Return to Coz - Gun-in-hand

Hi All,

I just returned from my 2nd trip to Cozumel. Unlike last time (2004), I got to do a bit of hunting. I used to think that Coz was a "no spearing" island, like Bonaire. But, in truth, you can spear anywhere except the marine park IF you have the proper permits.

Luckily, I had a Ace in the hole this trip. I found a fellow, online, through Wet Wendy's Bar/Restaurant. His name is Leo, and he's a "gringo" (like me) from Holland. Leo spent most of his adult life working in the fitness industry (in Holland). About a year ago, he gave away all of the fancy "toys", and made off for Cozumel with only the bare essentials and his girlfriend. I'll stop there - afterall, it's Leo's story. Just know that there is no better guide to have if you want to freedive/spear on the island of Cozumel.

To the trip: I don't have the mental strength right now to put this into "story form"; so you'll have to accept a play by play. That'll be easier to read, anyway.

Day 1 - Friday - Made it through customs with my new gun. It was packed with my checked luggage, and I didn't get one word of grief - NICE. Settled in to the Hotel (Cozumel Palace), and headed over to Wet Wendy's for a Margarita, and to start my search for Leo. Chad, the spirited owner of Wet Wendy's was nice enough to call Leo, and tell him that "he had a live one here". Leo showed up shortly after that. From the word go, we were on the same page. Same spearing philosphies; Same safety protocols, etc. I knew this was going to be a great week! We made plans to go out Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday (we added Monday, after going out Sunday).



Day 2 - Saturday - Hung out by the pool and waited for Sunday (seriously).





Day 3 - Sunday - Found out that my hotel forgot to give me Leo's note that said he would be waiting for me at 5AM. Was woken by Jill and 8AM, to "Hey hon, you missed him, the hotel forgot to give you his message". After 10-20 seconds of "French", I called Leo. He assured me that that day was not lost, and that we would head out to a close-by spot at 3PM.

We got in the water, and swam out to 40-60 feet. After a bit of exploring we go out to one of his "hot spots". After a half hour or so, some big (40 lb)amberjacks stroll into our area. I saw them first and signalled to Leo. Leo looks at me and "asks" if I want to go after them. Bug-eyed, I shake my head "no". These things look like torpedos, and in my mind, the only thing worse than missing them would be shooting them. Leo decends on the jacks, but they scoot away. After they had passed, I start to muster up some courage - and decided that if we see more, I would man up and go after one of them. It didn't take long... Within 10 minutes 4-5 more strolled through the area, moving up-current. Leo was 30 feet down-current of me and started to drop on them. I took the opportunity to drop down at the same time, hoping that I could get myself into a sinking path right to them (those who have dove with me in the past know that I prefer to hunt with little-to-no finning). The jacks move up-current beyond Leo's range, and continue to head my way. My strategy paid off, and I drift to within 6 feet of the - yep, the biggest one. I was hoping that my first shot of the day wouldn't wind up getting my gun tore from my hand, but, oh well - this is where the chips fell. I fire my brand new gun at the strongest fish of my life... ...and land the luckiest shot of my life - 40 lb amberjack - dead center behind the gill plate - STONED. With two bands, my little gun put the 7mm spear all the way through the fish. He only twitched a bit as I brought him to the surface. Leo didn't look surprised at all - he just stringed him up, shook my hand, and made his way back up-current to the hotspot. We rounded out the day, adding 3 ocean trigger fish and a little snapper to the stringer.



Day 4 - Monday - 10 AM - Leo picked me up on his bike (yes, you read that correctly). I'm telling you, this guy live "simply". He owns no car or scooter, and gets everything done using his "rickshaw bike" - one of the reasons he's 37, and still built like a 20-year-old.



We biked about 2-3 miles, and jumped in from the shore. We swam out to the dropoff, and I noticed something horrible - my digital camera was GONE. It must have slipped off my wrist somewhere between the shore and our position. As most know, Cozumel has a solid current. I tell Leo that I at least have to give it a shot. I think back to when the camera may have slipped off my arm - when I jumped in? put my fins on? loaded my gun? or maybe it's still on the shore. I assumed the worst (that it came off when I loaded my gun - 100m off shore). I did my best to calculate the amount of drift, based on the current, and plotted an intercept course. As I cranked along at full throttle, I see a big, fat grouper in 40 feet of water. I decide that I can't waste any time, and don't even make a dive. I've now swam downcurrent, past 2 hotels, and spot some floating garbage ahead. It looks like a ziplock bag - NO, it's my freaking camera. The luck continues.

I make my way back upcurrent to Leo, and he's as surprised to see me with my camera as I am to see him loading dinner on his stringer.



We settled back in, and drifted with the current. It took me a while to get my wind back after all the swimming, but I managed to get comfortable just as we bumped into a school of little cuda. Leo gets one more, and I get one, as well. We climb out of the water, and start our hike back to the bike.



Leo cleaned the fish on the shoreline, and taught me how to taste-test the liver for ciguardia (sp?) poisoning (at least, that's his story - I'm still not 100% convinced he wasn't pulling my leg)



.... more tomorrow

...continue

Day 3 - Monday (continue) - evening. Best meal of the vacation! Wet Wendy's owners Chad and Klara allowed Leo to use their kitchen to prepare three fish dishes for Jill and me. Leo made ocean triggerfish with onion, oil, and tomato (island style), as well as baracuda in bluecheese cream sauce, and amberjack in a chipotle mango sauce. Holy crap was this stuff DE-Licious! Nothing was fried, so I could get the real taste of each fish. As I said, all were excellent, but triggerfish is my hands-down favorite, and I would very much like to add this fish to the "Bahamas Menu" (Connor? ) There was a ton of food, and we insisted that Leo and Klara sit and eat with us. There was even enough to send some home to Chad - who cooked up the leftovers with his eggs the following morning.



On the walk home, Jill was amused by the quasi-conifer Christmas tree and snowmen on a Tropical island.



Day 4 - Tuesday - 8AM - We rented a boat (and crew) for the day so we could get to those "hard to reach places" on the island. Jill came along this day, and quickly decided she was in over her head when the downpour came at us on the way to the first site. She froze for an hour or two while the rains came and went. The sun would peek out in the afternoon, saving her from having to abandon ship and swim to shore for a taxi.

We started off drifting in deeper water 50-80 feet. This made for some tough spearing, but the challenge actually made it a lot of fun. Because the current was so swift, you needed to dive long before a fish was below you, so you needed to keep your eyes down stream for fish. The caveat is that if you point your body downstream, you drift way too quickly. So, I found that the best method was to point myself upstream, and look down at a 130 degree angle past your fins to the bottom. I dove on a couple grouper, but they stayed just out of range - it was clear that they had seen spearfisherman before. After not seeing any fish for about 10 minutes, I got bored, and decided to dive anyway. When I got to the bottom (70 feet on this particular dive), I was excited to see a fat triggerfish...I may hav been a little too excited because I missed a 10 foot shot on a pie-plate sized triggerfish that was barely swimming - disappointing for a guy who has picked off swimming panfish from further away. The upside was that, as usual, the adreneline rush I got from a potential target completely numbed my need to breathe. Man that feels good - very spooky - but, it sure makes for a nice trip to the surface.

We continue to drift, and I'm surprised by the chaotic current. We start off drifting north, then the current shifts north-west, then west, then south-west!, then back to north. Very strange. I took a few more hail-mary shots at some big snappers, but when we were done in the deep water, we didn't have any fish in the boat.

So, we headed over to the shallows 20-30 feet. And after learning which of the small coral fishes were on the menu (by seeing what fish Leo was shooting), I helped put a couple in the boat. We went to the beach and grilled up some fish tacos. Leo, Jill, and I ate the snapper, triggerfish, trunkfish, and lobster. The boat guides preferred grunts (which they shot), and Leo was all too happy to let them eat it all. I guess the meat isn't as white and flaky as the other mentioned species. This would explain why Connor never shot even one on the Bahamas trips despite being surrounded by them on nearly every dive.





We returned to our hotel just after sundown, all the way munching on a crazy good watermelon that Leo brought along.



Day 5 - Wednesday - No Spearing. Lounged around the pool all day making full use of the all-inclusive package at the hotel - me with SPF 30 and Jill with SPF 4.

Day 6 - Thursday - 5AM. Cozumel weather was unusually good for the first 5 days. On day 6, it returned to normal December weather. Rockin' winds and stong currents. Leo rented a car and we headed over to the east side of the island. The wind was out of the west, so it wasn't choppy, but there was a decent swell. I slipped in on a low wave period, but Leo wasn't as lucky. By the time he was geared up and ready to go, the waves has doubled in size. He got picked up, flipped, and dropped on a rock (getting a nice welt on his back). It took him about 20 minutes to finally get a window and slip out of the crashing waves. Once out, we headed to one of his known locations. But, poor visability and eratic currents (slight undertow) had us packing it up and heading in within a half hour. We tried a different location down the shoreline, and the current was much more agreeable, but visability was still poor (20-30 feet). We managed to stick a few lobsters, and chased around some phantom snapper and triggerfish, but couldn't ever get a clean shot.

So, we sort of ended the trip on a fizz, but I was so satisfied with the previous 3 days that I wasn't disappointed in the least.

The following afternoon, Leo invited us to his home where he showed us how the luckiest guy on earth lives, and to make us some Lobster pasta. Can't say enough about this guy - a hell-of-a-guide and an absolute class-act.



That night, Jill and I went out on the town with a young couple (from Oregon) we met at our hotel. The night itself was full of fun and tequila, but the highlight of the evening was on the way home, when we saw a "hollywood sized" spider crossing the road. This thing was as big as a tarantula, but moved like a cockroach. While standing in the road, I snapped this macro photo of the beast - two reasons: 1. Ever since I was a kid I have loved spiders. 2. I enjoy watching Jill lose her mind.



The rest of the trip was spent doing "normal" vacation crap.

I can't wait to return. I take a "no girl" trip once or twice a year. The cost will be more than reasonable, since I won't be staying at the Cozumel Palace. I will say that the Palace was a great place to stay when you're with your girl. And I know that the staff got a big kick out of me dragging fish to their doorstep to show to Jill - not exactly the standard American gringo they are used to seeing.

Whopperhead said:

Very nice Ted! Your guide sounds like "one of a kind". You sure that's not a Tarantula? Thing looks crazy- What ever happened to HOGFISH?

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Scott, Hogfish was to be on the last day. But, that current and crappy viz prevented us from getting to their hangout.

Oh, I'm sure the spider is some kind of tarantula. But, I need to make clear that there is a difference. The tarantula your weird uncle keeps in an aquarium in his living room is not the same as this thing I saw. Think of the "domestic" version as the "mall cop" of tarantulas, and the one I saw as an olympic pole-vaulter.