Did 3 days of diving last week in the Playa del Carmen area with GeoFish and had a wonderful time! It was a week of many firsts for us: first warm water diving, first cave (cenote) dives, first wreck penetration, first attempt at underwater photography, first drift diving and, oh yeah, we got engaged (our first and hopefully only!) on the deck of the Mama Vina at around 80 ft down! We were perfectly hooked on diving already just with our limited New England viz and cold water...now, after sampling so many other aspects of the underwater world, it is guaranteed to be a lifestyle change. 
Max already covered the basics of our ocean dive days (11/23 - 11/24) in his GeoFish daily dive report, though he apparently saw much more than us (50 barracuda!? Damn, we only saw like 3!)...guess I was a bit preoccupied on the wreck dive. It was just our luck to arrive in Mexico after/during 3 of the windiest and roughest days they'd seen in a row in a while. Our ocean excursions on the 21st and 22nd were actually blown out/postponed and we respect the staff at GeoFish for calling the dives out of concern for safety and interest in the quality of our first boat/dive experience in the Carribean. Other dive ops may have gone out those days, but we were happy (after initial disappointment) not to be fighting the severe (for that area) wind/surf and steep waves. We can do that at home. Luckily, our schedule was flexible enough to get the dives in later in the week.
Due to the weather, we decided to do our cenote diving day first, on the 22nd. Marco, our divemaster for the cave dives, took us to the Kulkulcan/Chac Mool cenotes and is now responsible for us catching the cave-diving bug, which we hope to pursue as our experience increases. What an amazing experience...absolute must-do for anyone diving the Mayan Riviera region. Though we had only 26/18 dives under our belt and no overhead experience, Marco made us feel very safe and confident in his experience and familiarity with the cenotes. I took some pics but they are a novice effort and simply cannot capture the experience adequately. They were short dives (~30min each), due to the air consumption rate in our group, but worth every penny. My fiancee and I were pleased with our own ability to enjoy the new stressful environment (came out with plenty of air) and with our general buoyancy control. Anybody know what kind of fish that is in the cenote pic (we don't)?
In the meantime, the ocean winds were beginning to calm and it looked favorable for finally getting into some warm salt water, which we did for the next 2 days. The Mama Vina is a very pretty wreck and it was a lot of fun to swim through. Proposing on the deck was the idea our divemaster, Marco (a different Marco), as my original thought had
been to do the deed during a safety stop. It worked out much better this way, she said yes and, needless to say, we were pleased with the dive. Air consumption got a little high so we never got to swim into the wheelhouse. :blinking: Maybe next time...
Really enjoyed Barracudas reef and Marco snapped a nice pic of me with a little hawksbill we saw. I realize after the fact that perhaps combining my first drift dives and first uw photography attempt was bound to result in some frustration and lots of bad photos. I wasn't really able to relax and just "be" in the new warm water environment as much as I'd otherwise have done. That said, I'm glad I was able to record this part of our trip, to show our non-diving friends and family a little of what they're missing. Looking forward to future trips to the Carribean for photog in places where you can STAY STILL!
Tortugas was a great dive, though flatter, and I think I prefer more of a reef structure on drift dives so far (to hide a bit from the current!). We didn't see everything Max saw (we were like dentists' kids in a candy store) but managed to spot the bull shark at the very limit of our viz (barely shows an outline on the photo). Wish I'd seen those rainbow
parrotfish, too...maybe I did and just didn't know.
Sabalos was simply gorgeous to our untrained eyes and included a couple of very cool swim-throughs, one with a huge crab. Unfortunately, I again did something stupid with the camera and most of the pics from this dive came out underexposed. Seeing the eagle rays was amazing, though they were pretty far off.
Based on Max's trip reports, we must have picked exactly the worst days for diving (viz-wise) around Playa for some time, due to the weather. Lucky for us warm-water newbies, it was still completely incredible. GeoFish is a wonderful group of people and they did a great job with everything, from prompt responses to our initial emails, to making our prep, diving and clean-up as effortless as possible. Max and Morgan, you guys have put together a really great outfit down there and we look forward to diving with you again (perhaps for our honeymoon...). Thanks as well to Alex, Marco O., Capt. Marco, Rigo and especially Marco for all their hard work!
Steve
Max already covered the basics of our ocean dive days (11/23 - 11/24) in his GeoFish daily dive report, though he apparently saw much more than us (50 barracuda!? Damn, we only saw like 3!)...guess I was a bit preoccupied on the wreck dive. It was just our luck to arrive in Mexico after/during 3 of the windiest and roughest days they'd seen in a row in a while. Our ocean excursions on the 21st and 22nd were actually blown out/postponed and we respect the staff at GeoFish for calling the dives out of concern for safety and interest in the quality of our first boat/dive experience in the Carribean. Other dive ops may have gone out those days, but we were happy (after initial disappointment) not to be fighting the severe (for that area) wind/surf and steep waves. We can do that at home. Luckily, our schedule was flexible enough to get the dives in later in the week.
Due to the weather, we decided to do our cenote diving day first, on the 22nd. Marco, our divemaster for the cave dives, took us to the Kulkulcan/Chac Mool cenotes and is now responsible for us catching the cave-diving bug, which we hope to pursue as our experience increases. What an amazing experience...absolute must-do for anyone diving the Mayan Riviera region. Though we had only 26/18 dives under our belt and no overhead experience, Marco made us feel very safe and confident in his experience and familiarity with the cenotes. I took some pics but they are a novice effort and simply cannot capture the experience adequately. They were short dives (~30min each), due to the air consumption rate in our group, but worth every penny. My fiancee and I were pleased with our own ability to enjoy the new stressful environment (came out with plenty of air) and with our general buoyancy control. Anybody know what kind of fish that is in the cenote pic (we don't)?
In the meantime, the ocean winds were beginning to calm and it looked favorable for finally getting into some warm salt water, which we did for the next 2 days. The Mama Vina is a very pretty wreck and it was a lot of fun to swim through. Proposing on the deck was the idea our divemaster, Marco (a different Marco), as my original thought had
been to do the deed during a safety stop. It worked out much better this way, she said yes and, needless to say, we were pleased with the dive. Air consumption got a little high so we never got to swim into the wheelhouse. :blinking: Maybe next time...
Really enjoyed Barracudas reef and Marco snapped a nice pic of me with a little hawksbill we saw. I realize after the fact that perhaps combining my first drift dives and first uw photography attempt was bound to result in some frustration and lots of bad photos. I wasn't really able to relax and just "be" in the new warm water environment as much as I'd otherwise have done. That said, I'm glad I was able to record this part of our trip, to show our non-diving friends and family a little of what they're missing. Looking forward to future trips to the Carribean for photog in places where you can STAY STILL!
Tortugas was a great dive, though flatter, and I think I prefer more of a reef structure on drift dives so far (to hide a bit from the current!). We didn't see everything Max saw (we were like dentists' kids in a candy store) but managed to spot the bull shark at the very limit of our viz (barely shows an outline on the photo). Wish I'd seen those rainbow
parrotfish, too...maybe I did and just didn't know.
Sabalos was simply gorgeous to our untrained eyes and included a couple of very cool swim-throughs, one with a huge crab. Unfortunately, I again did something stupid with the camera and most of the pics from this dive came out underexposed. Seeing the eagle rays was amazing, though they were pretty far off.
Based on Max's trip reports, we must have picked exactly the worst days for diving (viz-wise) around Playa for some time, due to the weather. Lucky for us warm-water newbies, it was still completely incredible. GeoFish is a wonderful group of people and they did a great job with everything, from prompt responses to our initial emails, to making our prep, diving and clean-up as effortless as possible. Max and Morgan, you guys have put together a really great outfit down there and we look forward to diving with you again (perhaps for our honeymoon...). Thanks as well to Alex, Marco O., Capt. Marco, Rigo and especially Marco for all their hard work!
Steve
