Any idea's going to Tulum Mexico 3rd week of January!

[LowGear]

I am going to tulum with a group of 8 people and I will be the only one to be doing any diving! I plan on at least one cenote dive and would like to do more of reef and wreck diving. I will be staying at the Bahia Principe in Tulum. If any one has been there or near by pleaselet me know. This will be my first diving vacation and my first time diving in open water other than a quarry. I can't wait and I have been in the ocean many of times but never under the surface. I hope to be able to find a diving buddy that I can feel sake with and that he can feel likewise!

 

[AmyJ]

I am going to tulum with a group of 8 people and I will be the only one to be doing any diving! I plan on at least one cenote dive and would like to do more of reef and wreck diving. I will be staying at the Bahia Principe in Tulum. If any one has been there or near by pleaselet me know. This will be my first diving vacation and my first time diving in open water other than a quarry. I can't wait and I have been in the ocean many of times but never under the surface. I hope to be able to find a diving buddy that I can feel sake with and that he can feel likewise!

We will be in the area the week of January 16. We are both new divers and plan to spend one day in the open water (we did a cenote in October, very cool). If you would be interested in hooking up, let us know.

 

[LowGear]

We will be in the area the week of January 16. We are both new divers and plan to spend one day in the open water (we did a cenote in October, very cool). If you would be interested in hooking up, let us know.

I am so much looking forward to getting in the water down there. Do you know if there are any places that do wreck dives down there? The only thing that I see advertised are reef dives which I plan on doing also. How many times did you end up diving last time you were there and who did you go through? What area are you guys going to be staying in? I plan on taking my wife once on possibly a snorkling cenote tour. She has asthma and not able to get into diving. One more last question how hard is it normally to find a buddy and is it not hard to find one at the hotel and dive right from shore being so close to the reefs if permisable? Look forward in hearing back from you. I travel to Ohio a few times a month Grove city, Mason and other areas!! Any places you dive down there? Talk to ya l8r.
Loren "Kenosha Wi."

 

[driftin' by]

We just returned from Playa del Carmen which is just north of Tulum. The only wreck in the area that I know of is Mama Vina which is an advanced dive. It is in 90 sfw with a pretty strong current. We dived it last Friday and it really wasn't very impressive IMHO. There were a lot of Barracudas hovering around and some decent sized school of jacks nearby but nothing special. If you're not an advanced diver or very experienced, it probably isn't worth doing. There are a lot of other nice sites to dive in the area. You should investigate whether or not your resort has a DO on site. We stayed at Iberostar Paraiso which is North of PDC (Playa del Carmen) toward Cancun. We opted not to dive with Dressel which is the onsite DO at Iberostar based on previous experiences as well as others. Therefore, we lugged all our gear into PDC every morning via taxi ($18 each way). We did 3 days of diving out of PDC with Dive Mike (www.divemike.com) and went over to Cozumel 1 day and dived with Cozumel Equalizers. Both operations were excellent overall with a few minor glitches. If you don't want to trek into PDC each day I would highly recommend Dive Aventuras (http://www.diveaventuras.com) in Puerto Aventuras (PA). PA is south of PDC and would be much closer to where you are located. We dived with them last April and they have access to some really nice reefs and a top notch operation. I strongly urge you to dive in Cozumel if you have a chance. The Riviera Maya is really nice but it just doesn't compare to Cozumel. Dives are led by a DM in Mexico and if there is an odd number of divers, they usually buddy up with the DM.

 

[geraldp]

I am so much looking forward to getting in the water down there. Do you know if there are any places that do wreck dives down there? The only thing that I see advertised are reef dives which I plan on doing also. How many times did you end up diving last time you were there and who did you go through? What area are you guys going to be staying in? I plan on taking my wife once on possibly a snorkling cenote tour. She has asthma and not able to get into diving. One more last question how hard is it normally to find a buddy and is it not hard to find one at the hotel and dive right from shore being so close to the reefs if permisable? Look forward in hearing back from you. I travel to Ohio a few times a month Grove city, Mason and other areas!! Any places you dive down there? Talk to ya l8r.
Loren "Kenosha Wi."

Hi LowGear: Here's a recommendation for a book that will give you an idea of the dives in the area:

The Dive Sites of Cozumel, Cancun and the Mayan Riviera : Comprehensive Coverage of Diving and Snorkeling, by Lawson Wood. I think he mentions a couple of wrecks on the Mayan Riviera, and they also describe a lot of the reef diving. As Jbone9 and AmyJ have said there's a lot of great diving in the area. The majority of the dive ops are in the Playa Del Carmen area, but I think I have heard several recommendations on this board for a dive op in the Tulum area. As for buddying up, don't worry - when I was there in October my dive op (Dive Puerto Morelos) just buddied me up with the Dive Master - it worked out great. I'm sorry about your wifes asthma - hopefully you can get in some joint snorkeling/dive outings. A lot of the dive ops can set that up for you for both reefs and cenotes.

The one dive site near Playa Del Carmen area that I would recommend is the "Tortugas". You're guaranteed to see lots of large turtles.

I'll have to second Jbone9's recommendation to get over to Cozumel for a day of diving. I caught the morning ferry over to Cozumel (out of Playa Del Carmen), got 2 dives in, and was back by 3 that afternoon. The walls and corals over in Cozumel are really spectacular.

Jerry

 

[Dectek]

The Bahia Divers are right at the hotel. I love that dive shop. They do reef and cenote dives. You can even arrange a Coz trip through them. Say Hey to Stefano ( my favorite DM) and Karen (a local Jersey Girl) for me.

 

[Sooner1]

Not sure if you would be interested but I dove with a divemaster at Casa Cenote.
It was great. He and I were the only ones on 3 dives and dove with a couple of girls from Belgium on 2 others. I was staying next door at the Blue Sky hotel and walked over and asked him about diving. Can't remember his name and my log is at work right now. There is a cenote RIGHT THERE I think it's called Manatee and there are some EXTREMELY pristine reefs just offshore. Blue Sky and Casa Cenote are on Tankah Bay. It's about $7 US by cab from town. Well worth it in my opinion if you want personal service. You can't get much more personal than you, the boat captain and the divemaster. Not fancy but very professional.

 

[Sooner1]

Read the above post about Tortugas in Playacar. Wish I had a money back "garauntee" to see a "LOT" of large turtles. My dive group only saw one. Maybe we just weren't lucky.

 

[geraldp]

Read the above post about Tortugas in Playacar. Wish I had a money back "garauntee" to see a "LOT" of large turtles. My dive group only saw one. Maybe we just weren't lucky.

OK OK maybe not a guarantee We counted 11 (we were there in February), and I've heard posts from people who counted two dozen or more. It was pretty cool.

Jerry