Trip Report - Cozumel

Dates of travel: 8 December and 15 December 2007. Airline: Delta

Minneapolis to Atlanta, Atlanta to Cozumel. Reverse procedure to return.
No unreasonable delay and it consumes about a half day to travel each way.

Where: Iberostar Resort. This is the facility Dan recommended when he
invited us to his island paradise. It's rated #6 of all the properties on
the island of Cozumel. It's all inclusive, away from town, and quite nice.
The rooms are located in one and two-story bungalow-style buildings made of
cement. The property has a couple pools and various other forms of
recreation for guests. The property caters to divers and non-divers.

The buildings were designed without windows that opened or sliding doors
with screens. It wasn't warm during our stay and no air conditioner or fan
were required for cooling. The room would have been more comfortable with
fresh air.

Dove with Dressel Divers, conveniently located on the beach at the
Iberostar. They employ very personable people that are quite proficient at
their jobs. It was a pleasure to work with the divers and land staff. Dive
sites for the week included:

12/9/2007 Colombia Ladrillos

12/9/2007 Santa Rosa Reef

12/9/2007 Cedral Wall

12/9/2007 Punta Dalila

12/10/2007 Palancar Caves

12/10/2007 Paso del Cedral

12/10/2007 Yucab

12/11/2007 Colombia Cordillera

12/11/2007 Punto Francesa

12/11/2007 Colombia Ladrillos

12/11/2007 Punta Dalila

12/12/2007 Punta Tunich

12/12/2007 San Francisco

12/12/2007 Palancar Horseshoe

12/12/2007 Paso del Cedral

12/13/2007 Santa Rosa Reef

12/13/2007 Yucab

12/14/2007 Punta Sur

There are two dives in the morning, two dives in the afternoon, occasional
night dives, and trips to the Cenotes. Both morning dives are scheduled for
60 minutes and both afternoon dives are scheduled for 50 minutes. Most run
timely. Nitrox was provided and it usually ran about 32%. The O2 analyzers
rarely work but one of the divers provided one on a part-time schedule. The
second dives were all shallow or shallower so there may have been tanks that
weren't analyzed. None of the dives are really deep. The deepest scheduled
dive was 100 feet but that overstated the actual depth I recorded of 92
feet. It's really not that big of a deal since there is much to see at
virtually all depths. You can see repetition in the dive site names and the
guides follow a pretty regular pattern so you may recognize the landscape at
times. It's still fun.

The dive boats vary somewhat but are large. There were up to three groups
per boat and up to 8 persons per group. Dan, Pat and I were on the same
boat quite often and in the same group at times. Even when we were on a
different boat we managed to surface together with their dive leader. This
may seem odd to those of you not participating but my dive leader was Neal
Patrick Harris while Dan and Pat had Cote de Pablo. The fact is I passed ol'
Neal up for Cote but still caught Neal's boat for the ride back home.

I shot 522 pictures that I kept. That's quite a few pictures - some of them
are really good. I think I'll try and figure a way to get them on line.

A note of caution: You still can't eat and drink anything you want in
Mexico without potential adverse consequences. I can't tell you how or why
but could explain adverse consequences as supporting the lumber industry.
All-in-all it was an excellent dive adventure with international
implications.

On Dec 20, 7:25*pm, Dan Bracuk <NOTbra...@pathcom.com> wrote:
> "ben bradlee" <No...@Way.Bite.Me> pounded away at his keyboard
> resulting in:
> :I shot 522 pictures that I kept. *That's quite a few pictures - some ofthem
> :are really good. *I think I'll try and figure a way to get them on line..
>
> 522???????????
>
> Wow. *I took about 200 altogether. *I downloaded 79 files and kept 46
> of them. *I enhanced 41 of those and had 23 printed. *Still haven't
> decided how many to put on the web.
>
> Of course, I also did fewer dives. *You were such a keener.
>
> Take a look at where Greg and George posted their pics. *It seemed
> like a reasonable site for those unable or unwilling to write their
> own html.

I borrowed that idea from George (thank you, George). Picasa gives
you bigger pics and it's free. Kodakgallery wants $2.50 a month for
tiny pics.

"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
news:07cmm3hu3jc3272pvbt3h4b7h1vlgl1hk1@4ax.com...
> "ben bradlee" <NoWay@Way.Bite.Me> pounded away at his keyboard
> resulting in:
> :I shot 522 pictures that I kept. That's quite a few pictures - some of
> them
> :are really good. I think I'll try and figure a way to get them on line.
>
> 522???????????
>
> Wow. I took about 200 altogether. I downloaded 79 files and kept 46
> of them. I enhanced 41 of those and had 23 printed. Still haven't
> decided how many to put on the web.

I spent part of the last two days editing pictures while making a DVD. At
first I wasn't going to do editing but then I saw the changes and decided
it's the thing to do. It was also a good opportunity to learn Photoshop.
I've had the program for 10 years, more or less, so it's about time I learn
a couple menu options. The 522 includes land pictures.

> Of course, I also did fewer dives. You were such a keener.

I didn't take the camera on 6 dives. In retrospect it should have been with
me.

> Take a look at where Greg and George posted their pics. It seemed
> like a reasonable site for those unable or unwilling to write their
> own html.

I will. It's been years since I wrote html and I wasn't really very good at
it anyway.

> It was nice diving with you. Have to do it again one day.

Back at you. We'll do it again.

"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
news:2pfmm316asb6b05getllheo964s1ei0o43@4ax.com...
> Greg Mossman <mossman@qnet.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
> in:
>
> :I borrowed that idea from George (thank you, George). Picasa gives
> :you bigger pics and it's free. Kodakgallery wants $2.50 a month for
> :tiny pics.
>
> These are going to be a bit of a letdown after Greg's and George's
> great Bonaire pictures, but here are some of mine from last week.
> http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj291/DanBracuk/

These are good shots. I've some very similar of the eel and turtle.

> Not sure if Picassa lets you upload full size images, but photobucket
> seems to be compressing them My eagle ray is 3 megs on by hard drive
> and 117 kbytes on photobucket. Photobucket is also free.
>
> Dan Bracuk
> Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.

On Dec 20, 11:26 pm, Dan Bracuk <NOTbra...@pathcom.com> wrote:
> Greg Mossman <moss...@qnet.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
> in:
>
> :I borrowed that idea from George (thank you, George). Picasa gives
> :you bigger pics and it's free. Kodakgallery wants $2.50 a month for
> :tiny pics.
>
> These are going to be a bit of a letdown after Greg's and George's
> great Bonaire pictures, but here are some of mine from last week.http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj291/DanBracuk/
>
> Not sure if Picassa lets you upload full size images, but photobucket
> seems to be compressing them My eagle ray is 3 megs on by hard drive
> and 117 kbytes on photobucket. Photobucket is also free.
>
> Dan Bracuk
> Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.

Good stuff Dan. I especially like the rock beauty peering out from
under a ledge. They are always hard to photograph. I have thrown away
a lot of shots of rock beauty asses :).

Picassa will let you upload full size. The free option limits the
total space you can use but not the size of individual pictures. The
amount of space for free is quite generous. But I don't know why you'd
want to upload full size. For computer display you don't need full
res. Compression is fine, and it also allows you to upload more photos
if you want to.

Thanks for sharing them. Hope to run into you on an island some time!

gc

On Dec 20, 11:26*pm, Dan Bracuk <NOTbra...@pathcom.com> wrote:
> These are going to be a bit of a letdown after Greg's and George's
> great Bonaire pictures, but here are some of mine from last week.http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj291/DanBracuk/

As a prelude to uploading images from previous trips, the ones above
have been moved to http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/j...umel_Dec_2007/