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Dive Review of Dive with Martin/Hotel Bahia in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Dive with Martin/Hotel Bahia, Feb, 2003,

by Rickie Sterne & Chrisanda Butt, Arkansas, USA . Report 380.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 1 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments Unhappy about increased airfares, we wondered if we really should have booked this trip to Cozumel. The answer: a resounding yes. This trip was our third with Dive with Martin. Rickie, a professional pessimist, wondered if we had just gotten lucky on our first two trips. Since Martin's service has, in our experience, improved with each year, even Rickie has decided that DWM is just a good dive operator. Pablo and Orlando were very good divemasters. Pablo has an amazing eye for finding the tiny critters that I love. Orlando bailed me out when I ran low on air during the rest stop at Barracuda, and he lured a splendid toadfish out into the open. We were taken to the beautiful deep sites on Columbia and Palancar and to the north end of the island to dive Barracuda Reef and San Juan Wall. There was no extra charge for trips to the north end. We saw turtles every day we dove. We encountered spotted eagle rays four days out of six. We saw octopus by night and by day, a total of six splendid toadfish, longsnout sea horses and pipefish, nurse sharks, one blacktip reef shark,numerous morays, and the full roster of angelfish, parrotfish, and butterflyfish. There were small schools of grunts, snappers, and chub, and we saw quite a few juvenile fish. Some world-travelling divers on the boat proclaimed Cozumel's reefs to be "in better shape than many places." The night dive on Paradise Reef (included in our package) was again a real treat. Hotel Bahia remains a scrupulously clean, spacious, and inexpensive option for those of us who prefer to spend our afternoon in the coffee house rather than on the beach. We crossed the line from tourist to traveller and started eating from street vendors. Cheap, delicious, and safe. La Loncheria Mi Chabelita offers large, varied, and tasty blue plate specials. We booked our trip through Tony at Diving Adventures, and his arrangements were, as usual, flawless. Getting through customs in Houston took over an hour, but we had already missed our connnecting flight anyway since our plane was late arriving in Cozumel for unexplained reasons. We took a nitrox course from DWM, and Fernando aka Monstro was a good teacher who went beyond the PADI manual. We have both been teachers, and thought the quality and content of his instruction were excellent.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Bahamas, Belize, & Sea of Cortez by liveaboard, Roatan, and Arkansas lakes
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, cloudy, dry Seas choppy, currents
Water Temp 76-78°F / 24-26°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 80-100 Ft/ 24-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions This is Cozumel: stay with the divemaster (although o one dive, DM Pablo stayed in the water with just the two of us for ten minutes after the other divers ran out of air)
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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