Afternoon Reefs: Certified Diving Experience on Cozumel’s Barrier

The boat slips from the pier like a patient animal, engines low and steady, taking divers past the low-rise hotels and the first fringing coral that hovers beneath pale Caribbean surface. In the late-afternoon light, Cozumel’s western reef turns copper and then bright turquoise; the captain bobs the bow where currents run clean and the Dive Master runs through a calm checklist. This is not a discovery dive for beginners — it’s an hour in the second-largest barrier reef for certified divers who want to compress a full marine afternoon into a focused two-hour window.