... well granted it was a baby nurse shark ... and it was asleep ... and it was hiding under a ledge ... and it wouldn't come out even when the dive master tickled its nose ... by hey ... it WAS a SHARK!!

On today's first dive we really didn't see anything spectacular ... we dove the 'Columbia' reef (about 70').  We dove that particular reef mostly because it was further South than the 2nd reef all five divers on the boat REALLY wanted to dive ... 'Columbia Shallows'.

Columbia Shallows, is a very shallow (25' max) reef where many snorkel boats take guests.  This reef is very long fairly flat and has some beautiful coral heads that are chock full of small marine life.  I swam thru a school of Blue Tang fish that had to be 100+ fish.  It was like parting the "blue sea" as I glided thru them.

Also on this dive we saw the tiniest "Spotted Drum" I have ever seen and I found a "Flamingo Tongue" attached to a coral branch ... very colorful.

The highlight of course was the Shark ... not a big shark but seeing one VERY up close even when it's small is a thrill and not totally common around Cozumel. 

One of the advantages of a shallow dive is the increase in total dive time you get ... this dive was 76 minutes and could have been much longer but we were all getting a bit chilled and besides ... longer than an hour dives kinda throws a wrench in the schedule for the afternoon divers if the morning divers (us) are really late getting back.

We splurged last night and ate at the "French Quarter" cajun restaurant ... Carolyn had the French Onion Soup and I had the Seafood Gumbo ... then we shared a seafood platter ... very good!  To make amends for our extravagance we will return to Los Serras tonight for really cheap tacos and bean soup.

Tomorrow will be our last day of diving ... time really DOES fly ... and then Monday we have a day of "off gassing" before flying out Tuesday afternoon. 

That's the scooby from the Dive Front...
--
Bade
Like an old desperado ... painting the town beige