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Kari - 05 Mar 2007 19:14 GMT

Thought I'd chuck in. I'm back too, from Cozumel. A very successful
trip, 48 dives, 29 satisfied divers over two weeks, four days of
carnaval parades and 25 peso caguamas, and rekindled love for churros,
and a new found passion for marquesitas.

Sounds like the eagle rays were all in belize with chilly; we only had
four days of sightings. I did see two new fish (large eyed toadfish
and cave basslet), which for me in Coz is always an adventure - I keep
thinking I've seen everything that island has to offer. I guess
not. :-)

kari

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Grumman-581 - 05 Mar 2007 20:17 GMT

> I keep thinking I've seen everything that island has to
> offer. I guess not. :-)

Considering that Santa Rosa wall drops down a few thousand feet from
what I understand, it is unlikely... <grin>

Have you entered the underground river that exits just south of
Chankanaab Park?

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Kari - 06 Mar 2007 00:02 GMT

On Mar 5, 1:17 pm, Grumman-581 <grumman...@DIE-SPAMMER-SCUM-gmail.com>
wrote:

> > I keep thinking I've seen everything that island has to
> > offer. I guess not. :-)
>
> Considering that Santa Rosa wall drops down a few thousand feet from
> what I understand, it is unlikely... <grin>

Let me revise: I keep thinking I've seen most of the underwater
critters that island has to offer. As for SR, that's always been one
of my favourite spots, but I'll admit I rarely dive it below about 80
feet - and no, have never tempted the abyss there.

> Have you entered the underground river that exits just south of
> Chankanaab Park?

No. Have done some shore diving around the caleta, but not the
river. Also, avoid the area around Chankanaab Park like the plague.
So I guess there's some more wildlife that I haven't seen. What's
that dive like?

Two DMs saw dolphins one day, one at the surface, and one at about
60'. So there's even MORE that I haven't seen.

I need to go back.

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Grumman-581 - 06 Mar 2007 03:35 GMT

> Let me revise: I keep thinking I've seen most of the underwater
> critters that island has to offer. As for SR, that's always been one
> of my favourite spots, but I'll admit I rarely dive it below about 80
> feet - and no, have never tempted the abyss there.

I've dove it down to around 180 and the visibility was good enough
that I could probably still see past 300... From what I could tell
(and remember) from probably 150 down, there doesn't appear to be much
of a change in the type of terrain... Probably a 50 degree or so slope
leading gently off into the abyss... Considering the fact that during
the last Ice Age, the waters were about 390 ft lower than these days,
there might be an ancient shoreline down there somewhere that could
have something interesting... There's actually a project going on now
south of Texas looking at this...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/4595713.html

> No. Have done some shore diving around the caleta, but not the
> river. Also, avoid the area around Chankanaab Park like the plague.
> So I guess there's some more wildlife that I haven't seen. What's
> that dive like?

I've been in the cavern area, but I didn't have a line with me at the
time, plus no wetsuit, nor a light, so I chose to not go any
further... In my younger days, I wouldn't have let that stop me... I
have to wonder if I'm either getting smarter or just starting to
realize that Darwin isn't always going to be asleep on the job...

The halocline screws up visibility enough that you won't notice what
might be around you until you come face to face with a 5 ft
barracuda...

"Gee Grandma, what *big* teeth you have..."

I'm going to have to give it a try again the next time I get down
there...

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Lee Bell - 06 Mar 2007 12:04 GMT

> The halocline screws up visibility enough that you won't notice what
> might be around you until you come face to face with a 5 ft
> barracuda...

You don't suppose that, just maybe, 150 to 180 foot depths have something to
do with that?

Lee

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Grumman-581 - 06 Mar 2007 18:05 GMT

> You don't suppose that, just maybe, 150 to 180 foot depths have something to
> do with that?

No... The place where the underground river meets the coast is fairly
shallow... I doubt that it is more than 20-30 ft deep at that point...
It's just that the mixing of the fresh and salt water create an
optical effect that while the water is clear, you can't see very
far... Kind of like mixing clear oil with water and shaking it up
vigorously...

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Greg Mossman - 06 Mar 2007 05:50 GMT

> Thought I'd chuck in. I'm back too, from Cozumel. A very successful
> trip, 48 dives, 29 satisfied divers over two weeks, four days of
> carnaval parades and 25 peso caguamas, and rekindled love for churros,
> and a new found passion for marquesitas.

Those crispy cheese-waffle things made by the fire-proof guy pushing
the cart during the parade break? I had forgetten what they were
called. Thank you.

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