in follow up to Al Rudderham's post in which Al said:

AR> You'll be in good hands with Careyitos.  Expect as much bottom time as
AR> you can squeeze out of an 80.  I did a couple days with them in
AF> February, and the briefing was usually "whatever depth for 70 minutes"
AR> and I don't think Ricardo (the owner and dive leader) was ever back on
AR> the boat in less than 75 minutes.

That's the Careyitos dive shop, often confused with the Caballitos
shop because they are both Ca....itos.  :-)  

I may have dived with Careyitos once years back, but don't recall
having met Ricardo.  But heard much about him from DMs and friends
in Cozumel.

"Whatever depth for 70 minutes" I think is meant "whatever MAX depth
for 70 minutes" :-).    Have done MAX depth below 200 fsw, with
regular dive groups, and finish dives over 70 minutes.  

You can do that with MANY shops in Cozumel PROVIDED you know the
shops/DMs and THEY know your diving capability.

That's just ANOTHER reason I like Cozumel, my "local" dive location. :-)

-- Bob.

-- Bob.

Got back from our cruise to Coz Thurs afternoon.  The dive trip w/ Careyitos
was great!!  A real quality operation w/ very safe and knowledgeable staff.

First dive was at Punta Sur- huge coral grotto swim-thrus at max 90'.  We
stayed down 60 minutes.  I think Ricardo is part sea turtle- the guy hardly
ever breathes!! I came up w/ < 500lbs. and he came up w/ 1200lbs!

Second dive was the Paloma reef.  We drifted for more than a mile.  I stayed
behind Ricardo and tried to mimic his air conservation technique.  We logged
80 minutes at max. 50'.  I came back w/ 400 lbs. and he still had 1200lbs.!!
Got a glimpse of a nurse shark, saw giant parrot fish, sea turtle, giant
angels and the other typical fishies.

Since my wife is only a snorkeler, Aaron who works for Ricardo, took very
good care of her and put on an impressive skindiving display!

Tony was somewhat shocked that his company is discussed regularly here in
the newsgroups.  You shoulda seen his mouth drop when I told him Big Al,
Mike Hill and Jack said "hi"!!!  He said, "Man, I had no idea people know
about us on that internet-thing.  I'd better watch what I say from here on
out!!"  I told him it was nothing but good things.

Thank you all for the good recommendation to go w/ Careyitos Divers.

Chris & Susan Hasek
Plano, Tx