USFpsychDiver
Contributor
Some background. This was not a cave diving trip but a family trip to Cancun where I took a day to dive a cave since Id never been to the Yucatan before and couldnt get that close without at least one cave dive. The trip was a high school graduation present for my girlfriends daughter and three of her friends, none of them divers. I took my daughter who is an open water diver, and diving is one of the things we like to do together. My girlfriend chose the Club Med in Cancun as the place a group of girls between high school and college could go and party but be corralled where we could keep an eye on them. Club Med, being a French company, contracts with Phocea Dive Center in Playa Del Carmen for their diving. Phocea is a Playa dive outfit run by a French couple that caters primarily to French divers who want instructors and guides who speak French.
I didnt have to use Phocea just because I was staying at Club Med, but because of their arrangement theyd take care of transportation from the Club to the shop in Playa where Id have to arrange my own transportation to use someone else. I did contact a number of the Playa and Tulum outfits well known here as well as Phocea. The e-mails with Phocea were less clear than those with other folk, due to language differences, so by trip time I was still no 100% certain that they understood I wanted to do one day with two double-tank technical cave penetration dives, not cavern zone dives, but ultimately I decided to go with them so I wouldnt have to go through the hassles of renting a car and driving myself (although there is a car rental office in the Club Med). It ended up working out fine.
My guide was Vincent Rouquette Cathala. Hes a great guy very informative, and an expert cave diver. I hadnt heard of him, but hes been pushing cave down here for a while with Anders Knudsen, who I also havent heard of, and Natalie Gibb, whos name is familiar although I dont remember from where. Hes also on the Bogaerts Razor training team. He proved to be a very patient, accepting, and helpful guide for an early-stage cave diver (me). We started with a day of OW ocean dives out of Playa (two tanks) with my daughter and Vincent was our guide for that dive too (said it was his first time in salt water in a year). Dont know how we happened to get him for our OW guide since hes usually doing cave guiding or the cavern zone tours maybe he wanted a chance to check me out before going in to the cave. Our second day was again with my daughter, this time a cavern zone cenote dive at Chac Mool gave my daughter a chance to get a taste of what dads been up to diving caves her first overhead experience. The third day were our cave penetration dives at Tajma-Ha.
First dive was the Jumna River line. Very enjoyable but not a blow me away dive. The second dive, however, was to Chinese Garden. Best dive ever in my relatively brief diving career (approx. 2 years and 160 dives). All my previous cave dives were in the North Florida caves, and I love them the tunnels are fun and the big rooms feel like cathedrals to me. Chinese Garden felt like a cathedral done by Gaudi on acid, only better. I really dont have words to describe the experience awe inspiring, speechless (well, we were underwater ) I did applaud where Vincent could see so hed know I appreciated him taking me there. One day is not enough (Vincent told me her came to the Yucatan for a 9 month stay and is still here 10 years later, exploring cave).
The last day was diving Cozumel. Vincent was not with us that day; he was guiding OW divers on a cenote tour. Nice modestly deep drift along the wall dives nice, but not a highly decorated cave.
So, my experience with Phocea was very positive they have at least one excellent cave dive (and cave/tech/sidemount instructor) on staff (Vincent). Their prices were very fair, and their service was exemplary, e.g. they kept our gear at their shop, hung it after our dives and had it packed and ready to go the next morning. They do cater primarily to French speakers, but everyone there spoke English and my daughter and I were not the only English speaking people on the boats (although almost everyone was French speaking). For a non dive-centric family vacation the Club Med/Phocea combination made a great solution; the girls could tan by the pool and drink on the beach, my girlfriend could play tennis, and I could dive. If I wanted training or a guide down here Id pick Vincent again without hesitation.
I didnt have to use Phocea just because I was staying at Club Med, but because of their arrangement theyd take care of transportation from the Club to the shop in Playa where Id have to arrange my own transportation to use someone else. I did contact a number of the Playa and Tulum outfits well known here as well as Phocea. The e-mails with Phocea were less clear than those with other folk, due to language differences, so by trip time I was still no 100% certain that they understood I wanted to do one day with two double-tank technical cave penetration dives, not cavern zone dives, but ultimately I decided to go with them so I wouldnt have to go through the hassles of renting a car and driving myself (although there is a car rental office in the Club Med). It ended up working out fine.
My guide was Vincent Rouquette Cathala. Hes a great guy very informative, and an expert cave diver. I hadnt heard of him, but hes been pushing cave down here for a while with Anders Knudsen, who I also havent heard of, and Natalie Gibb, whos name is familiar although I dont remember from where. Hes also on the Bogaerts Razor training team. He proved to be a very patient, accepting, and helpful guide for an early-stage cave diver (me). We started with a day of OW ocean dives out of Playa (two tanks) with my daughter and Vincent was our guide for that dive too (said it was his first time in salt water in a year). Dont know how we happened to get him for our OW guide since hes usually doing cave guiding or the cavern zone tours maybe he wanted a chance to check me out before going in to the cave. Our second day was again with my daughter, this time a cavern zone cenote dive at Chac Mool gave my daughter a chance to get a taste of what dads been up to diving caves her first overhead experience. The third day were our cave penetration dives at Tajma-Ha.
First dive was the Jumna River line. Very enjoyable but not a blow me away dive. The second dive, however, was to Chinese Garden. Best dive ever in my relatively brief diving career (approx. 2 years and 160 dives). All my previous cave dives were in the North Florida caves, and I love them the tunnels are fun and the big rooms feel like cathedrals to me. Chinese Garden felt like a cathedral done by Gaudi on acid, only better. I really dont have words to describe the experience awe inspiring, speechless (well, we were underwater ) I did applaud where Vincent could see so hed know I appreciated him taking me there. One day is not enough (Vincent told me her came to the Yucatan for a 9 month stay and is still here 10 years later, exploring cave).
The last day was diving Cozumel. Vincent was not with us that day; he was guiding OW divers on a cenote tour. Nice modestly deep drift along the wall dives nice, but not a highly decorated cave.
So, my experience with Phocea was very positive they have at least one excellent cave dive (and cave/tech/sidemount instructor) on staff (Vincent). Their prices were very fair, and their service was exemplary, e.g. they kept our gear at their shop, hung it after our dives and had it packed and ready to go the next morning. They do cater primarily to French speakers, but everyone there spoke English and my daughter and I were not the only English speaking people on the boats (although almost everyone was French speaking). For a non dive-centric family vacation the Club Med/Phocea combination made a great solution; the girls could tan by the pool and drink on the beach, my girlfriend could play tennis, and I could dive. If I wanted training or a guide down here Id pick Vincent again without hesitation.
