The final sculpture we saw was a full size VW bug with a person curled up on the hood. The dive mast

We couldn't decide where to go this vacation. As little as three years ago we could fly into Cancun for $350. This year it was tough to find anything for less than $600 on Sun Country or American and Delta was $900.
I discovered that it only costs $500 to fly from Minneapolis to Grand Cayman. Crazy, isn't it? Airfare is cheaper to the Caymans than Cancun. We looked at going to Grand Cayman but for one reason or another it didn't work out. Maybe next year.
Unfortunately two days before we were to leave I got an email from Sky Auction saying that the Westin was no longer available. Really? In May? How can that be? Sky Auction gave me several alternative resorts to choose from. The Royal Sands appeared to be the best option so we took it. I drove a hard bargain though, since I was going from the Westin which is a 4 star resort to the Royal Sands which is a 3.5 star resort, they gave me a $100 Sky Auction credit.
We flew Sun Country into Cancun. It was a direct flight so we departed Minneapolis at 6 am and we were in Cancun shortly after 10 am. We got our luggage and cleared customs and immigration. I was a little worried about clearing customs because I was carrying a CPU that I bought off Ebay for the dive shop owner’s computer. It was a $30 part but I wasn't sure what customs would do it they found it in my luggage. Fortunately we got the green light.
I reserved a Jetta through their website. delta airlines home page They did all of the paperwork then brought us out to a Nissan Tiida that was a manual not the automatic that I had requested. I was fine with the change, delta airlines home page they reduced my rental charge according to the car and manual transmission but charged me for collision insurance. My Visa card covers damage to the car so I never get collision. I just wanted to get to the resort so I took the car and paid the insurance.
Check in was fast and painless. Once we got to our room we only had to wait minutes for our luggage delta airlines home page to arrive. The room was nice, it was large and the beds were a little more comfortable than the usual Mexican bed. We had a TV (old school CRT), coffee maker, refrigerator, dishes and a safe. The bathroom and vanity were okay, nothing special.
My wife has a friend whose parents have a condo at the Royal Sands and they love it. I think my wife liked the resort a little more than I did. It’s not that I didn’t like the Royal Sands but compared to the Westin Lagunamar , where we were supposed to be staying (and I had stayed six months earlier), it wasn’t as nice.
Both of the Royal Sands pools were nice. We stayed near the smaller pool so we lounged at that pool. The beach area is beautiful, delta airlines home page miles of white sand beach and turquoise water. delta airlines home page We took several forty-five minute walks along the beach after we returned from diving. Since it was off season delta airlines home page we didn’t have a problem getting a paylapa and the resort. The waiters were attentive but not obtrusive.
We didn’t eat many meals at the resort. We had buffet breakfast just one morning and lunch on our last full day. The breakfast was good, $13pretty much what you would pay at most resorts. Lunch was mahi tacos and they were very good. We regretted that we did not have more chances to enjoy lunch at the Royal Sands.
I brought my wife to my favorite restaurants from the previous November. We ate at Taco Grill, La Pizzeria Pizzara, delta airlines home page and Mr. Papa’s. They were all good but our meal at La Pizzeria Pizzara was the best food that we had at La Isla. We had a grilled shrimp pasta and a margarita pizza.
Captain’s Cove is a large restaurant located directly on the lagoon. We were seated at the railing overlooking the lagoon. We ordered the seafood special, they brought delta airlines home page a large platter of seafood that included lobster tails, muscles, scallops, grilled fish and clams. Everything was really good.
I happened to look over the raining while we were dining and saw a ten foot crocodile looking delta airlines home page up at me. I didn’t feed him so he literally moved from table to table looking for food, just like a begging dog.
The other really nice restaurant we ate at was Limoncello, also located on the lagoon. The interior is leaded glass and stained wood. It was so nice inside it made me wonder how they protect it during a hurricane. delta airlines home page The food was good but I didn’t see any crocodiles.
delta airlines home page We also had lunch at Ojo de Agua twice. It's located directly on the beach so you are guaranteed a steady breeze and an ocean view. I had chicken tacos both times and fajitas. What we liked best about the restaurant was the habanero sauce that came with the chips. It was smoking hot.
Our last lunch in Puerto Morelos was at Pelicanos, it's located on the beach adjacent to the town square. We ate here several years ago when we stopped on the way back from Puerto Adventuras to the airport. It was how we discovered Puerto Morelos. We had grilled shimp that was very good. We were serenaded by a local musician.
We boarded the dive boat in Cancun and motored directly to south point Isla Mujeres which I found oddly funny. If you look through previous posts on this blog you'll see that we've dived Isla Mujeres a lot. None of the dive masters have ever given us the option of diving Musa or even mentioned it. I think the reason most shops don't dive Musa is because it's only 25 feet deep. It's more of a snorkeler's site than a dive site.
Manchiones reef was our first dive. We've dove it many times before. Our dive master borrowed my camera twice during the dive. He took a picture delta airlines home page of a dog fish. It was hiding under a rock so it is not a great picture but as you can see below it's a strange looking fish.
At the end of the dive we came across two statues. These were the prototypes for Musa. One was a man and a dog near a cabinet or bookshelf. The other statue was a fire man and the kind of weird coincidence is it has fire coral growing on it.
If you do deeper dives you normally need a surface interval of half an hour to forty five minutes between dives. You do this to allow the nitrogen to flush from your system. Since these dives were so shallow the dive master changed our tanks and we were back in the water again.
The dive master explained to us that the statues are made from full body casts of real people. The statues are made from ph neutral delta airlines home page clay that is designed to easily grow coral. The statues were created in groups of ten that are held together with rebar.
As we approached Musa a huge jack swam out from behind the statues. Most of the statues are covered in growth but volunteers clean several of them, for dramatic effect. As we were swimming delta airlines home page around the statues a group of six large gray angel fish came over to check us out. They didn’t seem to be bothered by us and hung around for a while.
The final sculpture we saw was a full size VW bug with a person curled up on the hood. The dive master took several pictures of Karen and I swimming next to the VW that we will probably use for our Christmas cards.
Even though we were staying in Cancun we decided to dive out of Puerto Morelos. We opted for Puerto Morelos because when I dived Cancun the previous November I had to drive ten minutes to the dive shop followed by a forty minute boat ride through the lagoon to the dive site. It's only a twenty five minute drive to Puerto Morelos so it takes about the same amount of time to reach the dive site.
Our first dive was at El Bajo. It was our peak performance dive for certification. We demonstrated that we could control our buoyancy. During the dive we saw the largest lobster I've seen in the wild. We also saw a large green eel, a small eagle ray and some small turtles feeding delta airlines home page on the sea grass.
We encountered a lot of sea life. We saw huge sleeping sea turtles, lobsters, puffer fish and sleeping file fish. I finally delta airlines home page got to touch one and it is true their scales are so rough they feel like a file.
William is always pushing the envelope. Part way through the dive he had us turn off our flashlights and after a few seconds our eyes adjusted and we swam around the reef in the dark for at least three to four minutes. William and Karen swam ahead of me in the dark and as they swam through the water their fins left sinusoidal trails of bioluminescence. I had to wonder if it was a test, was William waiting to see which one of us would break first and turn our light on?
I ruined one of our dive lights during the dive. It had an insulating piece of cardboard to keep the batteries from draining between dive trips. I removed the cardboard before the dive and when I screwed the lens piece back on the o-ring that keeps the water out didn’t seal properly and allowed the saltwater to short out the light. The light died half way through the dive. Luckily William had given us spares.
Our first dive the following day was the C56 wreck. delta airlines home page This dive was one of the optional dives for our advanced open water certification. This was the third time we dove the C56. I had equipment problems the last time I dived the wreck. We were in the hold of the ship (of course) and I noticed that when I inhaled my air pressure decreased. That is not supposed to happen. Eventually my gauge hit zero as I inhaled and I had no air. I signaled the dive master and we buddy breathed to the surface. I’m still a little apprehensive about diving in enclosed areas.
It was a good dive. There can be a fair amount of current at the wreck but there was almost delta airlines home page none that day. We followed the line from the buoy at the surface to the bow of the boat, then swam to the stern and entered the hold. Swimming through any wreck is exciting. You're usually in confined spaces and sections can be dark or at least dimly lit.
When we finished swimming through the hold Jose indicates to us to enter the cabin area. The last two times we dived the wreck we only did the hold and I wasn't aware that you can dive through the cabin area of the ship. We entered the cabin area through an opening over the deck gun. The lighting was better delta airlines home page on this deck than in the hold.
We had seen a lot of sea life every time we dived the C56. We saw eagle ra