My sister and my eldest daughter came to visit us here in March this year.
We visited one of the amazing cenotes in the area in the time they were here, and did a bunch of 'small stuff' but since they were on a holiday, and we weren't, I couldn't do much else.
But I had planned a snorkel trip in Cozumel. We did one there not long after we moved to Mexico, when my daughter and her boyfriend were still here with us, and it was a great success.
Then when my sister came to visit that year, we did a snorkel trip in Isla Mujeres, but it was a bit of a rip-off to be honest, because they drove us half way across the island to have lunch first, at a place that wasn't the greatest for their food... And if I wanted to have lunch before going snorkeling, I would have done that on my own account, not 'arranged'. So they obviously had a deal with the restaurant, because it was also the place where they have a captured baby nurse shark so people can pay to have pictures taken with them. Not our cup of tea and really sad actually.
The snorkel 'trip' that followed was a drive to the beach, where we were dumped to snorkel straight from the beach. We saw some fish but it wasn't anything special and definitely not what the tour agency had promised...They didn't even have masks or snorkels!
So this time around, I made sure to book the right tour, with the right people, on the right island.
And it was a success yet again.

My youngest son swimming after a stingray in El Cielito, Cozumel

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Different Trip - Different Experience

The first time we snorkeled here in Cozumel, it was with a tour company I booked online through TripAdvisor. Once I started learning more about these 'tour agencies' I realized that most of them don't even have the licenses to do these tours, which can result in a trip being stopped by officials and you can forget about getting your money back. So this time, I booked with a company that had all the licenses in place 100%, so we wouldn't chance having our day ruined.
If a tour leaves from a place far from the ferry docks, you can almost count on them not being legit. It's also taking lots of time from the trip itself, because travel to the boat is included in the time, so less snorkeling, more driving. This was the case on our first trip because the boat was a 15 minute drive from the pier.

This time we met with the tour guides right next to the ferry pier at the time we were supposed to meet them, and they were already there. So far so good!
We were going to have three stops, one in Columbia reef, a shallow reef just off the coast of Cozumel. Then to El Cielo, which is quite famous. At least to those who know Cozumel a little. The third stop was El Cielito, where we didn't snorkel but stood in the waist high water and just enjoyed our surroundings. To be honest, it's my favorite place on earth, simply for the many stingrays that will be swimming past and around you there. Some will come up to you to see what you're up to, and others (or so I think) actually like to play around a little. We've experienced one of those on this trip. He/she kept coming back, and went straight for the kids' feet haha. I thought it was cute. I've experienced stingrays that came to have their bellies rubbed, so it wouldn't surprise me if they actually do want to play sometimes.

Back to the beginning. As soon as our boat left the port, it started to rain. Quite hard. So with the clouds, the water also seemed quite dark, so for a moment we thought the trip would be ruined. This couldn't be further from the truth. It was actually better somehow. Nothing wrong with the water's clarity either...

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While we were on the boat, getting soaked due to the rain, a silent passer-by swam along side our boat for a little while. I was very tempted to just jump in, but the boat was going a little too fast and we still had a little while to go. So the smarter part of me decided to just enjoy his visit from the boat.
Isn't he beautiful?

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I think these last few pictures clearly show why they're called Eagle rays.
I had one a little bigger than this one swim right underneath me in Akumal last year.
Talk about magical!

These were all snapshots from a video, so that one will come in a later post. It's quite spectacular. Not much later, we saw a few more cool animals, but more about that later.