Racer_X
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Trip Report: Akumal / Cancun
Dates: June 18th to June 27th
Original plan was to dive cenotes for two days - Chac Mool and Tajma Ha followed by the Pit and Mystic River with Akumal Dive Shop. Helmie was great during the planning stages, very patient with answering questions - even when I asked about the accident (touchy subject considering their grief and my safety concerns). Along the way, we added in a whale shark cruise for the family, as well as a trip to Xcaret. My family are currently non-divers, but thanks to this vacation, that's starting to change. On with the details!
First day was a family day. We headed from the airport down to the Akumal Beach Resort. Okay place for two nights, but stay away from building 3. The rooms in building 3 desperately need updating. Any more than two nights, and we would have insisted they give us another room - most likely in building 5. This is from a guy that thought the fountain of youth inn and RV park was a fine place to stay in one room with the family.
The snorkeling off the beach there is pretty decent, and they have discovery scuba courses run by the Akumal Dive Shop - something we didn't find out until well after the fact. Didn't matter anyway, as we weren't going to be able to do it anyway. The surf was pretty calm and there isn't much of a surge.
The next day we did Mayan ruins - Coba because it was fascinating and Tulum because it was between Coba and the hotel and we had time to kill. We cooled off during the hot part of the day by snorkeling in the Gran Cenote. It also gave me a chance to test out my back up light and my camera + housing in the cool water. After getting dried off and changed, I noticed the "no lights" part of the sign. Oops. Unlike the other cenotes I went to, Gran Cenote actually had some decent snorkeling and things to look at w/o strapping on a tank.
Good thing we did, all that in a day too, because the next day the skies opened up. I can't remember the last time we couldn't do something because of the rain on vacation, but it finally bit us. We had planned to spend the day at Xcaret, see the evening shows, then head up to Cancun for the rest of our stay. The rain put the kibosh on that!
We did hang out in Xcaret from the morning until about 4pm or so. The morning was warning rain, but we managed to get in and get processed. The girls did Sea Trek - kind of like snuba but with helmets and one walked on the bottom. Unfortunately, my son was too little to do Sea Trek so he and I signed up for the sting ray snorkel. The girls liked the Sea Trek, but my son and I loved the sting rays! While I've been diving for a long time, this was the first time we actually got to interact with the sting rays in the water - touching them, feeding them, and getting a very interesting lecture on their physiology and habits. After the initial interaction, we were free to snorkel with them. My 8 year old finally got snorkeling, and loved every minute of it. He even shook me off when I tried to tow him like I had done previous years. Even in the rain, it was still pretty enjoyable. We also did the underground river, but that was pretty lame in comparison to the Gran Cenote the day before. All things considered, we'd skip Xcaret next trip. There's a little of everything there, but not enough of anything to really interest us.
The next two days had me deep in the cenotes. Unfortunately, when I got to the Akumal Dive Shop from Cancun, I discovered that all the run off from the rain had made the cenotes a tad too, well, lethal to dive in. I managed to get a reef dive in to about 85 feet that was interesting. One of the spearfishers with us caught a massive lionfish - had to be about as long as my big toe! While I waited for the rest of the divers to show up, I hung out with Luis, a dive master there. We talked quite a bit about family, and had a surprising amount in common. I really felt comfortable there, and all of the dive shop folks were great. I even skipped out on the bill - they told me to settle up later!
Since I had an abbreviated dive schedule, I had to drop the Pit, which was a dive I was rather looking forward to. Although there are better dives, the environment of the Pit - the middle of the jungle - and the deepness of the well and the light effects really interested me. I was pretty disappointed. However, diving Chac Mool and Tajma Ha was amazing! Having been in all kinds of caves, from lava tubes in Hawaii to Mammoth in Kentucky, I was interested to learn about the effects of water on the cave structures.
Gina, the guide, gave me a briefing on the sites before we left. I have a habit of being well prepared and researched ("Spontaneity has its time and place"). I was so prepared, in fact, that Gina used my materials as a briefing guide. There were only two of us diving with her, and I comprehend enough Spanish to get the gist, so most of the briefing I heard twice. On the way to the site, she gave us background and history of the caves. I got into a (jokingly) bit of trouble by jumping ahead to the meteorite fracturing the limestone. We had a good conversation, then went ahead and splashed.
A couple of notes about Chac Mool - since the accident, all dive groups have to sign in and out (Tajma Ha too), and they've added TWO new signs in blood red. The important one is NO CAMERAS. Nope, nada, nyet, no way. That's the important one because I can't remember the other one. BTW, I didn't hear anything definite about the accident from anyone I talked to at any of the dive shops. No known verdict, just lots of conjecture. However, after having dived Chac Mool the day after a major rainstorm, I have to say that I'm very surprised someone could get lost in the CAVERN area. The line is clear as day, even in the haloclines that we went through. Gold line - cavern. White line - cave. The formations there were very interesting, as was the halocline effect. Plenty of pictures available so I'll keep THAT part brief. There were a couple of places where we looked down, then down, then down, that I found particularly interesting.
As much fun as Chac Mool was, Tajma Ha was better in every single way. Had I been a BIT more forceful with Gina, I probably could have done the Pit and Tajma Ha, but I agreed with her in that I didn't want to push too hard and start with a deep cavern dive like the Pit. However, Tajma Ha was more interesting than Chac Mool for sure. Lots of flowstone as well as stalactites/agmites and columns as well as some stunning light effects! We surfaced a bit after halfway in another entrance, and coming up in a pond in the middle of the jungle was very unique - easy to see how it'd be missed until you dove beneath the surface and realized it was a cave system.
One of the advantages of all the rain was its effect on the halocline. We could actually see it flowing in the water! It wasn't just a blurry area, but you could see the underground river moving back and forth as it mixed with salt water. Much more pronounced at Taj than Chac. After some awesome fish tacos at Lucy's Kitchen, I headed back to meet the family.
Long post, I know, but it was a long and water-intensive vacation. The next day was Whale Shark Snorkeling (thanks to you folks on scubaboard that made me sign the whole family up!). Someone else has posted video and pictures, so I'll skip that part. We went with Ocean Tours, booked online to save some bucks. Other outfits are cheaper, but this place offers a 100% guarantee you'll see whale sharks. Yeah we saw them. Yes, it was really cool diving down next to them and keeping up for a few dozen yards before they pulled away. However, the cool thing for me was the 10 meter manta rays doing backflips right next to the boat! My daughter also spotted a couple of sea turtles doing the horizontal bop on the way out to the site! Way cool trip. Our guide Rianne was very cool. Once she knew I was a diver and had been around boats most of my life, as well as watched the way I handled myself, I had a bit more freedom than a normal tourist. All the guides pack a GoPro with a wide angle lens on the housing, and all the pictures plus the stock photos were only $25. Not too bad compared to other places. The snorkeling stop afterward wasn't very good. Lots of surge, current, and the reef wasn't that healthy. BUT we did see a scorpion fish to liven up the afternoon. A fun moment was when Rianne was explaining the route change in Dutch and I nodded my head. She looked at me and challenged me to repeat what she had said. I responded, "because some folks dove with the manta, we don't have time for another whale shark run, so we're going to the reef." She was flabbergasted! Fortunately, I had heard the captain comment in Spanish that we were reef bound and caught the words whale shark and manta. But I never told HER that
NOTE: bring a shorty with you. Spend the $50.00 at Leisurepro where I bought mine - it's worth it for JUST this trip. If you don't have a wet suit, you can rent one for $15 each time (or buy for 50, come on!). If you eschew the suit, you've gotta wear a life vest. The best part of the snorkeling was dropping down parallel to the big guys to keep my fins under the surface so I could move faster - hard to do in a life jacket.
The last day (thanks for sticking with me this long) we headed back to the Akumal Dive Shop. After the whale sharks, I conned the kids into doing Bubble Makers. So we snorkeled off the beach, watched the turtles and sting rays in open water (I've got some great video), and saw a few fish. Not fantastic for folks that have done Hawaii, but nice for a shore dive 4 hours flying time from the Midwest. Then the kids went out for bubble makers and I followed along with the camera. I've got a great shot of them high-fiving under water after seeing a turtle. At the edge of the water, some folks came up and took a picture of them still in their gear (masks on forehead) and are going to put it in a travel brochure! Everybody had a blast.
I highly recommend the Akumal Dive Shop - Luis, Gina, Helmie, and Franchesca were all top notch. Friendly, outgoing, and I never felt like I had to thumb the dives. I also recommend Lucy's Kitchen for the shrimp tacos, fish tacos, and ice cream - really good stuff. Ocean tours was a large outfit that rents a bunch of boats for whale sharks, but are very organized. Just make sure to SEND AN EMAIL WITH ALL YOUR INFO after paying so they know what's going on. Fortunately we confirmed the day before and things were fine, but if we hadn't there could have been issues. They picked us up at the hotel, fed us, then dropped us back at the hotel around 4-5pm.
Dates: June 18th to June 27th
Original plan was to dive cenotes for two days - Chac Mool and Tajma Ha followed by the Pit and Mystic River with Akumal Dive Shop. Helmie was great during the planning stages, very patient with answering questions - even when I asked about the accident (touchy subject considering their grief and my safety concerns). Along the way, we added in a whale shark cruise for the family, as well as a trip to Xcaret. My family are currently non-divers, but thanks to this vacation, that's starting to change. On with the details!
First day was a family day. We headed from the airport down to the Akumal Beach Resort. Okay place for two nights, but stay away from building 3. The rooms in building 3 desperately need updating. Any more than two nights, and we would have insisted they give us another room - most likely in building 5. This is from a guy that thought the fountain of youth inn and RV park was a fine place to stay in one room with the family.
The snorkeling off the beach there is pretty decent, and they have discovery scuba courses run by the Akumal Dive Shop - something we didn't find out until well after the fact. Didn't matter anyway, as we weren't going to be able to do it anyway. The surf was pretty calm and there isn't much of a surge.
The next day we did Mayan ruins - Coba because it was fascinating and Tulum because it was between Coba and the hotel and we had time to kill. We cooled off during the hot part of the day by snorkeling in the Gran Cenote. It also gave me a chance to test out my back up light and my camera + housing in the cool water. After getting dried off and changed, I noticed the "no lights" part of the sign. Oops. Unlike the other cenotes I went to, Gran Cenote actually had some decent snorkeling and things to look at w/o strapping on a tank.
Good thing we did, all that in a day too, because the next day the skies opened up. I can't remember the last time we couldn't do something because of the rain on vacation, but it finally bit us. We had planned to spend the day at Xcaret, see the evening shows, then head up to Cancun for the rest of our stay. The rain put the kibosh on that!
We did hang out in Xcaret from the morning until about 4pm or so. The morning was warning rain, but we managed to get in and get processed. The girls did Sea Trek - kind of like snuba but with helmets and one walked on the bottom. Unfortunately, my son was too little to do Sea Trek so he and I signed up for the sting ray snorkel. The girls liked the Sea Trek, but my son and I loved the sting rays! While I've been diving for a long time, this was the first time we actually got to interact with the sting rays in the water - touching them, feeding them, and getting a very interesting lecture on their physiology and habits. After the initial interaction, we were free to snorkel with them. My 8 year old finally got snorkeling, and loved every minute of it. He even shook me off when I tried to tow him like I had done previous years. Even in the rain, it was still pretty enjoyable. We also did the underground river, but that was pretty lame in comparison to the Gran Cenote the day before. All things considered, we'd skip Xcaret next trip. There's a little of everything there, but not enough of anything to really interest us.
The next two days had me deep in the cenotes. Unfortunately, when I got to the Akumal Dive Shop from Cancun, I discovered that all the run off from the rain had made the cenotes a tad too, well, lethal to dive in. I managed to get a reef dive in to about 85 feet that was interesting. One of the spearfishers with us caught a massive lionfish - had to be about as long as my big toe! While I waited for the rest of the divers to show up, I hung out with Luis, a dive master there. We talked quite a bit about family, and had a surprising amount in common. I really felt comfortable there, and all of the dive shop folks were great. I even skipped out on the bill - they told me to settle up later!
Since I had an abbreviated dive schedule, I had to drop the Pit, which was a dive I was rather looking forward to. Although there are better dives, the environment of the Pit - the middle of the jungle - and the deepness of the well and the light effects really interested me. I was pretty disappointed. However, diving Chac Mool and Tajma Ha was amazing! Having been in all kinds of caves, from lava tubes in Hawaii to Mammoth in Kentucky, I was interested to learn about the effects of water on the cave structures.
Gina, the guide, gave me a briefing on the sites before we left. I have a habit of being well prepared and researched ("Spontaneity has its time and place"). I was so prepared, in fact, that Gina used my materials as a briefing guide. There were only two of us diving with her, and I comprehend enough Spanish to get the gist, so most of the briefing I heard twice. On the way to the site, she gave us background and history of the caves. I got into a (jokingly) bit of trouble by jumping ahead to the meteorite fracturing the limestone. We had a good conversation, then went ahead and splashed.
A couple of notes about Chac Mool - since the accident, all dive groups have to sign in and out (Tajma Ha too), and they've added TWO new signs in blood red. The important one is NO CAMERAS. Nope, nada, nyet, no way. That's the important one because I can't remember the other one. BTW, I didn't hear anything definite about the accident from anyone I talked to at any of the dive shops. No known verdict, just lots of conjecture. However, after having dived Chac Mool the day after a major rainstorm, I have to say that I'm very surprised someone could get lost in the CAVERN area. The line is clear as day, even in the haloclines that we went through. Gold line - cavern. White line - cave. The formations there were very interesting, as was the halocline effect. Plenty of pictures available so I'll keep THAT part brief. There were a couple of places where we looked down, then down, then down, that I found particularly interesting.
As much fun as Chac Mool was, Tajma Ha was better in every single way. Had I been a BIT more forceful with Gina, I probably could have done the Pit and Tajma Ha, but I agreed with her in that I didn't want to push too hard and start with a deep cavern dive like the Pit. However, Tajma Ha was more interesting than Chac Mool for sure. Lots of flowstone as well as stalactites/agmites and columns as well as some stunning light effects! We surfaced a bit after halfway in another entrance, and coming up in a pond in the middle of the jungle was very unique - easy to see how it'd be missed until you dove beneath the surface and realized it was a cave system.
One of the advantages of all the rain was its effect on the halocline. We could actually see it flowing in the water! It wasn't just a blurry area, but you could see the underground river moving back and forth as it mixed with salt water. Much more pronounced at Taj than Chac. After some awesome fish tacos at Lucy's Kitchen, I headed back to meet the family.
Long post, I know, but it was a long and water-intensive vacation. The next day was Whale Shark Snorkeling (thanks to you folks on scubaboard that made me sign the whole family up!). Someone else has posted video and pictures, so I'll skip that part. We went with Ocean Tours, booked online to save some bucks. Other outfits are cheaper, but this place offers a 100% guarantee you'll see whale sharks. Yeah we saw them. Yes, it was really cool diving down next to them and keeping up for a few dozen yards before they pulled away. However, the cool thing for me was the 10 meter manta rays doing backflips right next to the boat! My daughter also spotted a couple of sea turtles doing the horizontal bop on the way out to the site! Way cool trip. Our guide Rianne was very cool. Once she knew I was a diver and had been around boats most of my life, as well as watched the way I handled myself, I had a bit more freedom than a normal tourist. All the guides pack a GoPro with a wide angle lens on the housing, and all the pictures plus the stock photos were only $25. Not too bad compared to other places. The snorkeling stop afterward wasn't very good. Lots of surge, current, and the reef wasn't that healthy. BUT we did see a scorpion fish to liven up the afternoon. A fun moment was when Rianne was explaining the route change in Dutch and I nodded my head. She looked at me and challenged me to repeat what she had said. I responded, "because some folks dove with the manta, we don't have time for another whale shark run, so we're going to the reef." She was flabbergasted! Fortunately, I had heard the captain comment in Spanish that we were reef bound and caught the words whale shark and manta. But I never told HER that
NOTE: bring a shorty with you. Spend the $50.00 at Leisurepro where I bought mine - it's worth it for JUST this trip. If you don't have a wet suit, you can rent one for $15 each time (or buy for 50, come on!). If you eschew the suit, you've gotta wear a life vest. The best part of the snorkeling was dropping down parallel to the big guys to keep my fins under the surface so I could move faster - hard to do in a life jacket.
The last day (thanks for sticking with me this long) we headed back to the Akumal Dive Shop. After the whale sharks, I conned the kids into doing Bubble Makers. So we snorkeled off the beach, watched the turtles and sting rays in open water (I've got some great video), and saw a few fish. Not fantastic for folks that have done Hawaii, but nice for a shore dive 4 hours flying time from the Midwest. Then the kids went out for bubble makers and I followed along with the camera. I've got a great shot of them high-fiving under water after seeing a turtle. At the edge of the water, some folks came up and took a picture of them still in their gear (masks on forehead) and are going to put it in a travel brochure! Everybody had a blast.
I highly recommend the Akumal Dive Shop - Luis, Gina, Helmie, and Franchesca were all top notch. Friendly, outgoing, and I never felt like I had to thumb the dives. I also recommend Lucy's Kitchen for the shrimp tacos, fish tacos, and ice cream - really good stuff. Ocean tours was a large outfit that rents a bunch of boats for whale sharks, but are very organized. Just make sure to SEND AN EMAIL WITH ALL YOUR INFO after paying so they know what's going on. Fortunately we confirmed the day before and things were fine, but if we hadn't there could have been issues. They picked us up at the hotel, fed us, then dropped us back at the hotel around 4-5pm.
