We have been diving in Cozumel since 2005. Since Jeremy and the Living Underwater team run such a fantastic operation, we try to visit at least once a year and the diving never disappoints. Living Underwater's boat, The Jew Fish, holds a maximum of eight divers plus the crew: Captain Andreas, first mate Ricardo, and dive master Pepe or Lydia, all of whom are excellent. Depending on where you're staying, pickup is usually at your hotel dock or the town pier, after which The Jew Fish's twin 125 HP outboards will get you quickly to your first dive site of the morning.
During our most recent trip, the southern part of the marine park was closed to all underwater activities. The intent is to allow the heavily visited Palancar and Columbia reefs to "rest", and also to allow scientists to study the disease that is affecting certain types of coral. While we very much enjoy diving those areas, other sites like Dalila, La Francesa, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Tormentos, and Tunich provided plenty of great diving for the week. We saw everything from tiny Painted Elysia, Lettuce Leaf sea slugs, and several types of cleaner shrimp to huge Hawksbill and Loggerhead turtles, nurse sharks, six-foot green morays, and a couple of Spotted Eagle Rays. In between those size extremes, we encountered all the sea life that is so common to the Cozumel reefs including hundreds of lobsters, large angelfish, splendid toadfish, many varieties of crabs, mantis shrimp, jaw fish, and many others.
Both Lydia and Pepe are great dive masters who are very focused on keeping their customers happy. They make sure to point out the treasures that they find to everyone in the group, identify unknown critters using an underwater slate, and go slowly enough to allow the photographers and videographers plenty of time to capture footage. Since a 100cf tank will last me "only" 60-70 minutes on a typical dive, both Pepe and Lydia offered to stay down for an extra 10-15 minutes with my much more air-efficient wife/dive buddy. It's easy to see why Living Underwater has such a loyal following and so many repeat customers. read more