors do. He was just all about business and not personable IMO. Then we were charged for the wetsuits and wasn't even told it was extra. Way to slide that in on us! I guess you were the cheapest for a reason!
I do have to give credit where credit is due...the hubby and Sakari said he did show them a lot of things on their second dive and was pointing his light so they could see. Of course things they would have never seen had it not been for him. So, at least they enjoyed that dive.
As you can tell, I would never use this person again for diving and would dig a little more deeper into the thoughts of a dive instructor, ask more questions, find someone patient, and get a better feel for the next instructor that we use when we come back to Cozumel.