Bloor
Guest
My wife and I just got back from 3 weeks in Mexico. I was performing at the Dreams resorts in Cancun and Tulum, as well as Secrets Capri.
We managed to get 13 dives in during the time.
Since we were staying right off 5th in Playa del Carmen, we got connected with PLUTO DIVE (formerly Sea Life Divers). Alberto & Barbara own the place.
Let me just say our experience with them was fantastic. Alberto was able to really take the time to spot critters tucked in amongst the coral heads.
This was our first time on a small 6pack boat. I kind of liked it. The best part for me was doing a roll back. It was our first time doing it. Sara didn't care for it much but I frankly liked it better than giant stride.
During our dives with Pluto we visited the following places...
Tortugas Reef
Not as good as I thought it would be. Or at least that I'd heard it would be. It's a good dive, don't make any mistake about that. But I found several of the other reefs to be more rewarding as far as finding critters and more developed and colorful coral heads.
Sabalos Reef
This one we did twice. Once on the first day and once on the last day.
There were a bunch of larger coral heads built up. The reef like many in Playa is finger shaped. We saw several turtles out here. I'm no expert but I think they were hawksbill? Is that the right name? (I've got picture I'll post once I download them from my camera)
Overall a terrific dive spot.
Moche Deep
We got down to about 85-90'. A pretty good reef. I definitely learned on this dive that I prefer a shallower reef. I nearly ran dry, but then I'm still a green diver and working on slowing down my breathing. Only managed 33 minutes on this one.
For some of you more experienced divers, how long can you typically stay down on air for a 80/90' dive?
Moche Shallow
Much more like it. Max depth was about 45'.
Funny thing was I finally relaxed on this dive. I managed to get nearly :59 minutes and still had 500lbs left when I got back on the boat.
Good coral formations for sure.
Pared Verde
Another deep reef at 90'. The visibility was so-so for this dive. Saw a sea turtle and a bunch of eels.
Cueva Pargos
35' max and I finally cracked 1 hour with a 63 minute total dive. Had 250 left on the boat.
This was one of my favorite dives on the entire trip. So lots of turtles, lobsters, eels, trunkfish, snapper, cleaner shrimp.
Mama Vino Wreck
Old shrimp boat sits in about 90'.
VERDICT: Do it. The resident 700,000 gagillion ton grouper would love for you to visit. That's the biggest fish I've ever seen.
Barracuda
At 45' this is a pretty darn good dive. Vis was awesome. There was a pretty good curret that could get nearly crash you into the coral ledges if you weren't careful. It made for a tricky time of taking pictures. Just as you'd get your shot lined up you'd realize you were about 3 seconds from crashing into coral.
Jardines
40' max. Longest dive ever at 67 minutes. I had 500lbs left. So my breathing has slowed, and was of course benefited by a shallow dive. Sara had 1,000lbs left when we got back on the boat.
The reef is small. Really small. If you got straight down the edge of it you would be finished in aybe 20 minutes or so. We managed to get over an hour.
Virtually no current the day we dove it. The only problem we ran into was another dive boat dropping their 12 or 15 divers in right on our heads. They dropped down to the sand at the edge of the reef. And then proceeded to silt the whole place up.
But they took off down the reef and were probably out in 25 minutes. With no current we took a slow time of zig zagging the reef. And we were rewarded.
Saw tons of little critters. Sara spotted her first ever stone fish. He was really awesome looking. About 10 minutes later in the dive I spotted one. They're cool. Of all the cool things we've seen, these are near the top fo the list.
So that's where we went with Pluto Dive. They were really great to work with and I would highly recommend them to anyone heading to Playa. Pluto Dive is located on the corner of 10th avenue and 34th across from the deportivo sports plex.
Cozumel - Eagle Ray Divers
The only thing I disliked about the entire day was the boat we were on. It was this old sail boat, not even really meant for diving. And it was...slow. Real slow.
Chellie and Antonio own ERD. They're really nice and Chellie is an Arkansas girl and speaks American english and also spanish. She's very chipper and friendly. And even though she was an Arkansas Razorback, this LSU fan would go dive with them again)
Beyond that, we had a great time. We dove 3 dives with them.
Paso del Cedral
Good reef. About 60' or so. The color of the coral in Cozumel is just unimagineable. I wouldn't believe it myself if I wasn't looking at the pictures I took.
We dove the first two dives with a newly certified family from Arkansas. Real nice folks.
I can't get over how big the angel fish are there. HUGE. Just huge. And very photogenic. haha When we were in Playa it seemed like everytime I had a perfect shot the fish would turn away. In Cozumel it was as if they would mug for the camera. They'd give great profile shots highlighting the vibrant blues and yellows they had.
San Francisco Wall
A terrific dive. Amazing how the coral just drops out into the abyss. Was our first wall dive. I might've preferred to do this on our first dive. We had to stay about 50'-60' but there was so much more to see down deeper I'm sure.
Saw a coupe of small grouper. Maybe 150 or so pounds. (Nothing like the resident bohemoth on the Mama Vino wreck)
C53 Wreck
We had a good surface interval of nearly two hours and then headed down to the C53 wreck. We did this with a couple of guys who also are members here. I can't remember their names, but fellas if you're reading this, thanks for recovering Sara's light. (She dropped it on her way up after her safety stop)
I decided something - I like reefs more than wrecks. The ship had some neat growth on it. And it's penetrable regardless of wreck certification. Was neat to swim around inside but it wasn't anything that I was overly impressed with.
So that's the dive trip. We had a great time with both dive shops. Real professionals and very courteous. I'd recommend them to anybody.
I'll work on posting some pictures over the next couple of days.
Thanks for reading this. I know it was long winded. We had a great time though and heck, if I can't share my excitement with fellow divers, who can I share it with, right?
We managed to get 13 dives in during the time.
Since we were staying right off 5th in Playa del Carmen, we got connected with PLUTO DIVE (formerly Sea Life Divers). Alberto & Barbara own the place.
Let me just say our experience with them was fantastic. Alberto was able to really take the time to spot critters tucked in amongst the coral heads.
This was our first time on a small 6pack boat. I kind of liked it. The best part for me was doing a roll back. It was our first time doing it. Sara didn't care for it much but I frankly liked it better than giant stride.
During our dives with Pluto we visited the following places...
Tortugas Reef
Not as good as I thought it would be. Or at least that I'd heard it would be. It's a good dive, don't make any mistake about that. But I found several of the other reefs to be more rewarding as far as finding critters and more developed and colorful coral heads.
Sabalos Reef
This one we did twice. Once on the first day and once on the last day.
There were a bunch of larger coral heads built up. The reef like many in Playa is finger shaped. We saw several turtles out here. I'm no expert but I think they were hawksbill? Is that the right name? (I've got picture I'll post once I download them from my camera)
Overall a terrific dive spot.
Moche Deep
We got down to about 85-90'. A pretty good reef. I definitely learned on this dive that I prefer a shallower reef. I nearly ran dry, but then I'm still a green diver and working on slowing down my breathing. Only managed 33 minutes on this one.
For some of you more experienced divers, how long can you typically stay down on air for a 80/90' dive?
Moche Shallow
Much more like it. Max depth was about 45'.
Funny thing was I finally relaxed on this dive. I managed to get nearly :59 minutes and still had 500lbs left when I got back on the boat.
Good coral formations for sure.
Pared Verde
Another deep reef at 90'. The visibility was so-so for this dive. Saw a sea turtle and a bunch of eels.
Cueva Pargos
35' max and I finally cracked 1 hour with a 63 minute total dive. Had 250 left on the boat.
This was one of my favorite dives on the entire trip. So lots of turtles, lobsters, eels, trunkfish, snapper, cleaner shrimp.
Mama Vino Wreck
Old shrimp boat sits in about 90'.
VERDICT: Do it. The resident 700,000 gagillion ton grouper would love for you to visit. That's the biggest fish I've ever seen.
Barracuda
At 45' this is a pretty darn good dive. Vis was awesome. There was a pretty good curret that could get nearly crash you into the coral ledges if you weren't careful. It made for a tricky time of taking pictures. Just as you'd get your shot lined up you'd realize you were about 3 seconds from crashing into coral.
Jardines
40' max. Longest dive ever at 67 minutes. I had 500lbs left. So my breathing has slowed, and was of course benefited by a shallow dive. Sara had 1,000lbs left when we got back on the boat.
The reef is small. Really small. If you got straight down the edge of it you would be finished in aybe 20 minutes or so. We managed to get over an hour.
Virtually no current the day we dove it. The only problem we ran into was another dive boat dropping their 12 or 15 divers in right on our heads. They dropped down to the sand at the edge of the reef. And then proceeded to silt the whole place up.
But they took off down the reef and were probably out in 25 minutes. With no current we took a slow time of zig zagging the reef. And we were rewarded.
Saw tons of little critters. Sara spotted her first ever stone fish. He was really awesome looking. About 10 minutes later in the dive I spotted one. They're cool. Of all the cool things we've seen, these are near the top fo the list.
So that's where we went with Pluto Dive. They were really great to work with and I would highly recommend them to anyone heading to Playa. Pluto Dive is located on the corner of 10th avenue and 34th across from the deportivo sports plex.
Cozumel - Eagle Ray Divers
The only thing I disliked about the entire day was the boat we were on. It was this old sail boat, not even really meant for diving. And it was...slow. Real slow.
Chellie and Antonio own ERD. They're really nice and Chellie is an Arkansas girl and speaks American english and also spanish. She's very chipper and friendly. And even though she was an Arkansas Razorback, this LSU fan would go dive with them again)
Beyond that, we had a great time. We dove 3 dives with them.
Paso del Cedral
Good reef. About 60' or so. The color of the coral in Cozumel is just unimagineable. I wouldn't believe it myself if I wasn't looking at the pictures I took.
We dove the first two dives with a newly certified family from Arkansas. Real nice folks.
I can't get over how big the angel fish are there. HUGE. Just huge. And very photogenic. haha When we were in Playa it seemed like everytime I had a perfect shot the fish would turn away. In Cozumel it was as if they would mug for the camera. They'd give great profile shots highlighting the vibrant blues and yellows they had.
San Francisco Wall
A terrific dive. Amazing how the coral just drops out into the abyss. Was our first wall dive. I might've preferred to do this on our first dive. We had to stay about 50'-60' but there was so much more to see down deeper I'm sure.
Saw a coupe of small grouper. Maybe 150 or so pounds. (Nothing like the resident bohemoth on the Mama Vino wreck)
C53 Wreck
We had a good surface interval of nearly two hours and then headed down to the C53 wreck. We did this with a couple of guys who also are members here. I can't remember their names, but fellas if you're reading this, thanks for recovering Sara's light. (She dropped it on her way up after her safety stop)
I decided something - I like reefs more than wrecks. The ship had some neat growth on it. And it's penetrable regardless of wreck certification. Was neat to swim around inside but it wasn't anything that I was overly impressed with.
So that's the dive trip. We had a great time with both dive shops. Real professionals and very courteous. I'd recommend them to anybody.
I'll work on posting some pictures over the next couple of days.
Thanks for reading this. I know it was long winded. We had a great time though and heck, if I can't share my excitement with fellow divers, who can I share it with, right?
