Dive Review of Living Underwater/InterContinental El Presidente in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

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Living Underwater/InterContinental El Presidente, Mar, 2014, by David H Vickery-Suzanne Leeson, NJ, US ( Sr. Reviewer 11 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 7747.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The first eagle ray appeared 6 minutes into the dive. It stayed with us until the 10th minute, hovering gently in a mild current, feeding lazily as sea swept snacks came its way. We've been to many sites named for creatures seen there once and not since: Hammerhead Hotel, Blacktip Boulevard, Manta Rock, etc., but January through March Eagle Ray Wall in Cozumel delivers. We dived the wall three times during our week in March and the rays appeared every time and stayed for long minutes on end. The 120 cube steel tanks offered by Living Underwater enabled bottom time ranging from 55-80 minutes. Jeremy Anschel's boat, the Jew Fish, picked us up promptly at 8 AM at the El Presidente dock while newbies from the hotel clambered aboard their cattle boat. Jeremy's crew had set up our gear and analyzed our Nitrox (we still prefer to do it ourselves) so we checked our rigs while the speedy panga zipped past boats from other operations. Jeremy always asked "Where do you want to go?" More often than not the divers came to an agreement and he took us to our choice of sites, arriving before other groups, allowing us to dive the reef in relative solitude. The best part of Columbia Deep occurs around 80-100 feet; you don't need to go way down to enjoy this dive. The reefs are generally in good shape, not too much algae or bleaching, little trash, although we did pick up a new polarized mask off the bottom. It fit Suzanne perfectly. Our group of 6 got split up at Punta Sur. Three of us hung at 15 feet and put up a marker buoy. We didn't get to use our Nautilus lifelines because the boat picked us up quickly when we surfaced. We recommend bringing your own safety gear. Cozumel may be where a lot of folks take resort courses, but it ain't Bonaire. Currents can be dangerous, and Jeremy will take groups to super charged sites like Barracuda, so be prepared. The El Presidente is still the best hotel on the island (hey, we ran into Nikki Sixx, so we guess it's where the R&F stay) but some of the service you expect at a 5 star resort is a little off. The staff at the beach bar is distant and slow, the maid skipped turn-down service, and once we returned at 3PM and the room hadn’t been made up. We avoid all-inclusive properties because of the potential rowdiness, and the beach at the InterCon is great, but they really need to kick their game up a notch. We enjoyed eating lunch at one of the couches facing the beach at the main restaurant. Whenever I wore my Grateful Dead board shorts and cave dive T-shirt with the silver skulls we had plenty of room to ourselves, as families with little children tended to move away. One of us enjoyed the Herradura Extra Anejo Edition Especial, a fine, soft sipping tequila with tones of caramel and vanilla. Another of us noted that at $60 a shot an afternoon job filling tanks might be advisable. We also lunched on lion fish at the fishermen's cooperative. Jeremy no longer spears them during the dives. He uses an aquarium net to catch them and crushes their little heads with his fingers (!). He says he gets stung a lot. We didn't eat dinner at the hotel often, as the food is just good but not great and also expensive. We tried two local taquerias, El Pique and Mr. Taco, and liked Mister Taco the best. They do not serve beer. We still liked Guido's in town for pizza. Our last night we went to Buccanos, a beach club and restaurant on the grounds of a hotel destroyed in the last hurricane and never rebuilt. The food is Mexican-continental fusion and fabulous, although the dim lighting and darkened hulk of the ruined hotel made it a trifle macabre. The cabs will wait to take you back to your hotel after your meal. We will probably return to Coz this spring, and will dive with Living Underwater. We have complained at length about the service to the folks at InterContinental and hope that the El Presidente has gotten its act together.
Websites	Living Underwater
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Caymans, Puerto Rico, U.S. & British Virgins, Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius, Bahamas, Hawaii, Fiji, Australia, Indonesia, Bikini Atoll, jeez isn't this enough?
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	79-81°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	75-125 Ft/ 23-38 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Due to the current, Jeremy asked the group to stay together, and take a 3 minute safety stop.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Dunk bucket on the boat. The staff will hand you your cameras after you back-roll in. No camera rentals available.

Subscriber's Comments

By Sobhi A Nahhas in MI, US at Dec 28, 2014 22:15 EST

Good info. Thanks. We also have been in many places with Cozumel being our annual pilgrimage place. If you don't mind: 1) Going up to 80 minutes at Columbia at 80-100 feet; didn't that require decompression? 2) Was Living Underwater expensive?

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Dive Review of Living Underwater/InterContinental El Presidente in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Living Underwater/InterContinental El Presidente, Mar, 2014,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Living Underwater/InterContinental El Presidente in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan