Scubagolf
Contributor
My wife and I spent a week on Isla Mujeres, May 20 - 27, 2012. After many trips to Cozumel, we decided to give Isla Mujeres a try, primarily because of the opportunity to swim with whale sharks. I knew virtually nothing about the island and did not expect the diving to be very good. I was pleasantly surprised both on the quality of the island and the diving.
Isla Mujeres is a sliver of an island located about 8 miles directly off Cancun. There is a ferry running every thirty minutes from the island to Cancun so access is easy, but Isla Mujeres is completely different. It is small, friendly, and has a very attractive "downtown" area located on the north end of the island. There are many reasonably priced restaurants, 30+ hotels, and golf carts for rent to get around the island.
We spend a lot of time deciding on which dive op to use for this trip. We finally decided on Carey Dive Center (Email: info@careydivecenter.com), which is in the downtown area right off the "strand" where many of the beachfront restaurants are located. Gilberto was very responsive to my emails and he and our other divemaster, Rudolpho, were really good. We stayed at an excellent hotel located on the bay (west) side of the island, the Hotel Villa Rolandi. We were picked up and returned after the morning dives to our hotel dock, and they kept our equipment and had it all set up on the boat each morning. The dive shop service was excellent and we will certainly dive with Cary Dive Center when we return to Isla Mujeres.
Here is a short review of the trip:
Monday - Dive #1 Manchones Reef. Shallow reef dive with very good coral, lots of fish and lobsters.
Dive #2 Punta Sur. Fun, ripping current over the remnants of a 400 year old Spanish wreck with a large anchor many large mating sea turtles.
Afternoon - hang out at the hotel beach.
Tuesday - Dive #1 Banderas. Another shallow reef dive with mega-biomass (lots of fishes), stone crab and several stone fish.
Dive #2 The Museum @ Manchones Reef. Underwater statues and a beautiful white turtle.
Afternoon - hang out at the hotel beach.
Wednesday - Dive #1 C-55 Wreck. Very nice purpose sunk wreck in 77 FSW.
Dive #2 "No Name Reef". Very nice reef dive to about 60'. Clouds of fish.
Afternoon - hang out at the hotel beach.
Thursday - Did the WHALE SHARK snorkel excursion with Carey Dive Center. This was fantastic. Two swimmers in the water at a time with the guide trying to keep up with a 20' whale shark. You can't touch it, but it CAN touch you. Truly a great experience!
Friday - Took the 7:30 ferry to Cancun where we were met by our cave-certified Cenotes guide, Alfredo Perez Duarte with Luum-Ha Divers. This was arranged by Gilberto at Cary Dive. It was a 1.5 hour drive in a large van to Chac Mool Cenote. We did two cenotes dives, the first in Cenote Kukulcan and the second in the larger Chac Mool Cenote. This was our first time in cenotes and it was really quite great stuff. Alfredo is a very experienced cave diver who is very safety conscious. We felt comfortable diving with Alfredo and we highly recommend him. He leads the full range of diving out of Cancun. From Isla Mujeres this was a full day trip.
Saturday - Toasted from the trip to the Cenotes, we opted not to dive so we rented a golf cart and toured the island. We stopped at the very south tip, Punte Sur, where there is an outside metal sculpture park with fantastic vistas. We saw about 3 dozen sea turtles about 80 yards off shore.
All in all, it was a really good trip and we will go back some day. Isla Mujeres does not have wall diving like Cozumel (i.e. Palancar Deep) but the reefs are healthy with loads of life, and during the summer the whale sharks are in the vicinity by the hundreds.
We will go back again some day, and we highly recommend Carey Dive Center for diving from Isla Mujeres. We also highly recommend Alfredo Perez Duarte with Luum-Ha Divers for a trip to the Cenotes or for any diving from Cancun.
This could be a really good choice for a vacation with a non-diving spouse. There are excellent beaches, a nice downtown area with a Bahamian feel to it, and it is easy to get around.
Isla Mujeres is a sliver of an island located about 8 miles directly off Cancun. There is a ferry running every thirty minutes from the island to Cancun so access is easy, but Isla Mujeres is completely different. It is small, friendly, and has a very attractive "downtown" area located on the north end of the island. There are many reasonably priced restaurants, 30+ hotels, and golf carts for rent to get around the island.
We spend a lot of time deciding on which dive op to use for this trip. We finally decided on Carey Dive Center (Email: info@careydivecenter.com), which is in the downtown area right off the "strand" where many of the beachfront restaurants are located. Gilberto was very responsive to my emails and he and our other divemaster, Rudolpho, were really good. We stayed at an excellent hotel located on the bay (west) side of the island, the Hotel Villa Rolandi. We were picked up and returned after the morning dives to our hotel dock, and they kept our equipment and had it all set up on the boat each morning. The dive shop service was excellent and we will certainly dive with Cary Dive Center when we return to Isla Mujeres.
Here is a short review of the trip:
Monday - Dive #1 Manchones Reef. Shallow reef dive with very good coral, lots of fish and lobsters.
Dive #2 Punta Sur. Fun, ripping current over the remnants of a 400 year old Spanish wreck with a large anchor many large mating sea turtles.
Afternoon - hang out at the hotel beach.
Tuesday - Dive #1 Banderas. Another shallow reef dive with mega-biomass (lots of fishes), stone crab and several stone fish.
Dive #2 The Museum @ Manchones Reef. Underwater statues and a beautiful white turtle.
Afternoon - hang out at the hotel beach.
Wednesday - Dive #1 C-55 Wreck. Very nice purpose sunk wreck in 77 FSW.
Dive #2 "No Name Reef". Very nice reef dive to about 60'. Clouds of fish.
Afternoon - hang out at the hotel beach.
Thursday - Did the WHALE SHARK snorkel excursion with Carey Dive Center. This was fantastic. Two swimmers in the water at a time with the guide trying to keep up with a 20' whale shark. You can't touch it, but it CAN touch you. Truly a great experience!
Friday - Took the 7:30 ferry to Cancun where we were met by our cave-certified Cenotes guide, Alfredo Perez Duarte with Luum-Ha Divers. This was arranged by Gilberto at Cary Dive. It was a 1.5 hour drive in a large van to Chac Mool Cenote. We did two cenotes dives, the first in Cenote Kukulcan and the second in the larger Chac Mool Cenote. This was our first time in cenotes and it was really quite great stuff. Alfredo is a very experienced cave diver who is very safety conscious. We felt comfortable diving with Alfredo and we highly recommend him. He leads the full range of diving out of Cancun. From Isla Mujeres this was a full day trip.
Saturday - Toasted from the trip to the Cenotes, we opted not to dive so we rented a golf cart and toured the island. We stopped at the very south tip, Punte Sur, where there is an outside metal sculpture park with fantastic vistas. We saw about 3 dozen sea turtles about 80 yards off shore.
All in all, it was a really good trip and we will go back some day. Isla Mujeres does not have wall diving like Cozumel (i.e. Palancar Deep) but the reefs are healthy with loads of life, and during the summer the whale sharks are in the vicinity by the hundreds.
We will go back again some day, and we highly recommend Carey Dive Center for diving from Isla Mujeres. We also highly recommend Alfredo Perez Duarte with Luum-Ha Divers for a trip to the Cenotes or for any diving from Cancun.
This could be a really good choice for a vacation with a non-diving spouse. There are excellent beaches, a nice downtown area with a Bahamian feel to it, and it is easy to get around.
