Mexico - Riviera Maya
Iguana
June 2017
We flew out of Gatwick airport for this one, a bit of a haul down from Lincolnshire the day before, but with an overnight at Best Western with parking for the holiday duration, it wasn't too bad. The Best Western hotel was not 4 star but it was clean and comfortable and the shuttle service provided was ok. We booked an all inclusive week in a Premier Room at the Sensimar Seaside Suites. I also booked 2 days (4 dives) with Blue Experience Dive Centre and 2 days (4 dives) with Bahia divers which is more or less next door to the hotel.
We arrived at the Sensimar Seaside Suites on Thursday 8th June around 15:30. By the time we'd been inducted and got to our room it was 16:30, time for a shower and change of clothes. Free wi-fi at the hotel so sent emails out to the two dive centres I booked with to let them know I was here. It was very hot and humid, a thunderstorm was raging as we went out to find food and a bar. Quite a light show! Wondered about the diving the next day but the email came back from Bahia saying pickup at 09:00.
Pelicano Wreck
Friday 9th June 2017
Bahia Divers picked me up and we went to their dive centre which was just 5 mins down the road. The dive boat was moored in the sea off a sandy beach and we waded out to it with our kit on, then shrugged it off and they pulled it aboard. Then an unglamourous clamber over the side to get in and we were on our way to Pelicano Wreck, a 70 foot fishing vessel, for our first dive. A nice little wreck with the bottom at about 34 mtrs with vis about 15mtrs. No penetration allowed but it wasn't that big anyway so quite happy to explore the outside. Been there around 30 years and so was starting to get colonised quite nicely with the usual coral and sea life. A lone Barracuda cruised by to see what the disturbance was. Stayed about 5 mins on the wreck before heading off landward towards some gullies and shallower water. A large green turtle resting on the bottom amongst its mid-morning snack wasn't worried by our presence at all. Suddenly the dive guide clanged his clanger and pointed just as a large Stingray disappeared into the gloom.
All too soon it was over and time to return to the dive boat, the guide shot up an SMB and we did a safety stop at 5 mtrs. Realised I was just slightly underweighted at this point and had difficulty holding the stop. An extra 2kilo would be needed for the next dive.
After a return to shore for tanks and toilet, the next dive was Cuevitas on the hunt for the elusive Tarpon. We never did find them but it was a nice chill dive to max 15.5 mtrs for 50 mins. Lots of puffer fish, Parrot fish, Lion fish, etc and a nice sandy bottom with occasional reefs rising from the seabed. Enjoyable dive even though we didn't see the Tarpon.
Monday 12th June 2017
I had booked with Bahia Divers for the 9th and 10th June but I awoke in the night to the sound of a huge thunderstorm right overhead. I thought a bomb had gone off, it was that loud. Rain like stair rods poured from the sky and the humidity was off the scale. More thoughts about the days diving and wether it would be doable crossed my mind.
Sure enough, the truck from the dive centre turned up and the guy told me it was cancelled because of the wind and lumpy sea. Rearranged the dive for Monday. The rain continued for most of the day, at times monsoon like.
On Monday the weather was fine but windy and the authorities wouldn't allow us out on the Akumal, so we did 2 dives at Chicken Ha Cenote instead. It had a nice easy entry point down some concrete steps, the cavern system was, for the most paty, large and cavernous with large boulders strewn over the bottom. No Stalactites to mention, and the odd fish, but mosstly a sterile cave system apart from hanging roots and lichen from the rainforest above. A seawater/freshwater halocline which sent your vision blurry and a spiral Conche shell fossil were the highlights of the otherwise disappointing Cenote dives.
Spiral Conche Shell Fossil
Dos Ojos Bat Cave
Tuesday 13th June 2017
Blue Experience picked me up at 08:30 and we went to their dive centre which was just 10 mins down the road. For our 2 dives today we went to Dos Ojos Cenote, a shallower Cenote than Chicken Ha but much more enjoyable. Once underwater the dive was more or less at the same level throughout and there were lots of Stalactites and interesting rock formations, the passages not quite so wide in places. There were good entry and exit points and many snorkelers took advantage of the large open water areas and abundant fish life to be seen.
On the second dive, taking a different route, we came to and surfaced at the 'Bat Cave' where Fruit Bats could be seen and clearly heard. There were lots of half eaten fruits from the forest above, underwater on the floor of the cave where the bats were not able to retrieve them.
Wednesday 14th June 2017
Out with Blue Experience Divers again but on the Akumal. Two dives from a boat, Grouper Canyon and Yal Ku Canal. The usual wade out with gear, pass it aboard and clamber over the side, then back into shore after the first dive for new tanks and toilet, which seems standard here. Grouper Canyon was a finger reef, i.e. a series of fingers of reef with gullies between, some of which are large enough to swim into, whilst Yal Ku Canal was a series of smallish individual reefs spread out over a sandy bottom. Many nice species of fish seen on this dive, Barracuda, Pufferfish, Queen Angelfish, Lobster, Trumpetfish, Blue and Yellow Fusiliers, Morey Eel and a lovely nudibranch called a Christmas Tree Worm which spreads the branches of its tree to trap tiny prey and then, in a flash, retracts and pulls them in.
A couple of nice chill shallow dives of around 60 minutes each and the last dives of the holiday. Going home tomorrow (sad face).
