Part of the appeal of going to a place like Xcalak, Mexico is the fact that not many other folks are going to be there with you. It sits near the end of the world, seven miles from the Belize border on the Yucatan cost. There is no nightlife to speak of, the accomodations rather spare by Mayan Riviera standards and the diving not available at times based on the weather. However, I cannot remember a vacation that I enjoyed more in recent memory.
My wife and I just got back from 7 days in Xcalak. We flew into Cancun on Continental from Minneapolis via Houston. We had reserved a sedan with AC and "good tires" from Budget. We filled out the necessary paperwork and listened to the Budget salesperson's pitch for a breakfast at the Mayan Palace, some new resort monstrosity north of Playa. I smiled and nodded for a minute and kindly declined the offer to view the property even when an offer of "$100 dollars off your bill" was thrown in for good measure. If you have the time or more interest in new all-inclusives than I do, you might see this as a better deal than I did.
We spent the first couple of nights in Playa del Carmen. We stayed at the Hotel Lunata on Avenida 5, which we found out was the major thoroughfare for all the walking and partying traffic in town, right across from a TGIFriday's. Needless to say, it was noisy. To compound the noise issue, every morning we would awaken at 5 am to the sound of jackhammers ripping up the building next door. If you could get past the noise, the hotel was nicely appointed, with large open wood rafters and beautiful saltillo tile floors. Breakfast was served in a small palapa in the central courtyard. Price for a room with AC + tax-$80 US. We would look for a better bargain next time.
On Saturday we headed down good ole Hwy 307. The road was in much better condition than even I had hoped. We sped at 110 km/h all the way to Felipe Carillo Puerto before getting gas--currently the last stop for gas on the way to Xcalak although a new Pemex is going up in Majahual thirty miles north of Xcalak within a month or three. BTW--if stopping in Felipe Carillo, stop at the Pemex in the center of town, not the one on the northern edge. This way you will get a chance to stop at the large torteria on the side street north of the gas station for a delicious torta de pollo, or carne asada. Mixed with peppers and topped with a special sauce that will make you weep with pleasure, I will never miss this stop.
On to Xcalak. Continue from Felipe through Limones. Buy some sugar cane or pistachios from the nice Mayan girls standing on the topes grandes in the middle of the road--might as well. Turn east on the highway to Majahual. Continue down the road now under construction. Go to your happy place as you dodge car-sized potholes and construction vehicles and bounce over tope after tope. Say "Hola" to the officers at the military checkpoint. Open your trunk, let them see that you are carrying dive gear and not bales of marijuana and they will wave you through.
Continue down a lonely ribbon of tarmac crowded by jungle vegetation on both sides until you get to Xcalak. The dust swirls and the dogs race for cover as you drive down main street. Two grocery vendors, two restaurants and a bar. The aquamarine water is to your right as you drive north out of town to Hotel Tierra Maya, a six-room hotel that sits a stone's throw from the beach.
Tom and Yamira are wonderful hosts and they really seem to appreciate their guests who make more than average effort to reach their outpost. The rooms start at $75 a night. They all have balconies and small refrigerators for snacks. Breakfast is served every morning and dinner reservations can be made for any evening as long as they are placed by noon. We arrived after two weeks of very high winds. No fishing boats (or dive boats) could make it out of the small cut in the reef so no fresh fish was available on anyone's menu. By Monday though Tom had secured a big black grouper for dinner which was eagerly enjoyed by my wife and me and several dinner guests.
The diving--
XTC Diving is a very professional but laid-back dive op located just north of town, about half a mile from Tierra Maya and several other nearby resorts. They have a large 45-foot boat (Tzmin Ha) and a couple of pangas for shallower exits near the reef. I made seven dives while I was there, all on the local reef as I had no desire to make the hour and a half boat ride to Chinchorro this time. I wanted to get a few more dives under my weight belt and have a good time. Tina and Baldino, the divemasters I dove with were very attentive but not restrictive. They allowed me to dive my own profile with my computer.
Two outstanding sites: La Poza and Scott's Playground.
La Poza is a unique geological formation that still puzzles marine geologists. It is essentially a long box canyon bordered on one side by the coral reef and by a sand embankment on the other. It is perhaps half a mile long by several hundred yards wide. To enter La Poza you are brought by panga to the inside edge of the reef. The waves were high and the surge fairly strong so as soon as you roll overboard you descend to 15 feet and follow the divemaster through a small cut in the reef. From here you descend to the floor of the box canyon. We saw an ancient hawkbill turtle on as soon as we nosed over the edge. Tarpon school here and barely part as you swim through them. Two eagle rays swam within 20 feet of us and veered off to our left up the embankment as we passed.
Scott's Playground. Imagine a fairyland of thirty-foot coral mushrooms packed so close on the sandy bottom that sometimes their edges touch. Swimming through Scott's Playground is a wonderland of swimthroughs and nooks and crannies. Visibility on the day we were there was in the 80-100 ft range and you can see daylight above you in most cases so it is not intimidating but it is a good test for buoyancy control. Saw many lobsters, a few curious barracuda, and a few gobies poking their heads out of the sand floor. Really special place.
Other dives included tongue and groove coral formations, some 30-40 feet deep. I saw my first shark--an eight nurse shark (or "gato" cat shark as they are called here because of the catfish-like whiskers). It was no great white but it made my logbook partly because it turned around and swam through my legs when spooked by another too curious diver.
Xcalak is not for everyone but it is a pristine reef and if you like diving without seeing a hundred other pairs of fins in the water with you, this is the place.
