Whale Sharks with Yucatek Divers?

[trigfunctions]

Hi all - we are thinking about going diving with Yucatek Divers in Cozamel soon. They have a snorkeling excursion to a whale shark estuary.

Does anyone have any experience with Yucatek and/or the whale sharks? Is there a specific season for whale sharks? Are there any other operators with similar excursions?
Thanks, trig

 

[RV]

I think the season is ~ april may.. Other than that I've only used ScubaDo in CZM

 

[scubawife]

The whale sharks are in Holbox from June through September. It will be a long daytrip from Cozumel, but there are few shops that do it. I have not done the trip but anyone I've heard from who has always says it's an amazing experience.

If you ask about Yucatek on the Cozumel subforum you will probably get more responses. They were recommended to me for cavern and cave training. I haven't used them yet. They are supposed to be very good.

 

[Boatlawyer]

I just returned from Playa Del Carmen and an excursion to swim with whale sharks.
I planned the trip to Holbox (where the whale sharks are). Our resort in PDC was charging $230 for a whale shark swim. We traveled to Holbox on the bus ($15 e/w), stayed 2 nights as the Posada Mawimbi (60 ea night) had our tour ($80 ea.) and were back in PDC for an afternoon dive, which comes to $170 each with hotel included.

It will be a long boat trip and unless they take you all the way to Holbox, no guarantee of whale sharks.

If you have the time, I'd go to Holbox and stay a couple of nights.

 

[trigfunctions]

Thanks everyone for the info. Boatlawyer - how did you like your trip? How much time did you get to spend with the whale sharks and how was the experience?

 

[Boatlawyer]

As anyone who has snorkeled with whale sharks will tell you, the experience is unbelieveable.

Alex was our guide on the boat from the Mawimbi. Only six divers. "our" whale shark stayed with us for what seemed like hours.

If you are lucky, you can tuck in just behind the sharks head and catch his draft which makes it alot easier to keep up. The swim is good exercise in any event.

Definetely worth the trip. But as I said, I would go ahead and make my own way up to Holbox. And I definetely recommend the Mawimbi. Google them and you can reserve and pay online.

Because there were so few of us and the whale shark kept coming back, we each had several turns to swim at probably 15-20 minutes, limited only by our own exhaustion.

Be sure to take motion sickness meds if you have any inclination to seasickness, you will be bobbing around while the others take turns.