There is no reef like home.

By Raul Romero

After one year of being out of the water, I finally came back to Cozumel for some Scuba diving. I used to dive every day in Cozumel, either teaching Scuba to new student divers, or guiding diving tours at Blue XTSea dive shop. This was  before I moved to New York with my wife. Today, I had my first dive trip. I woke up early to prepare my equipment, and to make sure that I didn’t forget anything. My excitement was building....

Mago, Shamu’s captain, and I headed to “Caleta” on his motorcycle, while Pedro Pablo, the Dive Master, drove the customers’ and our equipment on the truck. It was a beautiful sunny morning and as we approached Caleta I could feel the breeze of the ocean on my face.

Once on the boat, I quickly assembled my equipment and made sure that everything was in order. It was a three-tank dive, so Pedro Pablo and the divers decided “Palancar Bricks” for the first dive. As Mago guided our boat to the dive site, I could see some of the damage left by Hurricane Emily that hit in July. Some trees and  big palms were gone, hotel roofs wiped away, and a few hotels were hit hard and had to close to the public in order to be remodeled. We had a pleasant ride though; there were no waves, the ocean looked flat and glassy, like a mirror, and one could actually see the white sand at the bottom of the ocean.

We arrived to the site and Pedro Pablo gave us the heads up to get ready. At this point I was so excited about my “back to dive” trip that the smell of neoprene gave me butterflies in my stomach; I was impatient to jump into the water.  We rolled back into the water. I can’t describe the feeling of breaking that mirror and seeing  the reef at the bottom. Descending like slow motion sky divers, we reached the 80ft depth already set by the Dive Master and divers. A Hawksbill turtle was the first thing we saw at the top of the reef. Adrenaline was still rushing in my body and my excitement was still rising as I heard my breath through the reg and saw the bubbles escaping. The view was just as I remembered from a year ago; spectacular coral formations making contrast with the deep blue color at the edge of the wall, huge pinnacles and beautiful swim throughs.

Despite the damage caused by Emily (I saw a broken sponge drifting away and a couple of tree branches from the beach), I would say the reef is recovering quickly. The fish are still there living and guarding their nests. I was surprised to find big schools of the typical French Grunt (I thought they would be gone due to Emily), hundreds of Blue Chromis and Wrasses, enormous groupers and barracudas, lobsters, a Spotted Eagle Ray and the friendly French Angelfish, and many more.

It was already nearing an hour of such amazing spectacle, so we had to come up for the safety stop and surface even if we didn’t want to. As I hit the surface, I had a big smile in my face; Mago, who was waiting for us on the boat, says as he sees my happy face: “Welcome home Raul” and as I say “thank you Mago!” I think of Cozumel as my diving home, a place that always has something to give, a place where I will always come back for a splash, a place that is still a diving paradise.

Raul Romero has been a Dive Master and lived in Cozumel for 8 years. He has also taught SCUBA Diving as a PADI Instructor for 5 years before moving to New York City with his wife in August 2004.

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment