Soggy:
This question is about Cancun...
How is the diving?
The diving is fine. Not overly deep and usually involving a drift. The most popular reefs are at the NE tip of the beach and typically run 55-65' max. Just SE of the reef area are two minesweepers sunk a couple of years ago as artificial reefs. They make nice dives. I have pics of one of the ships if you're interested.
The wild life is smaller than you'll see off SE Fla but it's abundant. The coral is pretty. I always see sharks, albeit of the Nurse variety, but there are rumours of Bullsharks in the neighbourhood. Lotsa Southern Stingrays, Barracuda, Grouper and schooling shiny critters. The odd turtle but not abundant. I actually saw a Whaleshark there, but unfortunately was not in the water at the time.
That's a tough one if you're down at the bottom end of the beach near the airport. I believe there's one op down that way but I can't find anything about them at the moment. Aquaworld runs a huge operation and has a large marina a couple of miles above the Solaris Whatsit Hotel. I often dive with them just because it's convenient for me and I've gotten to know some of the DM's. It's a cattleboat deal and attracts lots of occasional (read poor) divers but everybody has fun. The dives are limited by the typical clientel to 35-40 minutes and out. SI's are close to being rushed but seem to suit my computer. The boats are large (Newtons I believe) but make for a nice stable spacious platform. I used to like Blue Peace but they seem to have disappeared. Their business seems to be referred to Manta Divers and I don't know anything about them except that they're way up around the point in the same area as Scuba Cancun.
I've never dived with SC but I checked out their shop (very unprepossessing) and talked to one of the owners briefly. I was impressed with her professed concern for diver safety and by all accounts from divers who've used them, they practice what they preach about safe diving practices.
Considering staying at the Royal Solaris Caribe.
Do the dive ops pick you up at all or are you stuck having to rent a car and drive to the diving?
As I said, you're kinda off the beaten path there, but the beach is nice and you're very close to the airport, and I don't know of any ops who offer a pickup service.
Fortunately Cancun has an excellent public transit system which you can ride all up and down the Hotel Zone road for 6 pesos (I think) one way. Cabs are also readily available and quite reasonable and getting around is simple as there's only one road so you can't get lost. The cabbies are in my experience always happy types who drive like a bat outa hell. I believe there's some law that says they must remove all suspension from cabs as they don't really bounce, they just clunk.
For a little more money you can arrange for a Suburban ride. Other than getting to the hotel from the airport we don't bother with these. I've seen some great car rental prices offered but I'm not familiar with the insurance and reliability issues involved.
If you want more PM me, or ask here.
JohnF
). Are there any shops in the area that aren't going to limit your bottom time to 30 minutes and/or will let ou dive without a DM to babysit you?
