Cozumel, Mexico - Scuba Diving

In April 2024, we traveled with Jordan's family to Cozumel, MX for our first scuba diving adventure!

After diving twice a day, almost every day of the trip, we came to realize how special of an experience this was. We set off in hopes of seeing the Splendid Toadfish, which is endemic to Cozumel, but along the way, we also met sea turtles, sea horses, nurse sharks, spotted eagle rays, sting rays, green moray & spotted moray eels, puffer fish, scorpion fish, and so much more! We explored the island by moped, made our own Mayan chocolate at the Kaokao Chocolate Factory, ate authentic Mexican street food, and experienced an unforgettable night dive complete with an octopus sighting. This experience sparked an entirely new hobby for us and will definitely change how we plan our travels in the future!

Shortly after arriving at Roberta's Scuba Shack, we decided to rent a moped for the week. Driving the moped oceanfront around the island definitely added to the adventure of the trip & got us excited to rent a moped during our upcoming trip to Bali, Indonesia.

Cozumel is home to the magnificent Mesoamerican reefs, a paradise of impressive coral formations and lush walls of vibrantly-colored coral and fish! You can navigate the crystal-clear waters in vibrant shades of blue through hidden caves and caverns, hiding all sorts of underwater life.

Many dive sites are located throughout Cozumel, mainly located off the island's southwestern coast. One of our favorites ended up being La Francesa, where we were treated to several green moray eels, nurse sharks, an eagle ray, and even a rare sighting of a juvenile damselfish! We also loved the Yucab Reef, where we dove multiple times with several turtle sightings, splendid toadfish, and beautiful angelfish. This is also where we did our night dive, saw an octopus, and played in the bioluminescence! Other beautiful dive sites we explored during the week: Paso del Cedral, the Santa Rosa Wall, Villa Blanca Wall, and Palancar caves. The shore dives from Roberta's Scuba Shack were also a fun place to explore- with unlimited tanks for hotel guests of Village Tan Kah.

We did 10 dives in total over the course of the week and reached a max depth of 85ft!

One place that stood out during our trip was Cerveceria Punta Sur, located several blocks inland. We had hibiscus-flavored beer & lionfish pizza! Lionfish are invasive in Cozumel and are a viable threat to the reef system. Therefore, it's hunted aggressively and considered to be a sustainable food source on the island. Plus, it's delicious :)

The areas immediately surrounding the cruise ship ports were mainly tourist gift shops with small trinkets and decent food. However, we enjoyed several beachfront restaurants located within the various hotels lining the coast.

The chicken street tacos we had from an unnamed food stand were the best we have ever had and kept us wanting more!

The Kaokao Chocolate Factory tour was definitely worth the $30 per person. Our guide gave us a great overview of the chocolate-making process traditional to the ancient Mayans & served us an array of different chocolates to sample. These ranged from milk chocolate to 100% cacao, with different types of sweeteners, flavors & spices. We also ground up our own chocolate and molded chocolate bars to take home :)

We didn't explore too many beaches around the island, but our favorite beach experience was at Punta Morena. The public beach had nice sandy areas to swim & snorkel relative to the much rockier Naked Beach just down the road. Both beaches were located on the northeastern side of the island and were significantly less crowed than those on the southwestern side.

Wish List:

One adventure we missed out on was a traditional Mayan Temazcal. This involves a 3-hour steam room & shaman experience with a jump in the deep forest cenote afterwards. If we make it back to Cozumel, we will definitely book at Xkanha ahead of time.