I'm in Mexico now, in Hueltulco. We did a few days of diving and my boyfriend did his OW course. I was not impressed with the service here, especially our dive master who was on his own dive. Luckily I was buddied up with a person with solid skills and we ended up helping the couple who were bobbing up and down and having trouble. We ended up basically working. We kept looking at eachother and shrugging because we had no idea where the dive master had gone.
The third day my boyfriend was my buddy and the fellow I had dove with the previous day buddied up with a woman who had not been in the water in well over a year or so. He showed her how to put on her equipment and helped her a great deal. Once again our dive master was no where to be found when we hit the water. I kept my boyfriend close and kept an eye on the woman who was struggling a great deal. We tried to keep up with the dive master who was swimming very quickly, which I find incredibly annoying. I found an octopus and was trying to observe it but my boyfriend was getting nervous because the dive master had split.
When we got to the surface I politely told the DM to slow down. (we had discussed this the day before because we lost him repeatedly) He blew it off.
The second dive of that day I saw him only twice, which would not have been a problem if I hadn't had to help the woman repeatedly. She was bobbing to the surface near rocks and waves and was very nervous.
As the DM was a student of the dive shop I don't know if they are aware. He is young and I am hoping will learn. Very nice folks, just very poorly run dives. If I had not felt secure in my own abilities I think I would have been very nervous. Ultimately I was just a bit annoyed. I felt like I was working, which isn't a bad thing but not great when you are paying $70.
We are heading to Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido to try the diving there. Hoping that it is better. If we have a DM in the water, I want him/her to be with the less experienced clients so that I don't have to constantly keep my eye on them as well as my buddy. (Especially considering my buddy is now my boyfriend who is not an experienced diver.) I'm hoping he enjoys this next bit of our trip. Otherwise I may have trouble convincing him to do another dive vacation