Snorkeling in Cozumel 🇲🇽 — Family Vagabonders

My brother recently got a PADI certification to scuba dive and we were near one of the world famous islands to go scuba diving, we decided to spend a week on Cozumel. Although only my dad and brother are certified to scuba, we also wanted to see the beauty of the ocean life by snorkeling. After some research, my mother booked a tour with Bavarian Fiesta, a small tour group that offers several tours around the island. Alex, a German from Munich, is the owner and very hands on, friendly, informative guide. We opted for the 4 hour tour that stops at 3 places. Although they added a stop as my dad really wanted to see the famous “Wall” between Cozumel and the mainland. Here is where we went:

Shipwrecks; After driving in the boat for about 5 minutes, we arrived at an amazing snorkeling part for shipwrecks. We dropped in the water, to see… Amazing, crystal-clear water! The depth was about 15 meters (49.2 feet) and we could see the bottom as if it was like 2 feet from our faces. We started swimming gently (never in the tour did we do vigorous swimming), following our guide, Alex. After a minute or so, we arrived at a shipwreck! It was a pretty big ship, about 15 meters from bow to stern. And, all around the boat, there were dozens (and I mean dozens!) of fish. Ranging from small yellow-and-black-striped fish to blackfish with yellow head and tail. It was amazing! There were also tons of different corals, ranging from huge sea “fans” that sway back and forth with the waves to coral that looks like a round seat. It was truly beautiful!! And then, after we explored the first ship a little bit, we swam to another ship! This ship looked very similar with tons of fish and coral. Around here, we even saw little plankton that looked like jellyfish. They were see-through, with two black dots. It was a really cool spot!

Paradise Reef; After the shipwrecks, we went to Paradise Beach, known for its Scuba (Kaio’s post about his Scuba experience). This is a beautiful area with tons of big rocks and soo much coral!! There were so many fish as well. We just gently drifted along with the current, pointing out fascinating things. We saw many types of fish (from tiny to big fish), sting rays, and even a king crab, which is a huge red crab! Paradise Beach was a beautiful location to see amazing coral and ocean life.

Santa Rosa Wall (aka The Wall); The Wall is a strip of land underwater that just drops 400 meters (approximately 1,310 feet) in the ocean between Playa Del Carmen (mainland) and Cozumel. It was really cool, though not as I imagined (I pictured pretty much an underwater canyon). The Wall gradually gets deeper, rocks become less frequent, fewer fish can be seen in the depths. We even saw three barracudas, big fish that can grow up to 5 feet (Kaio and I saw a barracuda that was like 3 feet long in Chemuyil)! It really is amazing, a vast blue ocean, threatening to swallow you up at any moment.

This is Kaio diving at the Santa Rosa Wall. You can see how deep the water gets on the right.

El Cielo (‘Heaven’ in Spanish); El Cielo is a shallow (about 1 meter (3.2 feet) deep) beach that is a wonderful spot for seeing starfish and stingrays. Dropping in the water, you immediately see dozens of starfish dotting the sand. There weren’t many fish or any coral, this is the starfish spot and they are amazing! Most starfish we saw were maroon with “spikes” all over their body, forming a complex pattern across their back. We even saw a six-legged starfish! This is a really rare, it’s like a 4 leaved clover 🍀! Take a regular starfish, smush one of the legs, pop in another smushed leg in between two other legs, and you have the six-legged starfish! We also saw a few stingrays! One of them was even digging a pit, it just flaps its “wings” on top of the sand, and it slowly takes away the sand, forming a pit! They are so beautiful, large rays, with fins that gently flap, pushing them forward. El Cielo was an amazing spot to see stingrays and starfish. (And more of that crystal clear water!)

This is one of the many starfish that we saw.

This is the unique six-legged Starfish. So pretty!!

El Cielito (The Sky in Spanish); El Cielito is a cool spot (not for snorkeling, it’s only about 2 feet deep). These are sandbanks and a place that you can play in the water or relax, chat and eat and drink while standing in beautiful water, knee deep. There are a few big stingrays that swim around your feet (hoping you drop some food), Kaio even had a stingray ‘sit’ on his feet! Here we had some good Ceviche (a fish, tomato, and onion mix, with lime) and Guacamole and just hung out, watching the beautiful turquoise water.

Madie and I huddling together after coming out of the water. Brr!!

It was an awesome day snorkeling! I totally recommend Alex and his crew at Bavarian Fiesta if you want to go snorkeling in Cozumel! They are really kind and helpful, showing us some really amazing spots!