homo maris
Contributor
Here is a quick trip report back from Tulum.
We had booked in advance reef and cenote diving with Abyss dive center and had confirmed by phone the day before by leaving a message. Yet we got stood up. We showed up at the dive shop and waited and waited ... nothing. The neighbours told us Abyss was "flaky", I guess we learned our lesson. With only half a day left we called Xibalba dive center who bailed us out for a great dive a Dos Ojos (saw the plastic aligator chewing the Barbie doll). Dos Ojos was super packed (about 30 people in the water) but our guide (Andy) was able to move us through side passages out of the way of the traffic.
We continued the next day with Xibalba diving Aktun Ha (Carwash) and Esqueleto (Temple of Doom). Aktun Ha is an extremely nice dive with spectacular lighting (specially if you turn toward the entrance) and Esquelto starts with a 3m jump into the hole (make sure the ladder is sturdy!) and continues through the halocline.
I also did Angelita and Sac Aktun (Grand Cenote) by myself. Angelita is a must-do-once dive through the hydrogene sulfide, it feels like dropping into the stilt. Other than that, it is pretty boring. Gran Cenote is very nice.
So if you dive with Abyss, make sure you don't get stood up as we did and if you want a great reliable dive shop go to Xibalba
JL
We had booked in advance reef and cenote diving with Abyss dive center and had confirmed by phone the day before by leaving a message. Yet we got stood up. We showed up at the dive shop and waited and waited ... nothing. The neighbours told us Abyss was "flaky", I guess we learned our lesson. With only half a day left we called Xibalba dive center who bailed us out for a great dive a Dos Ojos (saw the plastic aligator chewing the Barbie doll). Dos Ojos was super packed (about 30 people in the water) but our guide (Andy) was able to move us through side passages out of the way of the traffic.
We continued the next day with Xibalba diving Aktun Ha (Carwash) and Esqueleto (Temple of Doom). Aktun Ha is an extremely nice dive with spectacular lighting (specially if you turn toward the entrance) and Esquelto starts with a 3m jump into the hole (make sure the ladder is sturdy!) and continues through the halocline.
I also did Angelita and Sac Aktun (Grand Cenote) by myself. Angelita is a must-do-once dive through the hydrogene sulfide, it feels like dropping into the stilt. Other than that, it is pretty boring. Gran Cenote is very nice.
So if you dive with Abyss, make sure you don't get stood up as we did and if you want a great reliable dive shop go to Xibalba
JL
