John Turkel: Photo Album

Cozumel, Mexico - May 2000

My buddy Raffi and I returned to Scuba Club Cozumel, aka The Galapago, this time with My friend Matt. The three of us had a great time, met very fun people, ate well, and each did about twenty dives in the nine days we were there. It was good to see all the staff we enjoyed so much on our previous visit still cheerful and still such terrific hosts.

The underwater shots were taken with a disposable Kodak Sport camera. The results were underwhelming, if not heartbreaking. In addition to what is here are some unrecognizable shots of a cleaner shrimp standing on a spotted eel's head, an arrow crab walking on a large anemone, a school of sennet, a spotted yellow stingray, and mating cuttlefish. I'm not going through this again. I'm going to get a real underwater camera, like a Nikonos.

	Another beautiful sunset at S.C.C. The boat just delivered some just-caught fish for our dinner.
	Our happy dive gang consisted of, clockwise from top-left: J.B., Raffi, Divemaster Miguel, Cory (bottom), myself, and Matt. Here we're demonstrating the symbol for shark, one of which we finally got to see on the last dive of the trip.
	Raffi and I tried using the disposable Kodak Sport cameras. Here's a shot of Raffi and Matt floating under the boat pier at the resort.
	From left to right: me (inverted), J.B. and Cory. J.B. and Cory were completing their advanced certification navigation course at the time.
	Of course, Raffi was lurking there, too, to pose with J.B.
	Another shot of Matt ("Matteo the Fashion Photographer" to the girls).
	Another shot of Raffi "The Grouper Groper," behaving himself at the moment.
	I seem to like this pose.
	One of the few nature shots that came out. This trumpetfish was stalking something. They'd be scary if they were more than 12" long.
	Raffi spotted a pair of mating cuttlefish. Unfortunately, it was rather tough to get a shot of a translucent animal swimming underwater with minimal sunlight. I only got one decent shot: the female alone (based on the, er, determined behavior of the other).
	Of all the eel shots, this crappy, blurry one was the best. Pathetic, I know.