Dive #144 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

Julio coaxes another splendid toadfish out of its lair.
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Cozumel 2003

Dive Journal: As usual, we spend our surface interval tied to a beach club dock. Johnny elects to sit the next dive out, and so we leave him on the beach with a book and a promise to pick him up afterward.

Next up is Las Palmas, with the skies still pretty overcast. We descend down through the layers of thimbles and tubes but again no one gets stung. Julio found yet another toadfish, and I think I finally got at least a frame or two. There is plenty of good video to take here – the site is really lovely. There is especially a few locations with flowing anemones in the current, good for those tranquil and transcendental videos in slow motion.

The afternoon is lazy, and we spend it again around the hotel napping, lazing in the hot tub, and watching the war reports. When evening rolls around, we jump in a taxi and head downtown, providing the driver with an address well off the waterfront. The driver at first pretends he doesn’t know where this is, but eventually he finds the place. We later learn that taxi drivers often get a propina for taking clients to many of the establishments downtown, but this one doesn't do that.

We’re headed for Especias Restaurant, a little place we passed walking around on a previous trip downtown. They have an outdoor eating area with only about 8 or 10 tables, and the menu looks great. The restaurant owner comes out to greet us, and he stops by frequently to converse as well. The food is excellent and the evening here is just about perfect.

Diagonally across the intersection, we are greatly entertained by the scene that plays out. An extremely drunk woman emerges from a grimy bar, and slowly stumbles onto the sidewalk. A man comes out and speaks to her as she wobbles around, and she eventually leans up against the building for support. Despite her condition, she appears adamant about her abilities to leave under her own power. They gestitulate and shout and the man finally leaves her. She then appears to pass out leaning against the building. Another man emerges, wakes her up, and tries to coax her back into the bar. There is perhaps a twenty minute period of gesturing and yelling, sometimes she is getting kissed, sometimes they’re laughing at her, sometimes she is storming away only to shortly return.