Freediving Isla Cozumel, Puerto de Abrigo
Puerto de Abrigo by Andre Navarro
Gorgeous Caribbean paradise, Isla Cozumel, Mexico ! Filled with colorful and diverse fish, corals, sponges, reefs, wrecks, piers and so much to explore. I couldn't wait to go back and continue my underwater journey documenting as much ocean life and amazing views as possible. Puerto de Abrigo is not a popular or well known location to dive or snorkel. North of Centro and right next to the military base, it's a small port for local fishing boats that people usually just walk by on the way to somewhere else.Exploring Puerto de Abrigo was actually our Plan C after not being able to dive the planned location of the day due to extreme current flowing north. Plan B was further on the island from our current location and not worth the trip to possibly have the same results. So nearby, about a 20 minute walk was Puerto de Abrigo. We walked there a couple times to explore the area and it’s views while eating coconuts. On the south of it is an old, crumbling and over grown civic park area. Below that is an even more over grown with huge trees ocean viewing deck. What we noticed most was the crystal clear water with no one around, just occasional fishing boats zipping in and out of the port. Due to the angle the shore faces, the current would not affect this area as long as we stayed close to the shore reef. So Puerto de Abrigo aka Plan C it is !
Puerto de Abrigo by Andre Navarro
There are 3 ways to access this area, sneak into the port and enter from the docks. Climb through a medium sized hole in the sea wall from the ocean viewing deck just south of the port. Or swim from south of the military base and around it's private beach area. We chose the swim because it was closer to our location and we could just ride the current back north.As we entered from the jagged and rocky shore reef, we immediately felt relief from the hot and muggy weather. The water was so cool and soothing, but not cold. The underwater environment here is jagged shore reef that you climb down about 3 feet into from shallow to 8 feet of water. Right next to the shore reef starts white sand for as far as you can see. There are patches of Turtle Sea Grass along the shore about 30 yards out along the way. The focus of interests at this location is through the sea grass and right along the shore reef where the fish hang out. This is also where you’ll find the cool and colorful corals and sponges.
Fire Blade Coral and Bermuda Chubs by Andre Navarro
My favorite find of the day was a huge lion statue, discarded to the bottom about 25' down. If I remember correctly, my girlfriend and ocean exploring partner pointed it out to me. "look, a lion down there !" And I was confused, huh ? I was thinking maybe she was referring to a Lion Fish. As I looked down with my very bad vision, I saw it, sort of. So I took a long breath and dived down. It turned out to be about 4 feet tall on a base and 2 by 3 feet wide. While I was checking it out below, I gave it a push to see how heavy it was. To my surprise I was able to move it. I excitedly surfaced to report to my girlfriend the details and that I was going to attempt to stand it up. Another long breath and down I went. The hard part was planting my feet anywhere for leverage. I was wearing extremely long freediving fins and the statue was heavy. I kept slipping and falling over along with the statue as I tried to lift it. After several attempts, I finally got it on it's feet like a proud lion should be. And surprisingly, a huge cloud of yellow striped Sergeant Majorfish engulfed the statue, eating all the algae that had grown underneath it. I couldn't believe the view. From forgotten discarded lion statue to an accidental perfect moment in time.
Standing up underwater Lion Statue of Cozumel by Andre Navarro
Underwater Lion Statue of Cozumel by Andre Navarro
My second favorite find was this really interesting Caribbean Reef Octopus hiding in the nearby Turtle Sea Grass. Luckily it had not changed colors to match the grass or sand. It was still dark brown like the shore reef which made it stick out. I dove down several times to get different angled views and it tolerated my presence for some time until it later swam away towards the shore reef. I love the way octopuses move and change colors. They look like little space aliens out of a science fiction movie. This one had cool colorful spots all over it.
Caribbean Reef Octopus of Cozumel by Andre Navarro
We continued to slowly explore along the shore reefs, diving down to look into and under every large rocky structure because that's where the biggest and coolest fish will be. It wasn't long until we came across a very large Spotted Porcupinefish with it's huge bright eyes. Surrounding the Porcupinefish were thousands of tiny baby fish. So many and so small, at the time I didn't know what they were until later reviewing the footage. In the same area, we would come across interesting bright colored sponges with equally as colorful fish nearby. Sponges to most are boring and mistaken as some sort of plant of fungus growing on rocks. Amazingly, sponges are animals that come in a huge variety of shapes, sizes and colors.
Spotted Porcupinefish of Cozumel by Andre Navarro
After a very long time exploring, we were resting along the port wall watching the boats come in and out, enjoying the gorgeouse Caribbean ocean views when we noticed there was a huge anchor at the bottom of the port opening. My girlfriend kept watch for boats up above as I dived down to check it out. It was huge and heavy. Unlike the lion statue, I couldn’t budge it as I gave it a push. The ropes around it were as thick as my arms. I couldn’t help but to wonder why it would be discarded there ? It had to be an expensive piece of equipment and looked to be in good usable condtion. Now a huge green sponge along with other fish and crustaceans call it home.
Discarded Ship Anchor of Cozumel by Andre Navarro
I couldn’t help to think how thankful I was the first location didn’t work out. Of course at the time, I was pissed and cursing the wind and ocean current while grasping on to a rope not able to swim forward. I would have never thought to explore this odd area of the island, Puerto de Abrigo. A simple and serene underwater environment, empty of people but not awesome ocean life.
French Grunts and Fire Blade Coral of Cozumel by Andre Navarro
The accompanying Youtube videos are first hand footage captured by Andre Navarro while freediving Isla Cozumel, Mexico. The first "Amazing Cozumel" is the new series. "Diving Cozumel Mexico" series is from 2020 exploration with 11 locations. Subscribe and sign up to our Newsletter to not miss future adventures !Published by: Andre Navarro of Ocean Earth Green
I’m Andre Navarro, Southern California freediver and underwater videographer. I create ocean life adventure videos to connect viewers to our amazing underwater world to motivate stronger conservation and ocean life awareness. You can follow my ocean adventures here at OceanEarthGreen.com and view all my current and past videos at Youtube.com/OceanEarthGreen.