Red Sea diving in Makadi Bay, Hurghada, Egypt, November 17-22, 2017

We went to Egypt to dive and that is all we did on this trip, our first to the Red Sea. In six days, we did 16 dives. 10 dives were by boat, and 6 were shore dives on the house reef:

Dive 1 - Abu Hashish Lagoon, Boat (check dive)
Dive 2 - Royal Garden, Boat
Dive 3 - House Reef, Shore (Guided)
Dive 4 - House Reef, Shore (Unguided)
Dive 5 - Sharm el Arab, Boat
Dive 6 - Abu Hashish Drift, Boat
Dive 7 - House Reef, Shore (Unguided)
Dive 8 - Gota Abu Makadi, Boat
Dive 9 - Torfa, Boat
Dive 10 - House Reef / Relittino, Shore (Unguided compass dive)
Dive 11 -  Cleopatra, Boat
Dive 12 - Torfa, Boat
Dive 13 - House Reef, Shore (Unguided)
Dive 14 - Gota Abu Makadi, Boat
Dive 15 - Middle Makadi, Boat
Dive 16 - House Reef, Shore (Unguided)

We dove with iDive at their Makadi Bay shop (they have 4) and couldn't have been happier with our choice. Here's the link to my TripAdvisor review. The only disappointment was that we couldn't do any Night Dives because Egyptian security have suspended all night diving in the area at the moment.

Along with the colourful, healthy coral, the star of this trip was all the new (to us) and varied sea life. We spotted many fish for the first time: cuttlefish, unicornfish (with the brow protusions), bird wrasse (that looked like mini dolphins to me), rock fish, scorpion fish, 2 new types of nudibranch, broomtail wrasse, blue-spotted rays, picasso triggerfish, titan triggerfish, sailfin tangs, pipefish, the red klunzinger's wrasse, bluegreen chromis and so many more. I loved looking up at coral heads and seeing them wreathed in a cloud of orange anthias - an iconic Red Sea image to me. And yes, we saw lots of fabulous clownfish (twobar anemonefish) in their anemones, often with babies. They were all very bold and stood their ground as we took a good look.

We will definitely go back to the Red Sea to dive, and might even squeeze in some Egyptian culture next time.

Firsts: First Red Sea dive, first compass dive.

Akumal & Cozumel Diving, April 19-24th, 2016

9 dives with Dive with Natalie and Ivan, including Night and Cenote diving. 2 dives in Cozumel.

Dive 1 - Motorcycle Reef
Dive 2 - Las Redes (The Nets)
Dive 3 - Tzimin-Ha (Seahorse) Reef
Dive 4 - Lobster Reef
Dive 5 - Palancar Brick, Cozumel
Dive 6 - Head of Delilah Reef (or Punta Dalila), Cozumel (Drift Dive)
Dive 7 - Half Moon Bay
Dive 8 - Las Redes (The Nets) / Morgan's Reef
Dive 9 - Motorcycle Reef/Las Redes (The Nets)  (Night Dive)
Dive 10 - Tajma Ha Cenote - south line (Cenote Dive)
Dive 11 - Tajma Ha Cenote - north line (Cenote Dive)

We holidayed back in the Akumal area, staying again at the Grand Palladium with friends. We really enjoyed diving with Natalie and Ivan last time we were here, so we arranged all our Akumal diving with them, including the Tajma Ha cenote, as Ivan has since gotten his full cave certification.

We enjoyed revisiting some familiar sites as well as a couple of new ones. Our night dive had a wicked current, but it was still fun after we figured out how to stay behind Ivan when he stopped to take photographs.

On our 3rd day, we took the ferry from Playa del Carmen to Cozumel and did a 2-tank dive with Blue XT Sea Diving. Our divemaster was Pedro. The first dive, Palancar Bricks, was full of swim-throughs, and the second dive at the head of Delilah was a full-on, amazing drift dive, where we saw 5 nurse sharks, including 3 swimming in a beautiful winding formation.

The final highlight of the week was diving the Tajma Ha Cenote. The halocline is strong here and fun to get under. We surfaced in the sugar bowl for a good look at the stalagtites and bats. There were many fossilized shells that Ivan pointed out, but the best part for me was the light piercing through the roof into the water, including one spot where it looked like the transporter beams from Star Trek.

AOW Certification (Dominican Republic), Dec 1 - 6, 2013

Advanced Open Water Certification (5 specialty dives) with Diving Dominican Republic aka Sharky's Crew in Bayahibe. Vlad Heger was our Instructor, Pierre Pletinckx our Divemaster.

Dive 1 - Viva Shallows
Dive 2 - Dominicus Reef
Dive 3 - Parque 1 (Guaraguao), Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive (1)
Dive 4 - Atlantic Princess, Wreck Dive (2)
Dive 5 - St. George Wreck, Deep Dive (3)
Dive 6 - Coca Reef, Underwater Navigation Dive (4)
Dive 7 - Viva Shallows, Night Dive (5)
Dive 8 - El Penon
Dive 9 - Aquarium (La Tortuga)

Firsts: First Night Dive! First Octopus. First Wreck Dive.

 

This is the TripAdvisor review I wrote up on the Dive Shop.

OW Certification. Tropical Referral (Cozumel). Dec. 4 - 7, 2011

Went the tropical referral route. Chose a small dive operation, Buena Ventura Diving, in Cozumel for the open water part of our OW  certification.

Mario spent the 4th and 5th with us covering all the skills at Palancar Gardens (twice), Delilah Reef and Paso Del Cedral.

We followed up with a 2 tank dive on the 7th with Jorge, their Divemaster. This was at Palancar Horseshoe and Delilah.

Firsts: 1st Certification! 1st shark! 1st drift dive!