Mexico Resort Diving Questions

[Mark Duddridge]

See if you can schedule the cenote dives early in the trip. You may decide not to do much ocean diving, once you've seen them!

Not bad advice! I'll try to do that. I remember reading somewhere that you actually chose PDC over Cozumel because the fell in love with the cenotes!

I'm really looking forward to the cenotes, but I really enjoy watching colorful tropical marine life as well, and I understand the cenotes don't have a lot of that. I do most of my diving in a deep, dark, cold lake with very minimal animal life. Switching from that to a tropical reef is like trading in your 17" black and white TV for a 60" high definition plasma TV!

 

[jamiep3]

We stayed at the Blue Bay Esmerelda in February. Since this was a mixed group, the three of us that dive opted to go with the on site op, the name of which escapes me right now. We did three reef dives just off of the resort, between 30' and 100'. Saw lots of reef fish, some turtles and Rays. They also ran some dives off site, where they would take you by van to other locations to dive. I don't remember if they did cenotes or not.

Just FYI, there is not very good snorkeling off of the resort, it is a man made beach and remains very shallow for a good distance off shore.

Overall we enjoyed the resort, be prepared to walk a bit, as it is very spread out. The rooms where nice, leaving a little tip money on the refrigerator will help with the bottled water supply.

 

[Mark Duddridge]

jamiep3 - Great to hear from someone who has actually stayed at the BBGE!

Can you tell me what the dive prices were like for the on-site dive op? For the life of me I can't find any information on their dive shop online.

Can you also tell me whether you guys took a taxi or public transit into PDC and how much either of them cost? I'm thinking about diving with Phantom Divers, and they are located in PDC. I would have to take a taxi or public transit from the BBGE every day, and I'm wondering how much that would cost me.

 

[jamiep3]

We took a cab into PDC two or three times, I think it was about $15.00 US each way.

The name of the onsite op is Aqua Inn. Looking at my statements, It looks like they where about $45.00 a dive. It sticks in my mind that we found a shop in PDC that was a bit cheaper, but when we added in the cost of the cab, and the fact we where with non divers who had activities planned, it was more convenient to use them. I do remeber the off site dives where more expensive.

 

[Mark Duddridge]

Thanks for the info, jamiep3. I assume the $45 was for a single tank dive?

 

[jamiep3]

Yes, it was either $45 or $55 per dive, I can't tell for sure, because I know I paid for one of the other divers also. One good thing about the shop there was that they will go with a few divers to the local reefs. I think they needed three to take the boat out.

 

[Mark Duddridge]

I just called the resort. Apparently there is a van that leaves from some location just outside the resort (ten minute walk) and takes you to "5th Avenue" in PDC for only $1.50. I'll see if I can figure out where that is relative to Phantom Divers (if indeed that's who I go with). I'd much rather pay $3/day than $30 for round-trip transportation to the dive shop.

 

[Byte Me]

5th avenue runs north / south along the coast through Playa (avenues run north south, calles - streets - run east west). Looks like Phantom is on 14th street and 1st Ave. 1st Avenue is effectively the beach and 14th shouldn't be too terrible a walk (5mins?) depending on where they drop you. My guess is they'd drop you near the bus station / Coz ferry station. So you'd have about 14 blocks.

For reference I've walked from the Riu Palace RM to Jason's shop on calle 2 and the beach with all my stuff more than once. That's easily 20 minutes. Its safe though and fun to stroll through downtown like that.

TS&M was right - the cenotes are addicting! I'll be doing one every time I'm down there now!

 

[Mark Duddridge]

Thanks for the directions info! It's hard trying to get a good idea of where everything is in a place you've never been to before! I enjoy transportation adventures, so I think I'll opt for the van rather than a taxi (okay... so I'm just cheap... but who's counting!).

 

[Byte Me]

Thanks for the directions info! It's hard trying to get a good idea of where everything is in a place you've never been to before! I enjoy transportation adventures, so I think I'll opt for the van rather than a taxi (okay... so I'm just cheap... but who's counting!).

No worries! Should be pretty easy, north on 5th to 14th street, hang a right to the beach! There are a LOT of dive ops in the area so it's good to do some research, as you have, and get some background.

Have fun! I'm VERY jealous!