On July 15, four members of CHUM(including yours truly) headed for Maya Palms resort in Mexico. Flew Houston-Cancun arriving about noon. Rented two vehicles and drove south on Mexico 307(stopping for lunch in Tulum). Arrived about 6:30 PM. The most dangerous part of the trip being the drive down the highway. Between the old trucks driving 20 MPH and the speed demons, you definitely had to pay attention
Checked into the resort. We were the only guests. The owners Doug and Kathy also own the Bonne Terre mine south of St Louis. Doug was on hand to greet us.
This is a great destination but keep in mind its not Cozumel. The resort is out in the middle of the jungle by the sea. Air conditioning only ran at night. The resort is about 6miles from the town and electricity hasnt gotten out that far yet. The first night Anna(cook) made us a delicious dinner.
Now on to the diving. First day(16th) we did a dive then ate lunch then another dive. I limited max depth to 78' as no nitrox available. Saw some of the biggest sponges I have ever seen. Reefs are very pristine. We never saw another diver besides us. Not much in the way of big animals or fish. I'm not much of a fish person anyway. Some of the sites have not even been named yet. First day was fairly rough with 2-3 ft seas.
Returned and ate dinner at resort. Went into town but it was late on a Sunday and most everything closed up.
Second day we did back to back dives(returning to shore after each dive). Much calmer sea conditions. More great stuff to see. Ate lunch and headed to town at 3 PM to investigate possibilities of diving Chinchorro Banks(Dougs big boat was out of commission and he would not take his smaller boat). We could not locate anyone with a big boat to take us out there. None of us would get on a small boat to go 20 miles offshore. So more reef dives the third day. We ate dinner in town and had a few drinks and returned to resort.
The last day we did two more reef dives. The other guys did a night dive but I was too close to flying so I sat it out.
Wednesday morning we packed up checked out and drove back to Playa Del Carmen. The three others stayed in Playa till Saturday. However I went back to the airport and returned home.
This was a great trip to an out of the way place. Doug and Kathy were super as was Ken, the other American working there. Anna cooked up great meals. The resort is still being in various stages of construction. I guess if you want to see what Cozumel was like a long time ago, this is the place. I would recommend this to anyone. But dont expect Carlos n Charlies. Its not there.
Checked into the resort. We were the only guests. The owners Doug and Kathy also own the Bonne Terre mine south of St Louis. Doug was on hand to greet us.
This is a great destination but keep in mind its not Cozumel. The resort is out in the middle of the jungle by the sea. Air conditioning only ran at night. The resort is about 6miles from the town and electricity hasnt gotten out that far yet. The first night Anna(cook) made us a delicious dinner.
Now on to the diving. First day(16th) we did a dive then ate lunch then another dive. I limited max depth to 78' as no nitrox available. Saw some of the biggest sponges I have ever seen. Reefs are very pristine. We never saw another diver besides us. Not much in the way of big animals or fish. I'm not much of a fish person anyway. Some of the sites have not even been named yet. First day was fairly rough with 2-3 ft seas.
Returned and ate dinner at resort. Went into town but it was late on a Sunday and most everything closed up.
Second day we did back to back dives(returning to shore after each dive). Much calmer sea conditions. More great stuff to see. Ate lunch and headed to town at 3 PM to investigate possibilities of diving Chinchorro Banks(Dougs big boat was out of commission and he would not take his smaller boat). We could not locate anyone with a big boat to take us out there. None of us would get on a small boat to go 20 miles offshore. So more reef dives the third day. We ate dinner in town and had a few drinks and returned to resort.
The last day we did two more reef dives. The other guys did a night dive but I was too close to flying so I sat it out.
Wednesday morning we packed up checked out and drove back to Playa Del Carmen. The three others stayed in Playa till Saturday. However I went back to the airport and returned home.
This was a great trip to an out of the way place. Doug and Kathy were super as was Ken, the other American working there. Anna cooked up great meals. The resort is still being in various stages of construction. I guess if you want to see what Cozumel was like a long time ago, this is the place. I would recommend this to anyone. But dont expect Carlos n Charlies. Its not there.
