Kat
Contributor
My boyfriend & I went for 16 days to Mexico & Belize. We stayed at 5 different hotels & used every mode of transportation we could find. I have tried to break the trip report into small sections, to make it easier to read through.
Part 3: Xcalak
Tuesday August 8th
We had the taxi take us directly to XTC, the dive shop. We unloaded our dive bags, whew - talk about lightening the load. And booked our dives. Wednesday we would do 3 tanks at Chinchorro Banks. Thursday we would do a 2 tank dive and on Friday XTC would take us, by boat to Ambergris Caye, Belize. Phil, the new GM from XTC, gave us a ride from the dive shop to our hotel, Playa Sonrisa.
We checked in with the owner, Cindy. And promptly relaxed. Playa Sonrisa was wonderful. It's a small, very low key, clothing optional resort. The beach is, of course, beautiful & they have a very long pier with 2 palapas at the end. The bar is an honor bar, where you help yourself & write down what you took. It looks like a ski chalet from Colorado, which is what Cindys husband Murph, was going for, as they are from Colorado. Again, we felt very comfortable & happy here and were already regretting not staying longer. The meals were fantastic, the view amazing...it was paradise.
Wednesday August 9th
Phil from XTC picked us up & brought us to the dive shop. We boarded the dive boat & were told it would be a wet ride. I can not even begin to describe the ride out. The captain drove the boat so fast that several times the propellers of the double outboard motors were out of the water. And when the boat hit the water the impact was bone wrenching. It was all I could do to hold on. I ended up with a large bruise on my elbow, a huge bruise on my calf, blisters on my hands from holding on. At one point I thought that my wrist had been broken. I was holding on to the cleat, we went airborne & then slammed down and my wrist got jammed. I was literally in tears after that happened. But still the boat never slowed down. During the ride out I did see a number of medium sized flying fish, which were very cool.
Dive 1 Chinchorro Banks - Aquarium: Amazing reef with the most gigantic fans I've ever seen. Fish everywhere. Trumpet fish, butterflyfish, Sergent Major. What really struck me about the reef was how large everything was. I am sure this is due to how few divers get to dive there, compared to other places. I am hoping the cruise ships divers don't kick the crap out of this reef, now that they are diving the area. Vis was about 60ft. & we were down for 50 min.
Dive 2 Chinchorro Banks - Suzannes Reef: Named after the owner of XTC. Another beautiful reef with huge grouper and the barrel coral was fantastic. Schools of fish were thick. More Butterflyfish, wrasse and angelfish. Vis was again approx. 60 ft. & we were down for 50 min. as well.
During our surface interval there were about 20 dolphins who were swimming in front of & along side our boat. Everyone wanted to get in the water & swim with them, but they wouldn't let us.
Dive 3 Chinchorro Banks - Obhobies: The dive was very nice. The highlights were a stingray & a barracuda. The coral formations were beautiful & healthy. Again, abundant fishlife was everywhere. I wish I knew more about the fish I saw. There were so many beautiful, colorful fish, like swimming rainbows. This dive was 45 min. with a maximum depth of 45 ft. Vis was approx. 60ft.
I was told that Chinchorro Banks is a huge reef, approx. the size of Cozumel. I don't know if that is true, but I certainly felt like I could dive here daily and barely scratch the surface.
The ride back to the dive shop was not much better than the ride out. When we returned from Chinchorro Banks I spoke with XTC's owner Suzanne. She seemed unconcerned & said 'Well, you wanted to get out there quickly didn't you'. I found her reaction unsatisfactory. Even though the three dives were really great, I'm not sure I would have gone out to Chinchorro Banks if I'd known how bad the boat ride would be.
Thursday August 10th
We were booked for a 2 tank dive. Just 3 divers and the DM - sweet! We hop on the smaller boat and the DM from yesterday promises us a smoother ride. It is & much shorter too!
Dive 1 The Chimney As soon as we submerge we see a medium turtle swimming over the reef. We stay right where we are & he swims right towards us. I keep waiting for him to turn away & swim off. But he doesn't. He comes right up to me, we are face to face, and he is less than 2 feet away from me. I want to reach out & touch him soo bad, but I don't. After a minute or so he swims off. Hands down...one of the most exciting moments of my diving career. We continue descending & enter the opening of the cavern. You can see the light shining down into the cavern from the chimney shaped reef. Just spectactular. After we exit the Chimney we see a couple gigantic black barracuda. There are enormous & very skittish groupers and fish galore. Then another turtle. The reef is absolutly amazing, so beautiful. We went to 90 ft, in the cavern, and our bottom time was 50 min. Vis was approx. 60 ft. This was my favorite dive of the trip!
For our surface interval we ask to be dropped off on the beach of the town, so we can have lunch, instead of going back to the dive shop. The restaurant we plan to eat at isn't opened so the captain & DM take us to a nice little local place, I think it was called Maria's, but I'm not sure.
Dive 2 La Poza We are told we will see tarpon here. There was a good deal of currrent. We saw a small school of tarpon, maybe 15 and they were very large. As we came around the corner of the reef & into a stronger current we were met by another school of tarpon. We were maybe 10 ft. away from them and some had to be close to 5 ft. long. And there had to be at least a hundred of them. They were everywhere. It was incredibly breathtaking.
I wish I could dive more of these beautiful, unspoiled reefs. Both Majahual & Xcalak were just short stops on our way to our main destination, which was Belize. But I know I will come back down & spend more time diving the reefs. I can't wait to return. We really liked XTC, the only complaint was that horrible ride to Chinchorro Bank. And Suzannes lack of commiseration.
Friday August 11th
We needed XTC to take us to Ambergris Caye. The cost is $220. US. This fee can be as low as $40 per person if you can get a full boat going. On Thursday it looked like it was going to be just the 2 of us. However, at dinner on Thur. Murph, at Playa Sonrisa, had talked 5 of his other guests into a day trip to Ambergris Caye on Friday. Yea! So we all showed up at XTC & off we go. In keeping with our ongoing theme of traveling, it was a longer trip then I thought it would be.
Continued in Part 4 in the Central America Forum
Part 3: Xcalak
Tuesday August 8th
We had the taxi take us directly to XTC, the dive shop. We unloaded our dive bags, whew - talk about lightening the load. And booked our dives. Wednesday we would do 3 tanks at Chinchorro Banks. Thursday we would do a 2 tank dive and on Friday XTC would take us, by boat to Ambergris Caye, Belize. Phil, the new GM from XTC, gave us a ride from the dive shop to our hotel, Playa Sonrisa.
We checked in with the owner, Cindy. And promptly relaxed. Playa Sonrisa was wonderful. It's a small, very low key, clothing optional resort. The beach is, of course, beautiful & they have a very long pier with 2 palapas at the end. The bar is an honor bar, where you help yourself & write down what you took. It looks like a ski chalet from Colorado, which is what Cindys husband Murph, was going for, as they are from Colorado. Again, we felt very comfortable & happy here and were already regretting not staying longer. The meals were fantastic, the view amazing...it was paradise.
Wednesday August 9th
Phil from XTC picked us up & brought us to the dive shop. We boarded the dive boat & were told it would be a wet ride. I can not even begin to describe the ride out. The captain drove the boat so fast that several times the propellers of the double outboard motors were out of the water. And when the boat hit the water the impact was bone wrenching. It was all I could do to hold on. I ended up with a large bruise on my elbow, a huge bruise on my calf, blisters on my hands from holding on. At one point I thought that my wrist had been broken. I was holding on to the cleat, we went airborne & then slammed down and my wrist got jammed. I was literally in tears after that happened. But still the boat never slowed down. During the ride out I did see a number of medium sized flying fish, which were very cool.
Dive 1 Chinchorro Banks - Aquarium: Amazing reef with the most gigantic fans I've ever seen. Fish everywhere. Trumpet fish, butterflyfish, Sergent Major. What really struck me about the reef was how large everything was. I am sure this is due to how few divers get to dive there, compared to other places. I am hoping the cruise ships divers don't kick the crap out of this reef, now that they are diving the area. Vis was about 60ft. & we were down for 50 min.
Dive 2 Chinchorro Banks - Suzannes Reef: Named after the owner of XTC. Another beautiful reef with huge grouper and the barrel coral was fantastic. Schools of fish were thick. More Butterflyfish, wrasse and angelfish. Vis was again approx. 60 ft. & we were down for 50 min. as well.
During our surface interval there were about 20 dolphins who were swimming in front of & along side our boat. Everyone wanted to get in the water & swim with them, but they wouldn't let us.
Dive 3 Chinchorro Banks - Obhobies: The dive was very nice. The highlights were a stingray & a barracuda. The coral formations were beautiful & healthy. Again, abundant fishlife was everywhere. I wish I knew more about the fish I saw. There were so many beautiful, colorful fish, like swimming rainbows. This dive was 45 min. with a maximum depth of 45 ft. Vis was approx. 60ft.
I was told that Chinchorro Banks is a huge reef, approx. the size of Cozumel. I don't know if that is true, but I certainly felt like I could dive here daily and barely scratch the surface.
The ride back to the dive shop was not much better than the ride out. When we returned from Chinchorro Banks I spoke with XTC's owner Suzanne. She seemed unconcerned & said 'Well, you wanted to get out there quickly didn't you'. I found her reaction unsatisfactory. Even though the three dives were really great, I'm not sure I would have gone out to Chinchorro Banks if I'd known how bad the boat ride would be.
Thursday August 10th
We were booked for a 2 tank dive. Just 3 divers and the DM - sweet! We hop on the smaller boat and the DM from yesterday promises us a smoother ride. It is & much shorter too!
Dive 1 The Chimney As soon as we submerge we see a medium turtle swimming over the reef. We stay right where we are & he swims right towards us. I keep waiting for him to turn away & swim off. But he doesn't. He comes right up to me, we are face to face, and he is less than 2 feet away from me. I want to reach out & touch him soo bad, but I don't. After a minute or so he swims off. Hands down...one of the most exciting moments of my diving career. We continue descending & enter the opening of the cavern. You can see the light shining down into the cavern from the chimney shaped reef. Just spectactular. After we exit the Chimney we see a couple gigantic black barracuda. There are enormous & very skittish groupers and fish galore. Then another turtle. The reef is absolutly amazing, so beautiful. We went to 90 ft, in the cavern, and our bottom time was 50 min. Vis was approx. 60 ft. This was my favorite dive of the trip!
For our surface interval we ask to be dropped off on the beach of the town, so we can have lunch, instead of going back to the dive shop. The restaurant we plan to eat at isn't opened so the captain & DM take us to a nice little local place, I think it was called Maria's, but I'm not sure.
Dive 2 La Poza We are told we will see tarpon here. There was a good deal of currrent. We saw a small school of tarpon, maybe 15 and they were very large. As we came around the corner of the reef & into a stronger current we were met by another school of tarpon. We were maybe 10 ft. away from them and some had to be close to 5 ft. long. And there had to be at least a hundred of them. They were everywhere. It was incredibly breathtaking.
I wish I could dive more of these beautiful, unspoiled reefs. Both Majahual & Xcalak were just short stops on our way to our main destination, which was Belize. But I know I will come back down & spend more time diving the reefs. I can't wait to return. We really liked XTC, the only complaint was that horrible ride to Chinchorro Bank. And Suzannes lack of commiseration.
Friday August 11th
We needed XTC to take us to Ambergris Caye. The cost is $220. US. This fee can be as low as $40 per person if you can get a full boat going. On Thursday it looked like it was going to be just the 2 of us. However, at dinner on Thur. Murph, at Playa Sonrisa, had talked 5 of his other guests into a day trip to Ambergris Caye on Friday. Yea! So we all showed up at XTC & off we go. In keeping with our ongoing theme of traveling, it was a longer trip then I thought it would be.
Continued in Part 4 in the Central America Forum
