Skipraha
Registered
Here is my first trip report for Scubaboard. The detaled reports really helped me, so this will be long. My apologies to those who like short posts, but you can skip this thread if you want. I will be talking about both the diving and the rest of my trip in case any of you have spouses like I do that go on vacation to get pampered, not blow bubbles. 
Destination: Secret Excellence Resort. Puerto Morelos (about 20 mins S of Cancun airport)
Dive Shop: Dive Puerto Morelos (www.divepuertomorelos.com)
My Background: I'd done 4 resort courses (yes, I know!! 4!!) and had completed about 7 non-logged dives to depths up to 60 feet in Aruba, Puerto Vallarta, and Pureto Adventuras. I finally got my butt in gear and completed my confined water and paperwork and wanted to finish my OW cert.
The Travellers: My Wife (Landlubber and Spa-Lover), Myself, My Bro-In-Law (Diver, Great Friend) and his wife (see my wife).
Departure & Air: 8am Wednesday Ryan Air (Apple Charter) out of Detroit. Standard cramped, 3.5 hour charter flight. Had a good check in however, and actually had an open seat next to my wife and I since the mid-week flight was only 2/3 full. Breezed through Mexican customs (the wife did not "Go Red" for the first time in three trips) and hopped on the bus for the 20 minute ride to the resort. Greeted at the resort with a cool, towel and a glass of champagne at check-in. In the room by 2:00pm. In the pool by 2:15pm. Sunny and 89. Cerveza in hand by 2:16pm.
Hotel: Secrets Excellence (All-Inclusive). I cannot say enough about this resort. I have been to several AI's and this was, by far, the tops. Brand New (opened in September). The Perfect Size. Good Food (yes, good food at an AI). Top Shelf Liquor (Absolute, Baileys, Jack, J&B, etc.). Great Service. And No Towel Cards or Wrist Bands! This is the perfect resort for couples (it is adults only) who need to bribe the wives with a top-flight resort and a spa so you can hit great diving. They get spa visits (BTW, what the heck is a Milk Mousse Bath?) and we get to dive. I think we still lose on the $$$, but we get to dive! Look at this link for more info about the hotel on Tripadvisor.com or PM me.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser..._Cancun-Puerto_Morelos_Yucatan_Peninsula.html
Thursday (First Day) - I had set up my training with the shop before heading to Mexico, but, when checking SB on Thursday morning, I saw a post from Cat that the shop's PC had crashed and to confirm all arrangements. I tried to call with no luck, so we hopped into the cab for the 8$ ride to Puerto Morelos. PM is a great, undiscovered, quiet Mexican fishing village. No Carlos and Charlies, No Senior Frogs. Just authentic Mexico. This is a great, sleepy town to visit if in the Riveria Maya. It is about midway between Cancun and PDC and worth a stop. I met Kris at the shop and confirmed everything. Found out the she and her husband moved from Salt Lake City to buy a resort down in the PM. While they are finishing fighting the Mexican legal system to settle a fraud issue from the seller, they are paying the bills by having her help at the shop and do air fills for DPM, another shop and the local spear fishers. Brett, her husband, is the Divemaster / Instructor for the shop and would be diving with me the next two afternoons to complete my OW cert. My brother and I also scheduled a dive to the C-56 and a reef on Monday and Cenote dives on Tuesday. We finished the visit with a good laugh when a dog from the cantina next door wandered in and urinated on a BCD. I offered Kris $10 if they would save that one for my brother, but it was a couple of sizes too small so no luck.
Friday: Dives# 1&2. Location: My Reef (15 min South of PM). Max Depth: 40'. TBT: 38 mins. Air Temp: 92. Surface: 79. Bottom: 79. Divers: Me, Brett (Instructor), James (Construction worker from Alaska who saves his cash to spend 4 months in PM each winter), the lady who owns the shop next to the dive shop, and her father form Mexico City. On the dock I set up my gear, and we then took a small whaleboat with a canopy to the reef. After gearing up we did the backward roll into 4 foot swells. Since I had dove few times before and was very comfortable, after meeting on the surface, we emptied BCD's and headed down without using an anchor line. Because everyone else was Cert and very familar with the area, they dove alongside us as Brett and I did the skills and toured 1-on-1 during the dive. We completed the Mask Clear, Alt Air Exchange, Reg Recovery, Tired Diver Tow, Cramp Removal, Snorkle / Regulator Exchange, Surface Weight Removal and Compass Work on these dives. The reef where we dove does not have an official name, but it midway between the outer barrier and inner reefs. Brett affectionately called it "My Reef", and so it went into my log book that way! The sight was as the end of a reef line where it branched out into fingers with swim-throughs about 8 foot deep in between. We basically skirted the fingers like you traced your hand in elementary school. The site was great. I cannot compare it to Coz, but the reefs were in great shape compared to those further south in Peurto Adventuras. We saw a great deal more wildlife on the dive than I saw down there last year and the reef was in much better shape. We dropped onto a big, cabbage-like coral and immediately moved to a small cave in the reef the Brett pointed out. In the cave were two lobsters, and further back, a moray eel was hanging out. He was far enough in that you could only see his profile, but it was still cool. In another niche in the coral was a huge 5# or so lobster. We also saw several schools of grunts, some tangs, several squirrelfish, some parrotfish, and several others types I did not know. The cap of the dive for me occured when Brett pointed out a big Tang that was sitting along the wall of one of the swim through to the neighbor's father. I was sitting about 5 ft above them and a few feet away over the top of the reef at the time and saw a 3-4ft Baracuda just cruising along the reef headed toward Brett and Dad. Dad drifted up just in time to come face-to-face with the Cuda as it was about to pass over the swim through. I am not sure who was more surprised, but I quickly found out that you can indeed laugh through your reg. At the end of the we did our 3 min safety stop @ 20" where I worked on my bouyancy and then surfaced. After handing the equip up and climbing on board we headed back to the shop. Upon returning to the shop, I asked about the price of the beers in the fridge (they had water for sale), and got the reply from Kris, "Just take a couple, we all kinda of take turns buying a 6 pack from next door. Buy one before you leave and we're even." I then spent the next two hours sitting at a table in the courtyard shooting the breeze and enjoying the weather in sunny Mexico.
Saturday: Dives# 3&4. Location: My Reef. Max Depth: 38'. TBT: 38 mins. Air Temp: 89. Surface: 79. Bottom: 79. Divers: Me & Brett (Instructor). Day one was great. Day two I had pleasure of finishing my cert with just myself and Brett on the dive. Talk about a great experience that beats the pants off the cattleboats and Ohio quarries I would have experienced elsewhere. During the dive we did our CESA, Remove and Replace Drills, and the Equipment Set-Up and Tear-Down Drills. We headed out on the same boat with Jorge as our Captian once again. The wind was blowing pretty hard and we hit some 8-10 swells once outside the reef line. I was feeling the wave a little bit, and was very happy to roll-back and head down. Brett was very comfortable with my skills so he really wanted me to work on my boyancy control and also coached me on working with the surge. We hit a bit of it on the bottom, but his guidance on going with the surge when it was headed where you were and finning softly to hold position as it rolled back helped me a lot. During the dive we saw the same great variety of Brain, Elkhorn, Fan and Fire Corals. We also saw most of the smae fish, but I had the great experience of seeing a couple small groupers and a moray fight it out for a prime spot on the reef to rest for the night. We also saw a pair of large Trunk Fish, a pair of File Fish (?), a couple of Jacks, and a couple of Crabs. We also saw an abandonded Lobster Cage and a fish that looked like a 6 inch, blue, sargent major that decided a certain part of the reed was his and decided to take on a school of grunts that were hanging around. It was worth a few laughs. Just before heading up, we saw our friendly Baracuda hanging about. After surfacing, we surfed the big swells back into port. At the shop, we broke out the beers I borrowed from the fridge in our room at the resort, took a God-Awful PADI Card photo (Cat...looking into the sun is no bueno!) and celebrated with a couple of beers the completion of my cert.
Part One Done. Part Two to Come.
Don
Destination: Secret Excellence Resort. Puerto Morelos (about 20 mins S of Cancun airport)
Dive Shop: Dive Puerto Morelos (www.divepuertomorelos.com)
My Background: I'd done 4 resort courses (yes, I know!! 4!!) and had completed about 7 non-logged dives to depths up to 60 feet in Aruba, Puerto Vallarta, and Pureto Adventuras. I finally got my butt in gear and completed my confined water and paperwork and wanted to finish my OW cert.
The Travellers: My Wife (Landlubber and Spa-Lover), Myself, My Bro-In-Law (Diver, Great Friend) and his wife (see my wife).
Departure & Air: 8am Wednesday Ryan Air (Apple Charter) out of Detroit. Standard cramped, 3.5 hour charter flight. Had a good check in however, and actually had an open seat next to my wife and I since the mid-week flight was only 2/3 full. Breezed through Mexican customs (the wife did not "Go Red" for the first time in three trips) and hopped on the bus for the 20 minute ride to the resort. Greeted at the resort with a cool, towel and a glass of champagne at check-in. In the room by 2:00pm. In the pool by 2:15pm. Sunny and 89. Cerveza in hand by 2:16pm.
Hotel: Secrets Excellence (All-Inclusive). I cannot say enough about this resort. I have been to several AI's and this was, by far, the tops. Brand New (opened in September). The Perfect Size. Good Food (yes, good food at an AI). Top Shelf Liquor (Absolute, Baileys, Jack, J&B, etc.). Great Service. And No Towel Cards or Wrist Bands! This is the perfect resort for couples (it is adults only) who need to bribe the wives with a top-flight resort and a spa so you can hit great diving. They get spa visits (BTW, what the heck is a Milk Mousse Bath?) and we get to dive. I think we still lose on the $$$, but we get to dive! Look at this link for more info about the hotel on Tripadvisor.com or PM me.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser..._Cancun-Puerto_Morelos_Yucatan_Peninsula.html
Thursday (First Day) - I had set up my training with the shop before heading to Mexico, but, when checking SB on Thursday morning, I saw a post from Cat that the shop's PC had crashed and to confirm all arrangements. I tried to call with no luck, so we hopped into the cab for the 8$ ride to Puerto Morelos. PM is a great, undiscovered, quiet Mexican fishing village. No Carlos and Charlies, No Senior Frogs. Just authentic Mexico. This is a great, sleepy town to visit if in the Riveria Maya. It is about midway between Cancun and PDC and worth a stop. I met Kris at the shop and confirmed everything. Found out the she and her husband moved from Salt Lake City to buy a resort down in the PM. While they are finishing fighting the Mexican legal system to settle a fraud issue from the seller, they are paying the bills by having her help at the shop and do air fills for DPM, another shop and the local spear fishers. Brett, her husband, is the Divemaster / Instructor for the shop and would be diving with me the next two afternoons to complete my OW cert. My brother and I also scheduled a dive to the C-56 and a reef on Monday and Cenote dives on Tuesday. We finished the visit with a good laugh when a dog from the cantina next door wandered in and urinated on a BCD. I offered Kris $10 if they would save that one for my brother, but it was a couple of sizes too small so no luck.
Friday: Dives# 1&2. Location: My Reef (15 min South of PM). Max Depth: 40'. TBT: 38 mins. Air Temp: 92. Surface: 79. Bottom: 79. Divers: Me, Brett (Instructor), James (Construction worker from Alaska who saves his cash to spend 4 months in PM each winter), the lady who owns the shop next to the dive shop, and her father form Mexico City. On the dock I set up my gear, and we then took a small whaleboat with a canopy to the reef. After gearing up we did the backward roll into 4 foot swells. Since I had dove few times before and was very comfortable, after meeting on the surface, we emptied BCD's and headed down without using an anchor line. Because everyone else was Cert and very familar with the area, they dove alongside us as Brett and I did the skills and toured 1-on-1 during the dive. We completed the Mask Clear, Alt Air Exchange, Reg Recovery, Tired Diver Tow, Cramp Removal, Snorkle / Regulator Exchange, Surface Weight Removal and Compass Work on these dives. The reef where we dove does not have an official name, but it midway between the outer barrier and inner reefs. Brett affectionately called it "My Reef", and so it went into my log book that way! The sight was as the end of a reef line where it branched out into fingers with swim-throughs about 8 foot deep in between. We basically skirted the fingers like you traced your hand in elementary school. The site was great. I cannot compare it to Coz, but the reefs were in great shape compared to those further south in Peurto Adventuras. We saw a great deal more wildlife on the dive than I saw down there last year and the reef was in much better shape. We dropped onto a big, cabbage-like coral and immediately moved to a small cave in the reef the Brett pointed out. In the cave were two lobsters, and further back, a moray eel was hanging out. He was far enough in that you could only see his profile, but it was still cool. In another niche in the coral was a huge 5# or so lobster. We also saw several schools of grunts, some tangs, several squirrelfish, some parrotfish, and several others types I did not know. The cap of the dive for me occured when Brett pointed out a big Tang that was sitting along the wall of one of the swim through to the neighbor's father. I was sitting about 5 ft above them and a few feet away over the top of the reef at the time and saw a 3-4ft Baracuda just cruising along the reef headed toward Brett and Dad. Dad drifted up just in time to come face-to-face with the Cuda as it was about to pass over the swim through. I am not sure who was more surprised, but I quickly found out that you can indeed laugh through your reg. At the end of the we did our 3 min safety stop @ 20" where I worked on my bouyancy and then surfaced. After handing the equip up and climbing on board we headed back to the shop. Upon returning to the shop, I asked about the price of the beers in the fridge (they had water for sale), and got the reply from Kris, "Just take a couple, we all kinda of take turns buying a 6 pack from next door. Buy one before you leave and we're even." I then spent the next two hours sitting at a table in the courtyard shooting the breeze and enjoying the weather in sunny Mexico.
Saturday: Dives# 3&4. Location: My Reef. Max Depth: 38'. TBT: 38 mins. Air Temp: 89. Surface: 79. Bottom: 79. Divers: Me & Brett (Instructor). Day one was great. Day two I had pleasure of finishing my cert with just myself and Brett on the dive. Talk about a great experience that beats the pants off the cattleboats and Ohio quarries I would have experienced elsewhere. During the dive we did our CESA, Remove and Replace Drills, and the Equipment Set-Up and Tear-Down Drills. We headed out on the same boat with Jorge as our Captian once again. The wind was blowing pretty hard and we hit some 8-10 swells once outside the reef line. I was feeling the wave a little bit, and was very happy to roll-back and head down. Brett was very comfortable with my skills so he really wanted me to work on my boyancy control and also coached me on working with the surge. We hit a bit of it on the bottom, but his guidance on going with the surge when it was headed where you were and finning softly to hold position as it rolled back helped me a lot. During the dive we saw the same great variety of Brain, Elkhorn, Fan and Fire Corals. We also saw most of the smae fish, but I had the great experience of seeing a couple small groupers and a moray fight it out for a prime spot on the reef to rest for the night. We also saw a pair of large Trunk Fish, a pair of File Fish (?), a couple of Jacks, and a couple of Crabs. We also saw an abandonded Lobster Cage and a fish that looked like a 6 inch, blue, sargent major that decided a certain part of the reed was his and decided to take on a school of grunts that were hanging around. It was worth a few laughs. Just before heading up, we saw our friendly Baracuda hanging about. After surfacing, we surfed the big swells back into port. At the shop, we broke out the beers I borrowed from the fridge in our room at the resort, took a God-Awful PADI Card photo (Cat...looking into the sun is no bueno!) and celebrated with a couple of beers the completion of my cert.
Part One Done. Part Two to Come.
Don
