The focus of this trip was scuba diving - of the 7 days we were in Cozumel, 5 of them were spent underwater. We were in good company - Cozumel is a popular vacation destination for scuba divers; over half of the guests at our hotel were also scuba divers. Its popularity can be attributed to the Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park just off the coast of the island - it protects part of the second largest barrier reef system in the world.
This trip was originally planned and booked for late November 2024, however several days before we were due to depart Tropical Storm Sara was hammering Honduras. Several of the track projections showed it having the potential to pass over Cozumel, and even if it bypassed the island there were likely to be winds and rain which would have made diving difficult. We made the decision to reschedule the trip to late January 2025, and we are thankful that we did! The weather in Cozumel the week we were there was fantastic - the temperature was in the high 20’s, winds were minimal, and it was sunny each day.
We stayed at the Iberostar Waves resort. There is a dive shop attached to the hotel, however I had done research ahead of the trip and ultimately chose to book our dives with a different company, ScubaTony. There were several factors which led to us diving with ScubaTony, including their great reviews online, as well as their smaller dive groups. They have smaller boats, and so no more than 6 people are diving with the same guide, leading to a more intimate experience. Over the 5 days of diving we had 3 different guides, and all of them were professional, skilled divers who led great trips. We completed 10 dives, and saw a number of different sea creatures including turtles, rays, a shark, many crustaceans and tons of fish. Unlike some other places we have dove, there was essentially no trash underwater, which shows the efforts the Mexican government have put towards preserving this environment.
One of the perks of vacationing in Cozumel is that Air Canada has a direct flight from Toronto, making it an easy destination to reach. We landed in Cozumel in the late afternoon on the Sunday, and reached the hotel in time for a relaxing dinner. The Monday we dove in the afternoon; however on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday our dives were all in the morning. The ScubaTony boat picked us up from the hotel beach right at 8 AM, and the dive sites were no more than a 15-20 minute boat ride from our hotel. This gave us enough time to get our equipment on and to conduct the dive briefing and still be in the water by 8:30 on most mornings. This was earlier than many of the other dive companies, which meant we rarely saw other divers while were underwater.
After a couple of dives, our surface interval, and the boat ride back we were eating lunch before 1 PM each afternoon. This gave us several hours by the pool to read and relax, before a nice dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel. The hotel was an all-inclusive, however unlike many it wasn’t necessary to make reservations in the non-buffet restaurants for dinner. I really enjoyed the food at the resort - it was better than many of the other all-inclusive resorts I’ve been to. We took Saturday and Sunday morning off diving, and spent it enjoying the hotel. They had an archery range, and so Saturday afternoon I did a bit of archery with some of the other guests. I also made it through all 3 of the books I’d packed, along with 2 of the books Todd had packed.
Below are a selection of the photos I took underwater. These photos were taken using a Pixel 6 Pro phone, in a Kraken KRH08 v2 underwater case. This was the second dive trip I’d used the case, and while I had some issues originally with their app crashing, their new camera app worked much better on this trip. The diving really was quite great in Cozumel, I would consider going back again!
