agilulfo
Contributor
My wife and I stayed at Caribe Blu (now called Blue Angel Resort: www.blueangelresort.com) and dived with Blue Angel Scuba (www.blueangelscuba.com) at the end of October 2008 for 10 days: a great value for those who like no frills dive vacations. We booked our stay and diving with Jeanie Buscher of Blue Angel Scuba and I can easily say that she is one of the most helpful and accommodating persons we've ever encountered both prior and during our stay.
The hotel is nice and clean: the rooms are spartan and spacious with a beautiful view of the sea and sunsets; at night, it's easy to hear the street traffic if you don't use your AC (we didn't, as we prefer to hear the sea splashing right in front of our window). In room safes make it easy to store valuables and the refrigerator is a nice convenience that allowed us to eat our lunches in the room. During our stay we had some issues with the hot water and the "no paper in the toilet" rule took a little adjusting to. We also learned that the hotel was being sold as we were there so there was a little confusion as far as who to talk to during the transition.
The Rendez Blu restaurant above the dive shop serves good local food and drinks as well american fare; I only wished they would serve coffee earlier in the morning as there was no coffee maker in the room. The restaurant was not open for dinner (even though I believe it is under the new ownership) but the 30 minute walk or $4 cab ride to town made for a nice diversion after an entire day of diving.
The diving was really fun and the operation is top notch with very fast, on time boats and knowledgeable divemasters. They will set up your gear but they will let you do it yourself if you prefer. We did most of our dives with Jorge, who is very good at finding all kinds of things but who also lets you dive your own profile. We also dived with Ramon a couple of times, and he was also excellent.
During our stay, we could not dive for three days due to rough seas so, on the first day, we took the ferry to the mainland to dive the Cenotes. Jeanie really saved the day by booking us with a shop on the mainland at a moment's notice and by taking us to the ferry so that we could make it to the mainland on time. We had been debating about diving the Cenotes prior to our trip and I am really glad we did. On the other two days when we couldn't dive we rented a car and toured the island, which is something I would highly recommend.
The hotel is nice and clean: the rooms are spartan and spacious with a beautiful view of the sea and sunsets; at night, it's easy to hear the street traffic if you don't use your AC (we didn't, as we prefer to hear the sea splashing right in front of our window). In room safes make it easy to store valuables and the refrigerator is a nice convenience that allowed us to eat our lunches in the room. During our stay we had some issues with the hot water and the "no paper in the toilet" rule took a little adjusting to. We also learned that the hotel was being sold as we were there so there was a little confusion as far as who to talk to during the transition.
The Rendez Blu restaurant above the dive shop serves good local food and drinks as well american fare; I only wished they would serve coffee earlier in the morning as there was no coffee maker in the room. The restaurant was not open for dinner (even though I believe it is under the new ownership) but the 30 minute walk or $4 cab ride to town made for a nice diversion after an entire day of diving.
The diving was really fun and the operation is top notch with very fast, on time boats and knowledgeable divemasters. They will set up your gear but they will let you do it yourself if you prefer. We did most of our dives with Jorge, who is very good at finding all kinds of things but who also lets you dive your own profile. We also dived with Ramon a couple of times, and he was also excellent.
During our stay, we could not dive for three days due to rough seas so, on the first day, we took the ferry to the mainland to dive the Cenotes. Jeanie really saved the day by booking us with a shop on the mainland at a moment's notice and by taking us to the ferry so that we could make it to the mainland on time. We had been debating about diving the Cenotes prior to our trip and I am really glad we did. On the other two days when we couldn't dive we rented a car and toured the island, which is something I would highly recommend.
