Dive info for Punta Gruesa

[tom_n_tacoma]

Hey all!

Anybody have any info or leads/websites/etc for Punta Gruesa down the Yucatan? curious about the quality of diving, reefs, operators, places to stay, etc.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[ron.pinder@rogers.com]

Hi Tom,

You posted this a while back but I just ran across it. I was in Punta Gruesa for 5 weeks in Jan and Feb. There's not much there other than the GVI base that runs
reef surveying expeditions. No dive operators, no hotels, no power, no restaurants. Just a beach and mangroves and a few building once in a while.

That said, my experience on the GVI expedition (GVI Volunteer Travel, Volunteer Vacations, Volunteer Abroad and voluntourism programs overseas) was fantastic. I'd do it again in a minute. Here's some photos... Picasa Web Albums - Ron - Punta Gruesa 1

Let me know if you want more info. Cheers, Ron

 

[Spratman]

Awesome! How about posting a condensed version of your trip. I thought about doing that myself.

What was the workload? Anything within driving distance for something other than coconuts?

 

[ron.pinder@rogers.com]

I'll try and put together a synopsis in the next few days. Here are some quick answers:
Work load; I lost 17 lbs and feel better than I have in years. Down a beat-up beach road about 40 km is Mahahual. At the time it was recovering from hurricane Dean but there were a few restaurants and a couple of hotels starting to re-open. Great food at the Maya Luna and Travel-Inn a couple of km south of Mahahual. Also see: YouTube - Jamie's impression of Punta Gruesa

Cheers, Ron in Canada

 

[Spratman]

Looks like a tough life....just kidding! You must have gotten plenty of dives in and spent a lot of time gathering data.

I like the video too. I was in Cancun three days after Dean hit. The water was cold (76 degrees) and the viz was horrible. We dropped in Weds and were caught in the worst current I've ever experienced. Had to be four or five knots! Cenotes were great though.

Looked like very few people. I could use to lose 17lbs or 30 for that fact.

Thanks for the info.

Jack

 

[ron.pinder@rogers.com]

Tougher than average - but rewarding. In Jan and Feb the trade winds blow hard and we couldn't always get the small boats out thru the shallow pass. No one has mapped this reef, GVI will be doing that, too. With good weather you get 2 dives in a day 6 days a week. GVI is very safety conscious as help is many hours away and they get divers with a range of skills from just finishing their OW to DM and above.

GVI is serious about the science. If you are assigned to monitor hard coral there are 4 exams, 2 written - 95% to pass and 2 in-water - 100% is a pass. It took us a number of weeks just to get skilled enough to collect data (weather didn't help much). Expect to fail a few times. Everyone does.

I had certain expectations going in, I wanted to get in lots of dives, see a beautiful reef and amazing marine life, you know, like on TV. I soon realized that I was expecting to be on dive vacation in a way, and I wasn't. Monitoring a reef is challenging diving. Floating neutral standing on your head and classifying exactly what you see every 25cm along a 30m transect, writing it all down in Latin and getting done in less that 30 minutes is work. Your buddy will be doing coral colonies right behind you; measuring max height and length of any hard coral colony bigger than 10cm and recording species, type of disease (if any), % old and new dead, predation and other stuff which I'm sure I've forgotten.

Your not a tourist. And it feels great not to be a tourist.

cheers - rp