Photos: David Melendez

Cozumel '08: This was the Annual Bill Jones Cozumel trip and was, as usual, well attended and a lot of fun. The 25ish of us stayed at the Hotel Cozumel and most of us used their on site dive op. We did mostly drift dives but there was one wreck dive. Some of the drift dives were along a pretty humming current and were more like flying than drifting...but those dives can be some of the best as they bring out the fish who love to grab food on the hoof as it goes flying by.

Hotel Cozumel: This is a really nice, all inclusive resort hotel. It has a very large, well maintained pool, clean, spacious rooms and a number of places to get food and drink. Also, of great importance to us, it has a dive op right on the premises with good rinse tanks, lockers and full rental gear.

Misc dive shots of critters, reefs and divers. I've only separated out two dives and put them at the bottom of the page. One was The Wreck and the other was a whale shark dive in Holbox, Mexico.

This was a rare treat. "The Wreck" as it's largely known (the Felipe Xicotencatl is it's actual name) is inside the Cozumel harbor and requires premission from the local gov't in order to dive it. I've been here 3 times and this is the first time I've been on it. As it turned out, it's a nursery! Little bitty fish all over the place.

Holbox! (prounced Hole-bosh) was a Whale Shark dive! This was one of the coolest thing I've ever done. You weren't allowed to wear dive gear, only snorkle..not that it would've mattered, you can't keep up with them anyway. This was the way it worked. The boat would find a whale shark, figure out which way it was heading, get in front of it (pretty far in front, didn't want to scare it) and drop off two swimmers and a dive master. The whale shark would come in range and then you'd swim as hard as you could for about 30 seconds to keep up with it...at which time it would have out distanced you. The boat comes around, picks you up, swings in front again and drops off two new divers (while you try and get your breath back).
Getting there was a little trip in itself too. It required us to take the ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen, then rent a car and hit the road. 4 or so really interesting hours driving in Mexico later, you're right off the coast of Holbox. From there you have to take another ferry to the island of Holbox..where the fun begins!