jasondbaker
Guest
Playa del Carmen and Cozumel Trip Report - April 6-13
Playa del Carmen provides access to a variety of fantastic dive destinations. It is a growing resort area located just south from Cancun, directly across from Cozumel on the Mexican mainland.
I traveled to Playa del Carmen (PDC) with a group of ten people. Everyone in the group was a non-diver except for a friend who was doing his open water certification dives. We stayed at a wonderful all-inclusive resort in PDC called Iberostar. I have stayed many resorts all across Mexico over the past decade. Iberostar offered the best service and food of any Mexican resort I have stayed at. I highly recommend this resort -- especially for
families and non-divers.
I am a novice diver with less than 50 dives. I have experienced both ocean and fresh water lake diving. Before the trip my last dives were 8 months ago in Minnesota lakes. My last ocean dives were over two years ago. I had never dived more than 5 times in one week. This was all about to change.
My trip report is probably of most interest to recreational divers visiting the "Mayan Riviera" region.
I scheduled half of my dives before the trip via the internet. I knew I wanted to dive in both Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. I decided to use two different dive operators. After the first three days of diving I would just "play it by ear".
The first two days of diving were with Scuba Shack on Cozumel. I had never heard of scuba Shack before but they were recommended by my buddy's instructor. According to their website they provided small, fast boats (6-packs) and were "diver's choice" -- meaning that they would take you to the locations you (or the group that day) wanted to dive.
We arrived in PDC on a Saturday and our first dives were scheduled for 8:30am the next day. Note, that Saturday night Mexico was going through a time change and we had to move our clocks ahead one hour. That presented some interesting challenges. More on that in a minute.
Since we were staying in PDC and diving in Cozumel we had to take the ferry back-and-forth each day. The new ferry between PDC and Cozumel is pretty nice. The average trip time was around 35-40 minutes (depending on the winds). The big challenge we had the first day is that our dives were scheduled for 8:30 and there was no 7am ferry scheduled. So, we had to take the 6am ferry (yuck) to be in Cozumel on time. We arrived on Coz and headed to a pancake place just four blocks south of the ferry pier for breakfast. It was wonderful watching the sunrise and seeing all the dive boat operators loading fresh air tanks. I said to myself, "wow I'm really here".
Around 8 am we walked down to Scuba Shack's downtown office. They told us that someone would be there to greet us and drive us to their boat. Well, 8:30 came and went. Then 9am. We walked down to one of the other dive shops and asked them if they knew what was going on with Scuba Shack. The guy at the dive shop mentioned the time change. He called down to Scuba Shack's other office for us. After he wasn't able to reach anyone he recommended that we take a cab to their office.
We jumped in a cab and drove south to their dive shop. It was located right next to the Fury shop and Aquaworld -- fairly close to where the cruise ships dock. There was one fellow in the shop. He greeted us warmly and listened to our story with concern. He jumped on the telephone and made a series of phone calls.
It turns out that the boat captain and dive master forgot to change their clocks. They were running over an hour late (that is one hour + mexican time, which can be up to another hour).
IF YOU DIVE IN MEXICO AFTER A TIME CHANGE YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. We finally got in the boat around 10am. That 6am ferry ride was not looking too smart now. Fortunately we were able to schedule our dives for the next day at 9:30am so we could take the 8am ferry to Coz.
I had 6 divers on the boat my first day of dives. Juan was our very friendly divemaster. He immediately put my concerns at ease. Our first dive was Columbia Pinnacles, a 85 foot dive through a maze of beautiful coral heads and swim-throughs. We started at 40feet and slowly made our way down the bank to around 85ft. This was nice because it gave me a chance to get comfortable with my gear and buoyancy.
I should note that this was the first time I brought all my own gear on a dive trip. I bought new regs (apex) and fins (quattros) just for this trip. Both performed admirably.
What a dive! I could not believe the number and size of corals here. The sponges and gorgonians were absolutely enormous. I also had never done swim-throughs that were this long. This was a taste of what was to come.
The second dive was at Paradise Reef. Once again the marine life and coral life looked great. It only took me one dive to get comfortable again. I think that having my own equipment this time made a huge difference in comfort level.
During the second day of diving we made three dives -- two boat dives in the morning and one shore dive in the afternoon. The boat dives consisted of small groups (4 divers) and Jorge, the DM. We visited Santa Rosa and Las Palmas. Both were fantastic wall dives -- great visibility, big lobsters, eels, jellyfish, and sea horses.
One note about the thimble jellyfish. I was reading all of these forum messages about these pests and the dangers associated with them. I was a little concerned about encountering them.
Well, we saw thimbles on all the Cozumel dives. These are absolutely nothing to be concerned about. If I got stung by them I sure didn't feel anything. Maybe it was the adrenalin rush.
Our final dive at Coz was a shore dive off of the pier at Scuba Shack. This was actually not a bad dive. We swam around several coral heads and encountered part of a sunken plane closer to the cruise ship pier. My buddy, a newly certified diver, was especially excited about the plane "wreck".
I think the staff at Scuba Shack were friendly and capable. The DM's were above average. Our first day was a bit troubling. But the dives made up for that. Would I dive with Scuba Shack
again? Sure. Will I dive with them again next time? Probably not. I would like to try out some other operators on Coz for comparison. Small boats and capable dive masters make ALL the
difference. I think Scuba Shack caters more to the novice "follow the leader"-type divers. Not a problem since I am one of them.
The next three days of diving were at Sealife Divers on the mainland. Sealife is located on the north side of Playa del Carmen right next to the Playa Tucan resort on Mamitas beach.
Sealife is a GREAT dive operator -- fast boats, on time, very friendly staff, beautiful German dive masters. This is the total package. I was warmly greeted from day one. Almost everyone
in the shop knew, and remembered, my name after the first day of diving.
My first day of dives were at the Dos Ojos cenote with Astrid, one of their German dive masters. Dos Ojos was a freshwater cavern located about an hour from PDC. Astrid was quick to point out
that this was cavern diving, not cave diving. Big difference. But, Dos Ojos gave me a taste of what cave diving must be like. I never thought I would be interested in cave diving but now
I am.
Dos Ojos was a religious experience. If you travel to PDC or Cozumel and skip the cenotes you are missing some of the best diving in the area. The IMAX folks were just at Dos Ojos recently
filming for an upcoming movie. The caverns are wonderfully beautiful and peaceful. We averaged about 45 minute bottom times using the "rule of thirds".
The second day of diving with Sealife were afternoon ocean dives. I arrived at the dive shop (5 minute taxi from Iberostar) and was shocked to find that I was the only diver that afternoon!!
I thought they would cancel the dives. Instead Benjamin, the Argentinian dive master, and I headed out. We visited two shallow reef sites -- Mokche and Chunzubul -- both in about 30 feet of water. The visibility was less than Cozumel because of the recent rough weather. The first thing I noticed was that the coral life was not as good as Cozumel but the marine life was
better! I saw large schools of fish, rays, turtles, and eels. Benjamin let me dive off my air and computer. I finally got good bottom times (for me) -- 65 minutes on the first dive and 75 minutes on the second. I felt like I actually did three dives this day instead of one. Bottom time is priceless.
I returned to Sealife a third day to dive the Mama Vina and Jardines. Mama Vina is a 100+ft yacht sunk in about 90feet of water. It is about the only wreck site in the area. We had
almost 12 divers along for this trip. Sealife provided three dive masters so we actually dove with three smaller groups. I felt a little strange because I was the only American on the boat.
I noticed that Sealife caters to a very international crowd. It is probably due to the fact that they have mexican, German, Argentinean, and Italian dive masters.
We penetrated the wreck at the stern and traveled through the ship, emerging in the pilot house. I got my first taste of fire coral on my hands. Yikes! Also I saw why entanglement can become an issue -- even on so-called diver friendly wreck sites.
The last dive of the week was at Jardines -- a shallow reef at about 30feet. I decided to take this dive slow so that I could closely study the coral life. I am really interested in the
little things. I love to see the small coral polyps and the small sea life. Well, I managed to lose my group of German buddies and had to hook up with another group. This turned out to be
okay because the other group was going slower. I found out how easily you can lose a group if you stop to take a look at something for even a minute. Everyone has to dive the same plan.
What an amazing week of diving. I strongly recommend Sealife (www.sealifedivers.com) for diving PDC or the Cenotes. I will not hesitate to use them again when I travel to PDC in the future. I wish I had spent the entire week with them.
During my week of diving I kept notes on some of the little "lessons" that I learned. Here is what I "think I now know":
1) Nobody uses a snorkel anymore. I used a snorkel on the first dive and ditched it for the rest of the diving.
2) My dive equipment was much better quality than the equipment used by any of the dive masters. Better equipment has nothing to do with being a better diver.
3) Many Americans are ignorant about foreign cultures. It seems like everyone outside the US can speak English.
4) Nobody was using or had even heard of DIR. After reading the internet forums (mostly scubaboard.com) for the past couple months I figured I would travel to Mexico and be left behind because everyone would be using DIR. Completely the opposite. Even the hard core cave divers I talked to had never heard
of it. I wonderer how this will change in the future.
5) Bottom time is inversely proportional to the number of people on the boat.
6) The cenotes are some of the best dives in Mexico.
7) None of the dive shops asked for payment up front. They all let me settle the bill after a couple days of diving with them. I found this strange yet very cool. Try this while golfing.
8) I will dive with beautiful German dive masters anytime!!!
9) I started out the week wearing 11 lbs and ended the week with 8 lbs. Another couple weeks and I would have been wearing little or no weight. It is all about the breathing.
10) The boat operators cringe when they see weight integrated BCs. I was one of the few divers with integrated weights. I love doing those back rolls! Adds a bit of excitement to the entry.
Thanks for listening. Dive safe!
--Jason
Playa del Carmen provides access to a variety of fantastic dive destinations. It is a growing resort area located just south from Cancun, directly across from Cozumel on the Mexican mainland.
I traveled to Playa del Carmen (PDC) with a group of ten people. Everyone in the group was a non-diver except for a friend who was doing his open water certification dives. We stayed at a wonderful all-inclusive resort in PDC called Iberostar. I have stayed many resorts all across Mexico over the past decade. Iberostar offered the best service and food of any Mexican resort I have stayed at. I highly recommend this resort -- especially for
families and non-divers.
I am a novice diver with less than 50 dives. I have experienced both ocean and fresh water lake diving. Before the trip my last dives were 8 months ago in Minnesota lakes. My last ocean dives were over two years ago. I had never dived more than 5 times in one week. This was all about to change.
My trip report is probably of most interest to recreational divers visiting the "Mayan Riviera" region.
I scheduled half of my dives before the trip via the internet. I knew I wanted to dive in both Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. I decided to use two different dive operators. After the first three days of diving I would just "play it by ear".
The first two days of diving were with Scuba Shack on Cozumel. I had never heard of scuba Shack before but they were recommended by my buddy's instructor. According to their website they provided small, fast boats (6-packs) and were "diver's choice" -- meaning that they would take you to the locations you (or the group that day) wanted to dive.
We arrived in PDC on a Saturday and our first dives were scheduled for 8:30am the next day. Note, that Saturday night Mexico was going through a time change and we had to move our clocks ahead one hour. That presented some interesting challenges. More on that in a minute.
Since we were staying in PDC and diving in Cozumel we had to take the ferry back-and-forth each day. The new ferry between PDC and Cozumel is pretty nice. The average trip time was around 35-40 minutes (depending on the winds). The big challenge we had the first day is that our dives were scheduled for 8:30 and there was no 7am ferry scheduled. So, we had to take the 6am ferry (yuck) to be in Cozumel on time. We arrived on Coz and headed to a pancake place just four blocks south of the ferry pier for breakfast. It was wonderful watching the sunrise and seeing all the dive boat operators loading fresh air tanks. I said to myself, "wow I'm really here".
Around 8 am we walked down to Scuba Shack's downtown office. They told us that someone would be there to greet us and drive us to their boat. Well, 8:30 came and went. Then 9am. We walked down to one of the other dive shops and asked them if they knew what was going on with Scuba Shack. The guy at the dive shop mentioned the time change. He called down to Scuba Shack's other office for us. After he wasn't able to reach anyone he recommended that we take a cab to their office.
We jumped in a cab and drove south to their dive shop. It was located right next to the Fury shop and Aquaworld -- fairly close to where the cruise ships dock. There was one fellow in the shop. He greeted us warmly and listened to our story with concern. He jumped on the telephone and made a series of phone calls.
It turns out that the boat captain and dive master forgot to change their clocks. They were running over an hour late (that is one hour + mexican time, which can be up to another hour).
IF YOU DIVE IN MEXICO AFTER A TIME CHANGE YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. We finally got in the boat around 10am. That 6am ferry ride was not looking too smart now. Fortunately we were able to schedule our dives for the next day at 9:30am so we could take the 8am ferry to Coz.
I had 6 divers on the boat my first day of dives. Juan was our very friendly divemaster. He immediately put my concerns at ease. Our first dive was Columbia Pinnacles, a 85 foot dive through a maze of beautiful coral heads and swim-throughs. We started at 40feet and slowly made our way down the bank to around 85ft. This was nice because it gave me a chance to get comfortable with my gear and buoyancy.
I should note that this was the first time I brought all my own gear on a dive trip. I bought new regs (apex) and fins (quattros) just for this trip. Both performed admirably.
What a dive! I could not believe the number and size of corals here. The sponges and gorgonians were absolutely enormous. I also had never done swim-throughs that were this long. This was a taste of what was to come.
The second dive was at Paradise Reef. Once again the marine life and coral life looked great. It only took me one dive to get comfortable again. I think that having my own equipment this time made a huge difference in comfort level.
During the second day of diving we made three dives -- two boat dives in the morning and one shore dive in the afternoon. The boat dives consisted of small groups (4 divers) and Jorge, the DM. We visited Santa Rosa and Las Palmas. Both were fantastic wall dives -- great visibility, big lobsters, eels, jellyfish, and sea horses.
One note about the thimble jellyfish. I was reading all of these forum messages about these pests and the dangers associated with them. I was a little concerned about encountering them.
Well, we saw thimbles on all the Cozumel dives. These are absolutely nothing to be concerned about. If I got stung by them I sure didn't feel anything. Maybe it was the adrenalin rush.
Our final dive at Coz was a shore dive off of the pier at Scuba Shack. This was actually not a bad dive. We swam around several coral heads and encountered part of a sunken plane closer to the cruise ship pier. My buddy, a newly certified diver, was especially excited about the plane "wreck".
I think the staff at Scuba Shack were friendly and capable. The DM's were above average. Our first day was a bit troubling. But the dives made up for that. Would I dive with Scuba Shack
again? Sure. Will I dive with them again next time? Probably not. I would like to try out some other operators on Coz for comparison. Small boats and capable dive masters make ALL the
difference. I think Scuba Shack caters more to the novice "follow the leader"-type divers. Not a problem since I am one of them.
The next three days of diving were at Sealife Divers on the mainland. Sealife is located on the north side of Playa del Carmen right next to the Playa Tucan resort on Mamitas beach.
Sealife is a GREAT dive operator -- fast boats, on time, very friendly staff, beautiful German dive masters. This is the total package. I was warmly greeted from day one. Almost everyone
in the shop knew, and remembered, my name after the first day of diving.
My first day of dives were at the Dos Ojos cenote with Astrid, one of their German dive masters. Dos Ojos was a freshwater cavern located about an hour from PDC. Astrid was quick to point out
that this was cavern diving, not cave diving. Big difference. But, Dos Ojos gave me a taste of what cave diving must be like. I never thought I would be interested in cave diving but now
I am.
Dos Ojos was a religious experience. If you travel to PDC or Cozumel and skip the cenotes you are missing some of the best diving in the area. The IMAX folks were just at Dos Ojos recently
filming for an upcoming movie. The caverns are wonderfully beautiful and peaceful. We averaged about 45 minute bottom times using the "rule of thirds".
The second day of diving with Sealife were afternoon ocean dives. I arrived at the dive shop (5 minute taxi from Iberostar) and was shocked to find that I was the only diver that afternoon!!
I thought they would cancel the dives. Instead Benjamin, the Argentinian dive master, and I headed out. We visited two shallow reef sites -- Mokche and Chunzubul -- both in about 30 feet of water. The visibility was less than Cozumel because of the recent rough weather. The first thing I noticed was that the coral life was not as good as Cozumel but the marine life was
better! I saw large schools of fish, rays, turtles, and eels. Benjamin let me dive off my air and computer. I finally got good bottom times (for me) -- 65 minutes on the first dive and 75 minutes on the second. I felt like I actually did three dives this day instead of one. Bottom time is priceless.
I returned to Sealife a third day to dive the Mama Vina and Jardines. Mama Vina is a 100+ft yacht sunk in about 90feet of water. It is about the only wreck site in the area. We had
almost 12 divers along for this trip. Sealife provided three dive masters so we actually dove with three smaller groups. I felt a little strange because I was the only American on the boat.
I noticed that Sealife caters to a very international crowd. It is probably due to the fact that they have mexican, German, Argentinean, and Italian dive masters.
We penetrated the wreck at the stern and traveled through the ship, emerging in the pilot house. I got my first taste of fire coral on my hands. Yikes! Also I saw why entanglement can become an issue -- even on so-called diver friendly wreck sites.
The last dive of the week was at Jardines -- a shallow reef at about 30feet. I decided to take this dive slow so that I could closely study the coral life. I am really interested in the
little things. I love to see the small coral polyps and the small sea life. Well, I managed to lose my group of German buddies and had to hook up with another group. This turned out to be
okay because the other group was going slower. I found out how easily you can lose a group if you stop to take a look at something for even a minute. Everyone has to dive the same plan.
What an amazing week of diving. I strongly recommend Sealife (www.sealifedivers.com) for diving PDC or the Cenotes. I will not hesitate to use them again when I travel to PDC in the future. I wish I had spent the entire week with them.
During my week of diving I kept notes on some of the little "lessons" that I learned. Here is what I "think I now know":
1) Nobody uses a snorkel anymore. I used a snorkel on the first dive and ditched it for the rest of the diving.
2) My dive equipment was much better quality than the equipment used by any of the dive masters. Better equipment has nothing to do with being a better diver.
3) Many Americans are ignorant about foreign cultures. It seems like everyone outside the US can speak English.
4) Nobody was using or had even heard of DIR. After reading the internet forums (mostly scubaboard.com) for the past couple months I figured I would travel to Mexico and be left behind because everyone would be using DIR. Completely the opposite. Even the hard core cave divers I talked to had never heard
of it. I wonderer how this will change in the future.
5) Bottom time is inversely proportional to the number of people on the boat.
6) The cenotes are some of the best dives in Mexico.
7) None of the dive shops asked for payment up front. They all let me settle the bill after a couple days of diving with them. I found this strange yet very cool. Try this while golfing.
8) I will dive with beautiful German dive masters anytime!!!
9) I started out the week wearing 11 lbs and ended the week with 8 lbs. Another couple weeks and I would have been wearing little or no weight. It is all about the breathing.
10) The boat operators cringe when they see weight integrated BCs. I was one of the few divers with integrated weights. I love doing those back rolls! Adds a bit of excitement to the entry.
Thanks for listening. Dive safe!
--Jason
