First dive on our cruise vacation in Cozumel with the Snorkel Center and Diving. This was Howard's first time in Cozumel but I've been here several times. It was over two years since my last visit and I'm glad to see that little has changed. Most importantly the water is warm and clear and there are a lot of fish and healthy corals. And best of all the fish seem so used to people that many approach you closely like nowhere else I've been.

Most people crowded behind the divemaster so I hung back a little and concentrated on taking pictures. Due to space considerations I brought my more compact Reefmaster RC still camera instead of my bulky camcorder. Fortunately there was Deborah the videographer on-board to take great video of our experience.

Soon after entering the water there were two Eagle Rays off in the distance that of course took off in another direction as soon as they saw us. There were all the usual Parrotfish, Black Durgon, Gray, French and Queen Angelfish.

We didn't go over the side of the wall, much to Howard's disappointment. Instead we just hugged the dropoff for a while. The current was really moving so you didn't have time to slow down and look at the small things.

If you think the video below looks like it's in slow motion, you're right, it is. I know that makes it longer but that's the way I got it. It does make even the low quality video quite acceptable in quality. The beginning of this video has great footage of a pair of Spotted Eagle Rays which I unfortunately didn't see personally.

Video available:

56Kbps Modem RealVideo Stream (7 minutes 40 seconds) 250Kbps Broadband RealVideo Stream (7 minutes 40 seconds)