got4boyz
Contributor
What a great trip we had!
We left Thursday, March 1. It started out a little frustrating because our plane was delayed for over an hour. I was afraid we weren't going to make our afternoon dive which was critical since I wanted to practice my bouyancy before diving the cenotes on Friday. (I hadn't been diving in two years.)
Luckily things went smoothly once we landed in Cancun. We rented a car at the airport and drove to Paamul which is just south of Playa del Carmen. My husband's dive instructor now owns a dive shop there so for old times sake we decided to do an afternoon dive with him to freshen up on our diving skills.
The seas were really rough that day so I had a blast as we rode out to the sight! The diving was so so, but I really didn't care since I just wanted to practice all my skills. My mask kept fogging despite using the ani-defogger so that was really frustrating.
I saw a new fish towards the end of a dive (a cowfish) and was trying to get a good picture of him, and then when I did my husband and I turned around and couldn't find the rest of the group! We swam quickly with the current but couldn't find them. We finally decided to go up without them since we only had about 500 air left but neither one of us had a depth gauge on our rented equipment so we just had to guess at a safety stop! When we came up the rest of the crew was on the boat already. No wonder we couldn't find them!!! Got really seasick on the way back in!
(We always get seasick, but only after diving, so the dives in Cozumel we took Dramamine for and felt wonderful afterwards!)
Spent the night in Tulum along the beach at Cabanas Tulum. OK place, with salt in the showers just like the last place we stayed in Tulum! LOL Electricity goes off from 10 PM to 7 AM also, so no fan, got a little warm!
Friday we went cenote diving with Dos Ojos Dive Center http://www.hiddenworlds.com.mx/ just north of Tulum. We met Steve there whom we met on this board and he came diving with us. We chose Dos Ojos Dive Center because they had the best prices that I could find. Later we found out that they are the ones who did the new IMAX Cenote movie. Our guide (I can't remember his name now) was the star of it. We did two dives there the first in Cenote Dos Ojos and the second in Cenote Bat Cave. These are called cavern dives and anyone with an open water certificate can dive these.
On the first dive (Dos Ojos) my goggles still kept fogging up even though I used someone else's defogger liquid. But it was still a fun, interesting dive. I borrowed Steve's extra set of goggles on the second dive and I could see! Yeah, thanks Steve!!! This dive (Bat Caves) was even more beautiful than the first. (Look out for the crocodile eating Barbie if you do this dive! LOL)
I really enjoyed these dives, they were definitely a fun, unique experience (don't go if you are claustrophobic) but I wouldn't care to do them again for awhile. My husband on the other hand thought they were the BEST!!! If you are interested in others opinions go to: http://www.xaac.com/hiddenworldsboard/
Friday afternoon we drove to Ticul in Yucatan state and spent Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday exploring Mayan ruins: Uxmul, Sayil, Kabah, Labnah, Xlapak and Chichen Itza and the caves of Lul-Tun. I won't going into any detail here since this is a diving forum, I'll just say they were wonderful!!! If you'd like more info. you can PM or email me.
Monday afternoon we arrived in Cozumel, but the weather was so bad we couldn't do our planned night dive. Not to worry, we made it up on Tuesday!
Tuesday was an incredible dive day. (I bought new goggles in Cozumel so I could see!) Our first dive was at the Santa Rosa Wall. We dive with an independent divermaster and on this day we were the only two diving with us so he took us through all these great tunnels (I'm not sure what you call them). The scenery was so breathtaking, the fish beautiful and the tunnel swimming a blast, I didn't want to come back up!
My husband always wanted to do a wreck dive so our second dive we went to the navy ship they sunk at Chankanab. That was fun too, since I've never taken a tour of ship while diving before. It was fun not having to use ladders to go up and down! LOL Again, my husband enjoyed this dive much more than I did, but it was still fun.
That evening we did our first night dive ever. What a blast!!! Our divemaster wanted to go lobster hunting so what the heck. We almost immediately found 3 good-size lobsters, two of which he caught. In the course of the dive he also caught 3 large crabs.
This dive was so cool. We saw our first stingrays, a school of baby squid (about 2 inches long), 3 octopus, and one very large sea turtle hiding under a rock overhang. These were all firsts for us, so VERY exciting!
The dive master caught one of the octopus (I don't know what kind it was; light colored, head about the size of a man's closed fist, tentacle maybe 18 in. long) and handed it to me. It was hard to hold on to. All slimy and melts through your fingers! It felt so strange when its suckers attached to your arm!!! I was wondering if we really should be grabbing him. Poor little guy!
Anyway, it was one incredible dive. In fact the whole day was so incredibly awesome!!!
On Wednesday we went with the same dive master and one other couple. They didn't tell us where they were taking us. We headed north this time. I assumed we were going to do another drift dive. It started out that way, but then the divemaster had us grab on to one of those large open bowls (I don't know what any of this stuff is down there!) The current was really strong (the strongest I've ever been in). Anyway, he pointed and we looked and here came four eagle rays. Oh my, what an incredibly beautiful sight. They are so graceful, I couldn't believe it. After they went past us the dive master took me by the hand and we started swimming up current following alongside of them. (They were probably 20 - 30 feet away.) It was sooooo incredible!
Back on board we docked near a nice beach. Our dive master had made us some fish soup (wahoo? can't remember the name of the fish) and we also ate the lobster and crabs we caught the night before! Delicious!!!
Our second dive we went back out to watch the eagle rays. The current was so strong and I was having such a hard time hanging on that I finally just straddled one of those bowl things and let the current push me against it, so I would stay put! LOL
The eagles were still there and my divemaster swam out past them, circled in front of them so that they came swimming right past us (10 - 15 feet). Unreal!!!
So, this was the most incredible trip of my life. Between the diving, the ruins and the food, it's going to be hard to beat!
Thanks to all who have giving me help and suggestions. I LOVE THIS PLACE!
PS: There was realy bummer about this dive. My camera kept acting up on me so I didn't get many pictures! ;-0
We left Thursday, March 1. It started out a little frustrating because our plane was delayed for over an hour. I was afraid we weren't going to make our afternoon dive which was critical since I wanted to practice my bouyancy before diving the cenotes on Friday. (I hadn't been diving in two years.)
Luckily things went smoothly once we landed in Cancun. We rented a car at the airport and drove to Paamul which is just south of Playa del Carmen. My husband's dive instructor now owns a dive shop there so for old times sake we decided to do an afternoon dive with him to freshen up on our diving skills.
The seas were really rough that day so I had a blast as we rode out to the sight! The diving was so so, but I really didn't care since I just wanted to practice all my skills. My mask kept fogging despite using the ani-defogger so that was really frustrating.
I saw a new fish towards the end of a dive (a cowfish) and was trying to get a good picture of him, and then when I did my husband and I turned around and couldn't find the rest of the group! We swam quickly with the current but couldn't find them. We finally decided to go up without them since we only had about 500 air left but neither one of us had a depth gauge on our rented equipment so we just had to guess at a safety stop! When we came up the rest of the crew was on the boat already. No wonder we couldn't find them!!! Got really seasick on the way back in!
(We always get seasick, but only after diving, so the dives in Cozumel we took Dramamine for and felt wonderful afterwards!)
Spent the night in Tulum along the beach at Cabanas Tulum. OK place, with salt in the showers just like the last place we stayed in Tulum! LOL Electricity goes off from 10 PM to 7 AM also, so no fan, got a little warm!
Friday we went cenote diving with Dos Ojos Dive Center http://www.hiddenworlds.com.mx/ just north of Tulum. We met Steve there whom we met on this board and he came diving with us. We chose Dos Ojos Dive Center because they had the best prices that I could find. Later we found out that they are the ones who did the new IMAX Cenote movie. Our guide (I can't remember his name now) was the star of it. We did two dives there the first in Cenote Dos Ojos and the second in Cenote Bat Cave. These are called cavern dives and anyone with an open water certificate can dive these.
On the first dive (Dos Ojos) my goggles still kept fogging up even though I used someone else's defogger liquid. But it was still a fun, interesting dive. I borrowed Steve's extra set of goggles on the second dive and I could see! Yeah, thanks Steve!!! This dive (Bat Caves) was even more beautiful than the first. (Look out for the crocodile eating Barbie if you do this dive! LOL)
I really enjoyed these dives, they were definitely a fun, unique experience (don't go if you are claustrophobic) but I wouldn't care to do them again for awhile. My husband on the other hand thought they were the BEST!!! If you are interested in others opinions go to: http://www.xaac.com/hiddenworldsboard/
Friday afternoon we drove to Ticul in Yucatan state and spent Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday exploring Mayan ruins: Uxmul, Sayil, Kabah, Labnah, Xlapak and Chichen Itza and the caves of Lul-Tun. I won't going into any detail here since this is a diving forum, I'll just say they were wonderful!!! If you'd like more info. you can PM or email me.
Monday afternoon we arrived in Cozumel, but the weather was so bad we couldn't do our planned night dive. Not to worry, we made it up on Tuesday!
Tuesday was an incredible dive day. (I bought new goggles in Cozumel so I could see!) Our first dive was at the Santa Rosa Wall. We dive with an independent divermaster and on this day we were the only two diving with us so he took us through all these great tunnels (I'm not sure what you call them). The scenery was so breathtaking, the fish beautiful and the tunnel swimming a blast, I didn't want to come back up!
My husband always wanted to do a wreck dive so our second dive we went to the navy ship they sunk at Chankanab. That was fun too, since I've never taken a tour of ship while diving before. It was fun not having to use ladders to go up and down! LOL Again, my husband enjoyed this dive much more than I did, but it was still fun.
That evening we did our first night dive ever. What a blast!!! Our divemaster wanted to go lobster hunting so what the heck. We almost immediately found 3 good-size lobsters, two of which he caught. In the course of the dive he also caught 3 large crabs.
This dive was so cool. We saw our first stingrays, a school of baby squid (about 2 inches long), 3 octopus, and one very large sea turtle hiding under a rock overhang. These were all firsts for us, so VERY exciting!
The dive master caught one of the octopus (I don't know what kind it was; light colored, head about the size of a man's closed fist, tentacle maybe 18 in. long) and handed it to me. It was hard to hold on to. All slimy and melts through your fingers! It felt so strange when its suckers attached to your arm!!! I was wondering if we really should be grabbing him. Poor little guy!
Anyway, it was one incredible dive. In fact the whole day was so incredibly awesome!!!
On Wednesday we went with the same dive master and one other couple. They didn't tell us where they were taking us. We headed north this time. I assumed we were going to do another drift dive. It started out that way, but then the divemaster had us grab on to one of those large open bowls (I don't know what any of this stuff is down there!) The current was really strong (the strongest I've ever been in). Anyway, he pointed and we looked and here came four eagle rays. Oh my, what an incredibly beautiful sight. They are so graceful, I couldn't believe it. After they went past us the dive master took me by the hand and we started swimming up current following alongside of them. (They were probably 20 - 30 feet away.) It was sooooo incredible!
Back on board we docked near a nice beach. Our dive master had made us some fish soup (wahoo? can't remember the name of the fish) and we also ate the lobster and crabs we caught the night before! Delicious!!!
Our second dive we went back out to watch the eagle rays. The current was so strong and I was having such a hard time hanging on that I finally just straddled one of those bowl things and let the current push me against it, so I would stay put! LOL
The eagles were still there and my divemaster swam out past them, circled in front of them so that they came swimming right past us (10 - 15 feet). Unreal!!!
So, this was the most incredible trip of my life. Between the diving, the ruins and the food, it's going to be hard to beat!
Thanks to all who have giving me help and suggestions. I LOVE THIS PLACE!
PS: There was realy bummer about this dive. My camera kept acting up on me so I didn't get many pictures! ;-0
