diving Archives | TRAVELS WITH TAM

The Ultimate Dive Experience! Part One.

July 26, 2015 By Tam Warner 3 Comments

The Ultimate Dive Experience at Occidental Allegro in Cozumel!

Spending the last month in Cozumel and Cancun has been delightful, and while I was on the island of Cozumel I had the opportunity to check out the Ultimate Dive Experience! Occidental Allegro Hotel and Resort and ProDive Mexico have created a diver’s haven in Cozumel.

For the diver who wants a great dive package with VIP treatment, Occidental Allegro’s Ultimate Dive Experience is really something. The divers have their own private area of the resort. There is even an exclusive Check-in and Check-out for guests of the Ultimate Dive Experience. Let me give you a glimpse of the resort, the diving, and fantastic San Francisco Beach. Carla Guardiola, Dive Coordinator of UDE, gave me the 5 star tour!

Need to use a computer? Check in has you covered.

First, there is the exclusive check-in/check-out service (9:00am – 5:00pm) for divers. There is also a separate lobby and lounge for the UDE. Divers receive a special ID bracelet which identifies them as an Ultimate Dive Experience guest. The accommodations are lovely for the avid diver, it comes with a wetsuit drying rack, a 32″ Flatscreen TV and DVD player, a multi-media docking station, a stocked minibar (I love minibars!!), free internet, a private pool area and a self-service bar with complimentary afternoon snacks. UDE guests recieve 2 preferential a la carte restaurant reservations during a week’s stay…book with Carla early!

A private lounge and bar for divers with complimetary afternoon snacks.

Chill out and enjoy the Ultimate Dive Experience!

They also have an option for a romantic dinner right on the beach! Carla can make magic happen.

I would say that the UDE at Occidental Allegro is similar to a liveaboard…one of the best things about it is that the divers have a part of the resort and beach to themselves, and getting to know other divers is always a terrific bonus. To be able to meet likeminded individuals, and dive with them, is always desirable.

Pro-Dive is located conveniently on the beach of the resort and the dock is easily accessible. With the Ultimate Dive Experience one receives one free single tank boat dive per day (24 hours reservation required), and an upgrade to a two tank dive is only $37.00 per dive. Pro-Dive offers free equipment storage at the dive shop so you don’t have to lug your gear back and forth to your room every day (I love that amenity!) One also receives a 15% discount at the dive shop toward apparel and retail items.

Keeping track of the day's dive schedule. — Keeping track of the day’s dive schedule.

Pro-Dive’s boats are nice and roomy, and for every 8 divers there is a dive master. The location of the resort is perfect for diving…right in front of the hotel is Santa Rosa Wall and Santa Rosa Shallows, two of the very best dive sites in Cozumel. No long, tiring boat rides to worry about, the beauty of the southern reefs of Cozumel is at your fingertips.

Are you a young family? The Occidental Allegro has your child’s day taken care of! The Kids Club has supervised and scheduled activities for your children or grandchildren, along with a Pirate themed water park. I think you might have trouble tearing your child away from the club!

Cool Kid's Club includes a water theme park. — Cool Kid’s Club includes a water theme park.

When you need some relaxation, check out the spa, or have a massage in front of the beach and feel the ocean breezes.

There is no need choose between a “family” vacation and a “dive” vacation. The Ultimate Dive Experience with Pro-Dive Mexico at the Occidental Allegro gives you both options. The Ultimate Dive Experience is a fabulous concept, and it is done well at the Occidental Allegro. I give it an enthusiastic two thumbs up! If planning a dive vacation to Cozumel, I recommend that you seriously look into the Ultimate!

Tune in to Friday’s Fab Photo Friday post, the Ultimate Dive Experience Part Two, and I will tell you all about my day of diving with Pro-Dive! The diving was, as always in Cozumel, spectacular!

Don’t forget to tell them that Tam sent you!

It has been a Trip!

July 24, 2015 By Tam Warner 6 Comments

The last month has been crazy and non stop. There are so many adventures to tell you about they will have to be broken up into several blogs.

As I last reported, my husband, Randy, had to leave Cozumel after 10 days to treat a virus. Since his double lung transplant (An Unexpected Journey) infections have been frequent. The anti-rejection drugs which keep his lungs breathing easy has a catch: it reduces his immune system. He is getting better, but the virus is still there. I am headed home tomorrow.

Enjoying the waters of Cozumel! — Randy, enjoying the waters of Cozumel!

After Randy left I continued to dive, and my bestie (*who owns Villa Torres, the home next door in Cozumel) came to town with kids and grandkids in tow! There were 5 grandchildren running around, from 2 years to 13 years. What fun!

Saying hello to Randy after he had to go home.

One of her grandchildren, Beck, is 5 years old. When he saw my Great White Shark photos and Manta pics, he was mesmerized. He loved talking about the “cookie cutter” shark whose bite leaves a perfect hole in its victim. Shark Week fascinated him, but also scared him a little. He learned, and remembered, so many facts and he is now fascinated by sharks. Excellent!

On my schedule was a Marine Megafauna Foundation Ray of Hope Expedition in Cancun, and I took the ferry from Cozumel and headed up on the 15th. The goal was to find the endemic Manta Rays, photograph them for ID, and take samples for DNA testing. It was also a lovely opportunity to meet up with my friend Rodrigo (who took the Great White photos of me five years ago) and partake in Citizen Science. I tell people to look Rodrigo up when they come to Cancun, he manages Solo Buceo, and it is an excellent dive operation. The meeting of the Ray of Hope directors and Rodrigo was a match made in heaven. They are definitely tribe members with their love and dedication to pelagics (sharks, rays, turtles, whales). Hopefully they will get together and cook up another expedition somewhere! I am on it.

Diving with Rodrigo of Solo Buceo with the MMF team.

Fab Photos Friday: Incredible Night Dive

July 16, 2015 By Tam Warner 8 Comments

Another night dive on Paradise Reef in Cozumel!

pn slipper lob awesome eye — Slipper Lobster. The best photo I’ve ever taken of one. LOVE its eye and cool legs.

Look at the size of this tiny shrimp! Isn't it cute? — Look at the size of this tiny shrimp! Isn’t it cute?

pn crab standoff — Standoff! Get out of my hood, dude.

pn lob out at night — Huge lobster out at night

pn splendid toadfish — The Splendid Toadfish can be found only in Cozumel.

pn parrotfish hiding — The day fish hide at night.

pn octopus hiding — Can you see the hiding octopus?

pn octo incredible shot — This octopus is such an exciting creature to watch. The color changes are constant.

pn flamingo tongue body or mouth — Flamingo tongue at night.

Enjoy what you are looking at? Please share!

Macro Thrills in Cozumel!

July 15, 2015 By Tam Warner 4 Comments

I have always loved looking at macro photos of the tiniest creatures in the ocean. I have a few dive pals who take exquisite macro photos…one of them, Diana Paboojian, was featured on this blog as one of my Wednesday’s Amazing Women. I finally went out and bought a macro lens, and while I cannot compete with Diana, I am enjoying learning to use it, and training my eyes to seek out the smallest creatures.

Have you ever seen Conch eyes? I love them. They are on stalks, and can look in all directions, which can have amusing results. The Conch is one of the first creatures I’ve tried my macro luck with, then I moved on to Hermit Crabs. Hermit Crabs also have stalks for eyes, and some crabs have bright blue eyes. I came upon an active, moving group of tiny hermit crabs, and enjoyed the milieu! They were in the process, it appeared, of finding new shells. These shells are so tiny! They were perhaps 3 or 4 inches long. As they grow they abandon their shells to find bigger ones. There was quite a lot of consternation in this scene! These were tiny little hermit crabs, and their eyes were a midnight blue. They resemble spiders when they are out of their shells, don’t you think?

A hermit crab in search of a shell to call home. He is tiny, tiny, tiny!

Another wonderful encounter was with a baby Pygmy Filefish. To even see a Pygmy Filefish is rare because they are small and blend in perfectly with their surroundings, but a baby! This little one was about half the size of my pinky finger…and I have small hands. The Pygmy showed no sign of nervousness and had no intention of leaving its soft coral surroundings. It took looking through the bifocals in my mask to even see it!

And there is one of my favorite mollusks, the Flamingo Tongue. Flamingos are mollusks and feed on gorgonians. Their shell appears to be white with orange spots, but actually it is the slug itself covering the shell with their mantle! This sea slug covers its shell with its body as it eats. I am not sure why, but the result is gorgeous.

This Flamingo has less of its mantle out.

This little shrimp was barely visible, and the pipe seahorse tiny, tiny as well!

My dive guide points out the Pipehorse...so tiny! — My dive guide points out the Pipehorse…so tiny!

Sometimes the small things can be just as exciting as the big ones!

Dive Cozumel: Paradise at Night

July 4, 2015 By Tam Warner 12 Comments

A funny looking crustacean...a Slipper Lobster! — A funny looking crustacean…a Slipper Lobster!

Diving at night is a remarkable experience. The fish of the daytime hide and the animals of the darkened reef come out. There are huge crabs, lobsters, octopuses, eels, and the colors are glorious when illuminated by camera flashes or torches.

On Cozumel, the best place to night dive (in my humble opinion) is Paradise Reef. It is named Paradise for a reason. Paradise is a shallow dive, usually without much current (except for tonight when the current was crazy and strong), and is extremely colorful and busy.

Look carefully at this crab face! Alien, indeed!

Pretty little baby Octopus...or juvenile. — Pretty little juvenile octopus.

The blow up! A protective device to make them look bigger.

The most awesome event of the night was a Spotted Moray hunting, catching, and eating a fish. I felt sorry for the poor parrotfish, but holy sh#t! Eels move FAST, shake up and bite the fish, then swallow. I had never seen an eel actually eat before…it was my first time, and yes, it was very memorable!

Another fascinating day in Cozumel, Mexico!

Diving Cozumel: Casa Blanca?

July 1, 2015 By Tam Warner 8 Comments

When the dive guide told me we were headed to “Casa Blanca” to dive today, I said, Huh? Look in any dive guide book and you will see that no such dive site exists. In front of the reef El Paso de Cedral (Cedar Pass) is a large white house named Casa Gordon, and that is the only “Casa Blanca” I could think of. Apparently, “Casa Blanca” is a new term used to describe diving the end of La Francesa (one of my very favorite dives) and the reef area between Cedar Pass and Cedral Wall. It’s a new one on me, and I’ve been diving Cozumel for almost 30 years!

Like Cedar Pass, “Casa Blanca” has a swift current, so taking photos is not the easiest thing to do. I had decided to experiment today…instead of using strobes, I manually set my white balance during the dives. The first thing I saw today was a shark…the photo is sort of watercolor-ish. I think they turned out rather nicely, see what you think! The colors are amazing on some of the photos, so obviously, I plan to keep experimenting!

2015-07-01 10.40.34 cb nurse and green moray — Cuddle time for Nurse shark and Green Moray.

Barracuda on "Casa Blanca" — Barracuda on “Casa Blanca”

2015-07-01 12.11.16 big black grouper — Black Grouper

2015-07-01 12.45.55 yuc christmas tree worms — Christmas Tree Worms on gorgeous Brain Coral.

Our second dive was Yucab, known for its amazing cacophony of life. Lobsters were everywhere today, waving their “feelers” around as if conducting a symphony. One poor lobster was actually the meal today for a shoal of Ocean Triggerfish. Snappers and others were in on the action too, but mostly the Ocean Triggers were winning the biggest parts of the meal.

2015-07-01 12.25.44 yuc lobsters — Caribbean Spiny Lobsters “conducting”.

2015-07-01 12.39.23 yuc ocean trigs eating lobster — Ocean Triggerfish can be aggressive, so I was cautious.

2015-07-01 12.39.59 yuc snapper eating — Snappers are aggressive when feeding as well…this one was shaking that lobster like a dog shakes a toy!

I came upon a very large Black Grouper on “Casa Blanca”, and a peek-a-boo Tiger Grouper on Yucab. Another great find was a sleeping shark and its buddy, a Green Moray. There were 5 nurse sharks on “Casa Blanca”, and 3 Hawksbill Turtles. In Cozumel one tends to forget how endangered the Hawksbill Turtle is…they are many here since their laying ground is across the channel near Playa del Carmen. However, thanks to BP, Playa del Carmen is the epicenter for North American Hawksbill breeding…the oil spill killed huge numbers of them and ruined their nesting beaches on the Gulf Coast.

2015-07-01 12.33.07 yuc rainbow parrot close — Incredible color on this Rainbow Parrotfish!

2015-07-01 12.33.11 yuc rainbow parrot closer — They are so difficult to photograph with a flash…so glad I know how to get photos of them now!

2015-07-01 12.17.39 tiger grouper peeking — Hello…..says the Tiger Grouper.

2015-07-01 12.17.44 tiger grouper peeking more — You look okay to me…

2015-07-01 12.17.49 tiger grouper peek close up — so I will come all the way out for a greeting! Gorgeous Tiger Grouper today!

So there was a great start to the diving this trip, and the snorkeling has also been superb as we saw an Eagle Ray right off the beach entry.

I will be keeping you up to date!

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