Best diving in Mexico in early April

[brou0040]

I'm looking for suggestions for the best diving in Mexico for a 1 week stay in the early April timeframe for me and my daughter, she'll be 16. We are both advanced divers and she has just over 50 dives, I've been to Fiji and the GBR, but she's only dove off the coast of California. She'd love to see bigger stuff such as whalesharks, mantas, turtles, hammerheads (any kind of shark really). She'd also be interested in coloroful coral and fish as she hasn't dove in anything tropical before and cenotes seem like they'd be interesting, but not as much as the big animals.

We went to the Scuba convention in LA this year and talked with a handful of vendors so we have some ideas, but I'm looking for recommendations from people other than the sales agents.

Sea of Cortez seems to have the larger animals, but it may be the wrong time of year so it might not be what we're looking for, but maybe I'm wrong.

Cozumel looks like it has tropical reefs, one resort offered an excursion to the mainland for a day diving cenotes. Would there be any chance of seeing any of the larger stuff?

I'd love to hear any suggestions you have for both regions as well as recommendations for shops and/or resorts.

 

[Rob9876]

She'd love to see bigger stuff such as whalesharks, mantas, turtles, hammerheads (any kind of shark really). She'd also be interested in coloroful coral and fish as she hasn't dove in anything tropical before and cenotes seem like they'd be interesting, but not as much as the big animals.

Cozumel looks like it has tropical reefs, one resort offered an excursion to the mainland for a day diving cenotes. Would there be any chance of seeing any of the larger stuff?

As to Cozumel, she'll see plenty of coral, fish, eels, turtles are fairly common but not every dive, same can be said of nurse sharks, plus small and medium size rays (Yellow Stingrays, Southern Stingrays) and sometimes pretty big Eagle Rays (though early April is not prime season for them). There's also a ton of neat little stuff to see there -- seems like we're seeing a lot more seahorses and pipehorses in the last year or so than previously, plus there's a ton of other neat stuff. Oh, and you should definitely do 1 or 2 night dives in Cozumel -- we almost always see 1 or more octopuses on night dives, in addition to huge crabs, eels, splendid toadfish, lobsters, etc.

I've only seen reef sharks a couple of times in Cozumel, and never seen any other types of shark there (besides nurse and reef) though I've heard of a few hammerhead sitings in recent years. No manta rays there, and no whalesharks in Cozumel -- though there are dive ops who do trips over to the mainland up to around Isla Mujeres to see whalesharks -- believe that starts in mid-to-late May.

Yes, you can take the ferry over to the mainland for a day trip of cenote diving. You could go with Jungle Divers out of Cozumel, or use one of the dive ops over on the mainland. There are bull shark tours that leave from the mainland also, but I've never heard of a bull shark around Cozumel.

 

[MidOH]

There's mobula rays in czm. Saw one jump and belly flop. Never been close to one.

Plenty of eagle rays that'll visit you while diving. Don't know why.

 

[Rob9876]

There's mobula rays in czm. Saw one jump and belly flop. Never been close to one.

That's interesting, I've never seen one in my 17 trips there.

 

[Still Kicking]

I'd vote Socorro if you can handle a 24 hour boat trip each way.

Friendly dolphins and mantas, assorted sharks.

 

[brou0040]

I'd vote Socorro if you can handle a 24 hour boat trip each way.

Friendly dolphins and mantas, assorted sharks.

Socorro seems like it would be the ticket, but it's much more expensive thatn we were thinking. I guess I failed to mention it, but the whole idea of this trip started when my daughter wanted us to tag along on a spring break school science trip that my wife and son are taking. I off hand mentioned that it would be cheaper to go on a tropical scuba trip for the week and I guess my bluff got called - but I'm actually excited for the trip. I think most of mexico would fall within budget, but Socorro would go way past that.