I see I mistyped our departure date in my original post, saying 20 December when the cruise in fact left 30 December. So I now understand why some of you have been a bit impatient for me to get back to you!
Anyway, after some phone tag and a promised e-mail from Blue Ocean Safari which never arrived, we decided to book a two-tank dive in advance with Maya Palms Resort. Of all the ports on this cruise, Costa Maya was most generous with shore time, arriving at 7 a.m. and not leaving until 8 p.m., so this gave us a lot of flexibility to use operators not associated with the cruise line with a minimal risk of being left behind.
Booking was done over the phone with advance payment with a credit card. The owners of Maya Palms also own Bon Terre mine in Missouri and a group of dive shops in St. Louis, which is why they may answer the phone "West End" when you call expecting Maya Palms. We went for the two-tank dive package at $75 per person. The only equipment we rented was two regulators, at $10 each, and we paid another $10 each for lunch. The credit card receipt and reservation form were faxed to me, and I was asked to sign and fax it back.
We had been told the first dive would be at 10:30 a.m., which gave us plenty of time with an early arrival in Costa Maya. There were a total of three ships there, the Splendour of the Seas (our ship), the Legend of the Seas, and the Celebrity Victory. Naturally, all disembarked about the same time, which made for some sizeable crowds in the little shopping village that basically serves as the Costa Maya cruise terminal.
With those crowds, I can understand how the locals don't want long queues of taxis hanging around hustling customers. The basic routine for those not on a shore excursion is to buy a $3/person ticket for the shuttle to town. (A local taxi stand can be found if one goes about 600 yards outside the cruise terminal property, but since we were hauling all our gear we opted for the shuttle.) Despite the name, the shuttle is actually a full-size highway coach. The ride to town took about five minutes, with an intermediate stop to drop some folks off at Tequila Beach. Then we were dropped off at the entrance to the main street of Mahahual, a little fishing village of about 400 people. There was a line of taxis, and we tossed our gear in the truck and headed off for Maya Palms. We pretty much passed every other dive shop in town on the way there, including Blue Ocean Safari and Dream Time.
The taxi to Maya Palms cost $20 and took 25-30 minutes. The driver said he would return whenever we wanted him to. At the office, we were greeted by Doug, the owner. We turned our C-cards over to him and signed an agreement for the regulator rental. Then he led us through a path cut through the jungle to the centre of the resort, which includes a thatch roof bar/pavillion, swimming pool, restaurant (and maybe hotel) in the shape of a Mayan pyramid, and the dive shop.
At the dive shop we met Ken, manager and dive master/instructor who today would actually be the boat captain while Doug took us down. We also met the three other divers who would go out with us, a group from Vancouver BC who were crusing on the Victory. We suited up with tanks and weights and waded into the surf to board the smallest of the resort's two dive boats, which had plenty of room for just the seven of us.
Though the reef is only about 400 yards from the resort, due to a lot of shallow rocks out from the shore Ken had to navigate a winding path to get us to one of the cut-throughs, finally pinpointing the dive site with a GPS and a depth finder.
The first dive site was called Castillo One. The water was a pleasant 84 degrees -- we were quite comfortable in our 2 mil shorties. We reached a maximum depth of 94 feet, with an average depth of 52 ft. I was a bit surprised that we saw very few fish compared to our October dives in Playa del Carmen. Nevertheless, it was a spectactular experience as we had never dove through spur and groove coral formations. Some of the coral canyons were absolutely breathtaking, and visibility was probably 60-80 feet.
We surfaced and Doug asked us to hang close together on the surface until Ken had spotted us in the mild swells. The boat came along a few minutes later and we boarded and returned to the resort.
We had a dip in the pool, ate lunch, and walked to the top of the pyramid, supposedly the highest point in Costa Maya. From there we could see the cruise ships up the coast but actually very little of Mahahual. What we did see, other than the blue waters of the Caribbean, was the top of a lush jungle canopy extending to the horizon. And a bald eagle, which has made a nest in the resort's radio tower.
After a surface interval of about 2-1/2 hours, it was time for dive number two. One of the other divers had experienced ear problems on the first dive so he decided to sit out the second one. This time we went to a reef fairly close to the first one called Castillo Two. We went almost as deep as the first dive, 89 feet, but did not sustain the depth as long. The average depth was 43 feet and we were down for almost 45 minutes (the tanks on both dives had good fills -- ~3200 psi). The air temperature had warmed up quite a bit from the morning, and was approaching 95 degrees F.
One the second dive there was significantly more fish to be seen, including one large turtle. As we rode back in on the boat, Doug asked if we wanted a night dive. We probably could have swung it since the ship had such a late departure, but my wife was also experiencing some ear pain so we decided to call it a day (her ear pain would eventually scuttle the next day's planned dives in Cozumel.
) So we ended up rinsing our gear and then kicking back by the pool with a couple of cold
cervesas until our taxi returned. Going back to the ship, it's still $20 but this time we bypassed the shuttle -- taxis can take you straight to the terminal as long as everyone shows their cruise ship cards.
In review, it was a great experience, and I would not hesitate to dive Maya Palms again. The place is remote -- the resort's electricity comes from a diesel generator -- so I'm not sure if I'd be interested in staying there any length of time at least until the area is more developed (nitrox is not currently available since they've had trouble obtaining a steady supply). However, since it's about a three-hour dive from Playa, we may break up our next trip there with a little overnighter to Maya Palms. And if you're on a cruise ship, the rustic and dusty roads south to the resort are well worth the adventure!
Happy Diving!
CW :14:
