ScubaERDoc
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- Messages
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My fiancee and I went to Cancun for a wedding in August and booked the whale shark snorkel with a highly reviewed dive op leaving from Cancun. We did this primarily because my fiancee had never even seen a whale shark in her life and this was an experience that she had been looking forward to for a long time.
If you are used to diving with smaller boutique dive shops and shun cattle boats, be prepared, this is a massive snorkel operation put together by three different companies...in a sense it seems like it doesn't matter who you book through as you will all be in the same giant group anyways.
We had a very early pickup and were shuttled to a waterfront restaurant where it appeared that we there the only ones there. Great! Just going to be us and a handful of people on a boat...right??? Wrong. We ended waiting for about 2 hours as we watched shuttle after shuttle fill up the place with a ton of snorkelers. There were so many people that a dude on a microphone and speakers ended up yelling instructions to everyone. After waiting for a really long time, we were told that we should have gotten registered on arrival, so back to the end of the line. Also, bring your own organic sunscreen as they sell their own there that looks like mayonnaise and works just as well.
Finally everyone is shuffled into a bunch of boats and off you go on a choppy hour plus ride off of Isla Mujeres. Two girls on our boat puked. Given that this is a marine preserve there are strict rules on how many people can be in the water. Pretty much we had 11 people on our boat and only two people were in the water at a time for 5 minute intervals. I got in 3 times making 15 minutes total in-water time.
Ok that all sounded bad above right? What was good about this trip was there were a TON of whale sharks in the water. Like 50-100+! When you are in the water, they are pretty much everywhere you look and turn. Definitely an amazing experience, given how rare encounters with these beautiful animals are. See the video below to get an idea of how many you will see.
Afterwards went to the island and had lunch while lounging in shallow waters of a beautiful beach. Then back to the cattle ranch for the shuttle back while nursing a sunburn from the organic sunscreen.
All in all this is a unique experience but you have to be prepared for it. Don't expect personal service on a small dive boat. A lot of people from resorts and cruise ships want to see whale sharks and it shows. Be ready to be patient and just remember that its the sharks that matter in the end.
My previous experience swimming with a whale shark was an amazing nirvana like experience in the blue Kona waters with no other boats around and swam for 40 minutes with this amazing animal. My fiancee did not quite have the same experience in Cancun but at least she saw a bunch of whale sharks...and you are pretty much guaranteed to as well if you go there.
Check out the video:
Full screen link here
https://vimeo.com/104047065
[video=vimeo;104047065]https://vimeo.com/104047065[/video]
If you are used to diving with smaller boutique dive shops and shun cattle boats, be prepared, this is a massive snorkel operation put together by three different companies...in a sense it seems like it doesn't matter who you book through as you will all be in the same giant group anyways.
We had a very early pickup and were shuttled to a waterfront restaurant where it appeared that we there the only ones there. Great! Just going to be us and a handful of people on a boat...right??? Wrong. We ended waiting for about 2 hours as we watched shuttle after shuttle fill up the place with a ton of snorkelers. There were so many people that a dude on a microphone and speakers ended up yelling instructions to everyone. After waiting for a really long time, we were told that we should have gotten registered on arrival, so back to the end of the line. Also, bring your own organic sunscreen as they sell their own there that looks like mayonnaise and works just as well.
Finally everyone is shuffled into a bunch of boats and off you go on a choppy hour plus ride off of Isla Mujeres. Two girls on our boat puked. Given that this is a marine preserve there are strict rules on how many people can be in the water. Pretty much we had 11 people on our boat and only two people were in the water at a time for 5 minute intervals. I got in 3 times making 15 minutes total in-water time.
Ok that all sounded bad above right? What was good about this trip was there were a TON of whale sharks in the water. Like 50-100+! When you are in the water, they are pretty much everywhere you look and turn. Definitely an amazing experience, given how rare encounters with these beautiful animals are. See the video below to get an idea of how many you will see.
Afterwards went to the island and had lunch while lounging in shallow waters of a beautiful beach. Then back to the cattle ranch for the shuttle back while nursing a sunburn from the organic sunscreen.
All in all this is a unique experience but you have to be prepared for it. Don't expect personal service on a small dive boat. A lot of people from resorts and cruise ships want to see whale sharks and it shows. Be ready to be patient and just remember that its the sharks that matter in the end.
My previous experience swimming with a whale shark was an amazing nirvana like experience in the blue Kona waters with no other boats around and swam for 40 minutes with this amazing animal. My fiancee did not quite have the same experience in Cancun but at least she saw a bunch of whale sharks...and you are pretty much guaranteed to as well if you go there.
Check out the video:
Full screen link here
https://vimeo.com/104047065
[video=vimeo;104047065]https://vimeo.com/104047065[/video]
