Been busy diving

[rongoodman]

Mom's Hotel is cheap, just a few blocks from the strip and all the restaurants, and next right next door to Protec. Every time I went I just let them arrange for to have me picked in Cancun and driven down there.

 

[Marie13]

Mom's Hotel is cheap, just a few blocks from the strip and all the restaurants, and next right next door to Protec. Every time I went I just let them arrange for to have me picked in Cancun and driven down there.

Thanks. I was looking at Airbnb and I was shocked how cheap 1 BR condos were. $50-70 a night.

I assume taxis are plentiful? With my knees/sciatica walking a few blocks doesn’t happen.

 

[Guille G]

Taxis are plentiful most of the day in the downtown area, but may be less so early in the morning (when it’s time to dive) or in heavy demand hours. Also, if you are close to 5th then pickup and traffic may be very annoying.

Have you asked the instructor to pick you up with her truck in the morning? Most shops do unless you are SUPER out of the way. That or renting near the shop would be ideal IMO, I wouldn’t want to stress about finding a cab (or cash) at 7 or 8am when I want to be in time for class.

 

[Marie13]

Taxis are plentiful most of the day in the downtown area, but may be less so early in the morning (when it’s time to dive) or in heavy demand hours. Also, if you are close to 5th then pickup and traffic may be very annoying.

Have you asked the instructor to pick you up with her truck in the morning? Most shops do unless you are SUPER out of the way. That or renting near the shop would be ideal IMO, I wouldn’t want to stress about finding a cab (or cash) at 7 or 8am when I want to be in time for class.

Yes, she will pick me up in the morning. I was considering taxis for going to get food, etc. But she said she'll also take me to grocery store, we'll have dinner sometimes.

 

[Guille G]

Yes, she will pick me up in the morning. I was considering taxis for going to get food, etc.

Ah, if you are not in a rush, then you should be fine to get a taxi, yes. My wife sends a WhatsApp message to +52 984 215 8846, “Taxi express”, to ask for taxi dispatches. They reply 3 out of 5 times at best, I’d say… not very consistent, but slightly better than waiting around if you are not seeing any on your street or would rather wait indoors.

Hope that helps!!

 

[Marie13]

Just got off the phone with instructor. Class is early August. We're going to share the cost for a scuba sherpa! I think she said it's about 250 pesos a day. Hell, I'm thrilled to not have to haul gear. She told me a much younger instructor (Alessandra is 61) saw Alessandra using a sherpa, and now the younger instructor uses a sherpa, too.

Flights booked. Southwest from ORD to CUN. Non-stop, business select.

Instructor is going to send me a map of where it's safe and good for a woman to stay. She lives pretty much in the center of PDC and students usually stay not far from her house. The ferry terminal area was recommended to me as OK, but instructor said there's more people around and more places open at night near her house.

 

[Marie13]

I didn't know that Southwest started flying out of ORD until now.

I had to look it up. Just started a little more than a year ago.

 

[rddvet]

I’ll be doing MX wet. Shocked that I found a 5mm in my size at LeisurePro (excuse me Scuba.com). I really don’t want to trust my pretty purple drysuit to the airlines. Will be taking my Nomad XT. Overkill for AL80s, but as my WI instructor says, I know where everything is and it fits me. No need to complicate things. I have two AL80s that I’ve got SM valves on order from DGX that I’ll take out to the quarry when the water warms up some. Talking with MX instructor (Alessandra Figari) tonight. We’ve already chatted some on FB.

Southwest flies direct into Cancun from ORD and there are some non-stops. More expensive but less hassle. I’ll get business select class if I can. I’m a minimal packer usually but I’ve never flown with dive gear before.

Not to screw up your plans, but I greatly prefer drysuit in mexico. When I started going to mexico 10 years ago everybody said wetsuits only. That has changed tremendously and more and more people have moved to drysuits in mexico. You will see more westsuits than you will in florida, but most everyone I dive with down there are diving dry. I would even argue to say that you will see almost more drysuits than wetsuits depending on which cenote you're diving.
The pros/cons:
Getting into a wetsuit sucks.
Getting into a wetsuit rapidly when there's a million mosquitos sucks more.
Changing to a wetsuit completely changes your buoyancy and trim. I am very much pro people diving what they regularly dive for classes.
Doing a 2 hour full cave dive in a westsuit will make you cold (even the people that claim they aren't cold are really cold. They'd be warmer in a drysuit)
Where wetsuits prevail is wiggling through tight stuff
If there's mosquitoes, put your undergarments on in the car first if you're wearing a drysuit. Last trip we dove Tortuga. First time we went we got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Second time we put our drysuits halfway on at the shop and drove to tortuga and pulled them on as soon as we got out of the car
With a drysuit you can adjust your body temp/comfort by wearing different undergarments and hood thicknesses
Drysuits are heavier for packing and take longer to dry.
There's more that can go wrong with a drysuit but I know of tons of people that have gotten through classes with a leaky suit.
Tons of people travel to mexico with minimal lost or stolen luggage. It's the least of my worries, though I do carry on expensive stuff and stick either a Tile or an apple Airtag in my bags in case they do disappear.

For me a wetsuit is a no-go. But I also dive Bonaire and south florida in a dryusuit because I don't want to shove my big ass into a wetsuit and feel like a kielbasa getting shoved into it's casing.

 

[Marie13]

There are two HUGE positives for me with diving wet. Don’t have to trust the airlines with my pretty purple drysuit. And I don’t have to worry about the She-P and getting the plumbing correct. It is a very exact thing. Not having to worry about the She-P is a huge thing. I can just drink as much as I want to stay hydrated in the heat and humidity and not have to worry about leaks and having to wash drysuit undies.

If something happens to my drysuit, I am out of the water for God knows how long. DUI was pretty backed up earlier in the year when a friend had to send their suit in for repairs. Everyone else is backed up, as well. That suit was $4100. I’m not risking it with the airlines.
I’ve got CCR training coming up not long after I get back from MX, depending on when my unit ships. Not having a drysuit messes that up big time.

 

[Tracy]

On the opposite end, I dive wet in Mexico. It is basically the only place I do so. I wear a 5mm semi dry there. I only do one three hour dive per day. If I was doing multiple dives, I would bring my drysuit. I had a pretty bad leg wound on a trip a year ago and I brought my drysuit to keep it dry and clean during the trip. Outside of that, I prefer the wetsuit down there as I spend a lot of time wiggling through things.