dimitrik
Contributor
Hello everyone,
I just spent July 2-8 at the Reef Playacar all inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen with my wife, brother, uncle and parents. Let me just say that the resort exceeded my expectations. The food was great for an all inclusive, the resort was small (only 200 rooms), the rooms were a little dated but very clean, and the beach was awesome. We tipped the staff an average of $12 a day between the 6 of us and they treated us like royalty. We never had to wait for someone to take our order.
Now for the diving part ..
After reading many positive reviews, I decided to book our diving with Dive Mike out of PDC. Only my brother and I are divers so we had to really make an effort to balance our time between diving and hanging out with the family.
The night before our first scheduled dive, we took a cab to the dive shop to complete all the paperwork. We met Mike the owner and we discussed the dives we would like to do. We settled on 2 days of 2 tank morning ocean dives and one trip to Dos Ojos Cenote where my bother and I would do 2 dives while the rest of our family snorkeled.
Our first dive was Tortugas Reef (Turtle Reef). There were a total of 5 divers plus Dallas our DM. The water was pretty choppy out to the dive and one of the divers in the other group decided to feed the fish all the way out there. All I can say about this drift dive is that it definitely lived up to its name. We saw over 30 turtles throughout the dive some of which were huge. We reached a max depth of 68 feet and towards the end of the dive we saw a school of about 100 very large Tarpon. This was a fun dive where we barely used our fins due to the current.
The second dive of the day was going to be Barracuda Reef but we had to make a last minute change due to the sick passenger having to be dropped off. Dallas just didnt feel good about going out even further and leaving him on the boat. Probably a good idea :10: . So instead, we did a shallow dive at Chun-Zumbul. Once again, it was a very relaxing dive where we saw many Moray Eels, and quite a few Barracuda. Overall, we had a great first day.
On our second day of diving we headed out to the Mama Vina wreck which is a sunken yacht at approx 100 feet. This is supposedly a more advanced dive and even though this was going to be our 14th logged dive, Dallas had no issues taking us to this dive after watching us dive on day one. There were a total of 6 divers on the boat this time and I was a little nervous after speaking to most of them prior to the dive. They all had way more experience than my brother and I. We headed out to the dive site. During the briefing, Dallas asked that we all do our back roll off the side of the boat at the same time and start descending immediately as a group and get to the bottom where the current wasnt as strong. This all sounded like a good plan but unfortunately it didnt work out that way. We all did our back roll and started descending. Four of the 6 divers including my brother and myself started descending immediately with Dallas. Once we hit about 50 feet, I look up and see Dallas heading toward the surface. It turns out one of the more experienced divers couldnt get down. So we all stopped our descent to wait for Dallas and the others. From what I could see, the diver that couldnt descent appeared to be fining. Once Dallas calmed him down, they started to descend as a group until they reached us. Unfortunately by this time the current had taken us over the wreck and there was no turning back. We proceeded to the bottom where we saw some Barracuda and a huge Green Moray. Even though we missed the wreck, it turned out to be a great dive to work on my buoyancy skills. The current was strong and we reached a max depth of 127 feet. This was by far the deepest dive I have been on. After a very slow ascent, we made a 5 minute safety stop at 15ft and surfaced.
Once on the boat, we were given the choice of trying the dive again after a long surface interval, or going to a shallower reef. We all decided on the shallow reef. We proceeded to Moche Reef. Once again a nice relaxing dive where we saw lots of eels, some coral banded shrimp, and drum fish. This was our longest dive of 67 minutes.
On our last day of diving, we loaded up the van and headed out to Dos Ojos Cenote. It was nice that we had the whole van to ourselves. Once again Dallas was our DM and another Dive Mike employee named Hernandez came along to guide the snorkelers. On the way to the cenote, Dallas gave everyone a little bit of history on the region and the many different cenotes. Once we arrived, we walked down to the Cenote entrance for divers to check it out. After the very detailed briefing we geared up and headed down to the entrance. We entered via giant stride off the platform and proceeded with our buoyancy check. To Dallas surprise we were weighted perfectly on our first dive. I was diving with a full 3/2 suit and ended up using 10lbs in the fresh water cenote vs. 18lbs in the ocean. From there we proceeded to practice our frog kick for a while before entering the cavern. Fortunately for us, we had been watching Dallas do this kick during our ocean dives so we had already practiced in the ocean. I still need quite a bit of work on it, but I think its something that I can get used to. Once we decided on what order to enter the cavern we proceeded down to the line. I can honestly say that this dive turned out to be nothing like I had expected. Even though you are really never more than 300 feet from an exit, the entire dive is done in an overhead environment. The rock formations were just amazing and I just dont have the words to describe this dive. I tried to take some pictures but I just dont have the right equipment. However, I did get a good shot of the Dos Ojos Alligator. This dive definitely made me feel like I was on a different planet. We basically followed an already existing line around. The dive lasted 36 minutes with a max depth of 22 feet.
For our second Dos Ojos dive we followed a different line that took us to the Bat Cave. As we ascended towards the cave we could see the lights of the snorkelers entering from the opposite direction. We surfaced for a few minutes to chat and then proceeded down to the line to finish our dive. My wife said she was a little freaked out because of the atmosphere but she did make a comment on how graceful I looked under the water. Ive been called a lot of things but never graceful. Towards the end of the dive we proceeded to the actual cave entrance sign that basically says If you dont want to die, then dont continue past this point. Dallas took a picture of us that you can check out in my gallery. This dive was at a max depth of 32 feet for 36 minutes.
Overall this was a great trip. I highly recommend Dive Mike. Dallas was a great DM and I would dive with him again any day. The ocean dives were not quite as dramatic as some of the Cozumel dives I did in April, but they were still good with plenty of sea life. The Cenote was an amazing experience that words just cant describe. Playa Del Carmen is a great destination for a diver with a non diving significant other. I would not hesitate to go back and dive some of the other cenotes.
I just spent July 2-8 at the Reef Playacar all inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen with my wife, brother, uncle and parents. Let me just say that the resort exceeded my expectations. The food was great for an all inclusive, the resort was small (only 200 rooms), the rooms were a little dated but very clean, and the beach was awesome. We tipped the staff an average of $12 a day between the 6 of us and they treated us like royalty. We never had to wait for someone to take our order.
Now for the diving part ..
After reading many positive reviews, I decided to book our diving with Dive Mike out of PDC. Only my brother and I are divers so we had to really make an effort to balance our time between diving and hanging out with the family.
The night before our first scheduled dive, we took a cab to the dive shop to complete all the paperwork. We met Mike the owner and we discussed the dives we would like to do. We settled on 2 days of 2 tank morning ocean dives and one trip to Dos Ojos Cenote where my bother and I would do 2 dives while the rest of our family snorkeled.
Our first dive was Tortugas Reef (Turtle Reef). There were a total of 5 divers plus Dallas our DM. The water was pretty choppy out to the dive and one of the divers in the other group decided to feed the fish all the way out there. All I can say about this drift dive is that it definitely lived up to its name. We saw over 30 turtles throughout the dive some of which were huge. We reached a max depth of 68 feet and towards the end of the dive we saw a school of about 100 very large Tarpon. This was a fun dive where we barely used our fins due to the current.
The second dive of the day was going to be Barracuda Reef but we had to make a last minute change due to the sick passenger having to be dropped off. Dallas just didnt feel good about going out even further and leaving him on the boat. Probably a good idea :10: . So instead, we did a shallow dive at Chun-Zumbul. Once again, it was a very relaxing dive where we saw many Moray Eels, and quite a few Barracuda. Overall, we had a great first day.
On our second day of diving we headed out to the Mama Vina wreck which is a sunken yacht at approx 100 feet. This is supposedly a more advanced dive and even though this was going to be our 14th logged dive, Dallas had no issues taking us to this dive after watching us dive on day one. There were a total of 6 divers on the boat this time and I was a little nervous after speaking to most of them prior to the dive. They all had way more experience than my brother and I. We headed out to the dive site. During the briefing, Dallas asked that we all do our back roll off the side of the boat at the same time and start descending immediately as a group and get to the bottom where the current wasnt as strong. This all sounded like a good plan but unfortunately it didnt work out that way. We all did our back roll and started descending. Four of the 6 divers including my brother and myself started descending immediately with Dallas. Once we hit about 50 feet, I look up and see Dallas heading toward the surface. It turns out one of the more experienced divers couldnt get down. So we all stopped our descent to wait for Dallas and the others. From what I could see, the diver that couldnt descent appeared to be fining. Once Dallas calmed him down, they started to descend as a group until they reached us. Unfortunately by this time the current had taken us over the wreck and there was no turning back. We proceeded to the bottom where we saw some Barracuda and a huge Green Moray. Even though we missed the wreck, it turned out to be a great dive to work on my buoyancy skills. The current was strong and we reached a max depth of 127 feet. This was by far the deepest dive I have been on. After a very slow ascent, we made a 5 minute safety stop at 15ft and surfaced.
Once on the boat, we were given the choice of trying the dive again after a long surface interval, or going to a shallower reef. We all decided on the shallow reef. We proceeded to Moche Reef. Once again a nice relaxing dive where we saw lots of eels, some coral banded shrimp, and drum fish. This was our longest dive of 67 minutes.
On our last day of diving, we loaded up the van and headed out to Dos Ojos Cenote. It was nice that we had the whole van to ourselves. Once again Dallas was our DM and another Dive Mike employee named Hernandez came along to guide the snorkelers. On the way to the cenote, Dallas gave everyone a little bit of history on the region and the many different cenotes. Once we arrived, we walked down to the Cenote entrance for divers to check it out. After the very detailed briefing we geared up and headed down to the entrance. We entered via giant stride off the platform and proceeded with our buoyancy check. To Dallas surprise we were weighted perfectly on our first dive. I was diving with a full 3/2 suit and ended up using 10lbs in the fresh water cenote vs. 18lbs in the ocean. From there we proceeded to practice our frog kick for a while before entering the cavern. Fortunately for us, we had been watching Dallas do this kick during our ocean dives so we had already practiced in the ocean. I still need quite a bit of work on it, but I think its something that I can get used to. Once we decided on what order to enter the cavern we proceeded down to the line. I can honestly say that this dive turned out to be nothing like I had expected. Even though you are really never more than 300 feet from an exit, the entire dive is done in an overhead environment. The rock formations were just amazing and I just dont have the words to describe this dive. I tried to take some pictures but I just dont have the right equipment. However, I did get a good shot of the Dos Ojos Alligator. This dive definitely made me feel like I was on a different planet. We basically followed an already existing line around. The dive lasted 36 minutes with a max depth of 22 feet.
For our second Dos Ojos dive we followed a different line that took us to the Bat Cave. As we ascended towards the cave we could see the lights of the snorkelers entering from the opposite direction. We surfaced for a few minutes to chat and then proceeded down to the line to finish our dive. My wife said she was a little freaked out because of the atmosphere but she did make a comment on how graceful I looked under the water. Ive been called a lot of things but never graceful. Towards the end of the dive we proceeded to the actual cave entrance sign that basically says If you dont want to die, then dont continue past this point. Dallas took a picture of us that you can check out in my gallery. This dive was at a max depth of 32 feet for 36 minutes.
Overall this was a great trip. I highly recommend Dive Mike. Dallas was a great DM and I would dive with him again any day. The ocean dives were not quite as dramatic as some of the Cozumel dives I did in April, but they were still good with plenty of sea life. The Cenote was an amazing experience that words just cant describe. Playa Del Carmen is a great destination for a diver with a non diving significant other. I would not hesitate to go back and dive some of the other cenotes.
