# Mujeres, Hermanas, y Amigas (women, sisters and friends) # Underwater Phantaseas All-Girls' Trip to Cozumel Take 32 women, add sun, salt water, and cervezas and you have the 1st Annual Underwater Phantaseas All-Girls' Trip to Cozumel celebrated April 1-4, 2006. Plans for the trip started innocently enough last summer when Michelle Day and Jill Miller thought an all-girls outing might be fun. They called a couple gals, who called a few friends and family, and the list grew. Mothers, a mother-in-law, sisters, and girlfriends from Denver, Baltimore, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Tucson converged on Hotel Cozumel Beach Resort. The adventure was everything we'd hoped it would be: camaraderie, great diving, tasty cuisine and, of course, shopping. The Cozumelenos welcomed us with open arms. Fighting to recover from Hurricane Wilma, they're spoiling the tourists they have in hopes that they will encourage others to come and taste the culture of Cozumel. Even with some hurricane damage evident on the reefs, we were treated to exceptional diving. Dive Paradise's crew (Victor, Jose, Marcos, and Alberto the Beautiful) toured the group's 22 divers across reefs such as Delilah, Tormentos, Colombia Deep, and Punta Tunich. The indigenous toadfishes showed their colors, as did several turtles, numerous nurse sharks, gigantic green morays, eagle rays, lobsters, barracuda, huge parrotfish and groupers, and even a pair of billfish. In two days of diving we were treated to an impressive array of Caribbean wildlife. For many of these women, it was their first dive trip without their spouses and it proved to be wonderfully empowering. They worked to hone their dive skills and partnered with new dive buddies. Next time we'll have to hand out gold stars underwater! Alas, at some point you do have to get off the boat. Topside the group was quick to bask in the sun and sip beverages around the resort's beautiful pool area. Of course what happens in Cozumel stays in Cozumel. So we won't talk about the scene when the girls took over the dance floor at the usually peaceful El Moro restaurant and then stormed Senor Frogs. We won't describe the fevered shopping at Sergio's silver emporium. And we certainly won't mention that someone mooned a boat of all-male divers and traumatized a little Mayan divemaster. But we will remember the friends we made and the bonds that were strengthened over this special long weekend and we'll rest up for next year's fiesta.