budaman
Contributor
Just got back last night & all I can say is it went way too fast. Had an excellent time both above & below. Stayed at El Cid La Ceiba and dove with their inhouse op, Babieca. We opted to not do the all inclusive so we could eat at some of the in town restaurants. The hotel was nice & not crowded at all....even when the ships were at the Intl. Pier. They never even set up the buffet except for last Sunday. Everything was to order AI or not. The 1 Bedroom was huge with 2 balconies & 2 full baths plus a kitchen..although all we did there was fix 1 pot of coffee the last morning. The A/C in 1910 was one that hadn't been replaced yet, so at times it was kind of noisy, but it cooled fine. Bed was very comfortable also. Food was great at breakfast and OK to good for dinner. At there 2 nights...one in the room & once in the restaurant.All in all, quite a pleasant place to stay.
Babieca is a one fast boat operation...no frills, but Luis is a great DM. They also start a little latter in the morning, so there is no rushing to eat and all. Usually boarded the boat between 9 & 9:30 & got back around 12:30. 6 divers was the most we had aboard. We did two shore dives prior to doing any boat dives. First day of boat dives was at Cedral Wall, and the current was pretty stiff...felt like flying. Second dive was at Chankanaab Shallows. First time diving that site and was pleasantly surprised. Also, didn't see any lionfish at either site, but did see a couple of really large groupers that we hadn't seen the last few times diving in Coz. Glad to see them on the reefs again.
We skipped a day diving and ended up around Isla Mujeres so we could swim with the whale sharks. Set that up through the hotel, & were supposed to go to Holbox, but the operator was switched & we ended up at Isla.....actually went out of Puerto Sam. The time with the whale sharks was awesome, but the van ride to & from Playa del Carmen was a utter disappointment. The outfit that was contracted was totally unprofessional...got lost 4 times getting there & twice on the way back. Worst part was the two guys kept putting on very explicit rap music. We would ask them to turn it off, which they would, for about 5 minutes & then they would crank it back up. Very uncomfortable for the 3 women in the group. We did report it when we got back & were refunded the cost, but it still put a negative light on what should have been a great day.
Dove again the next day at Palancar Caves & Cedral Pass. Both had a lot of caverns & swim throughs. Currents came & went at both sites and both sites were very vibrant. The reefs are in great shape...better than last Feb. Amazing how fast they are returning. Marine life seemed to be on the increase also. We did see lionfish on both those dives.
We didn't dive as much this trip as we usually do, because we just wanted to relax a bit.....has been a really hectic 2 months & both of us need to just chill. We did visit some excellent restaurants. Ernesto's close to the hotel was better than we were expecting, Camilo's and El Capi were as good as promised,Kinta did not disappoint and Casa Mission on our last evening was the perfect ending.
Finally, we were able to check out a few properties. It is getting closer to decision time and we seemed to create more questions than solutions. Now we just need to decide if we want a place in town, or some acreage and build our own....decisions, decisions, decisions!
Oh well.....
The links below have some pics with embedded videos of the dives and a video of the whales sharks. Did all the video with the video setting of our Cannon SD870 & it came out good enough, I may never haul my video rig around again.
Mike
MobileMe Gallery
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Babieca is a one fast boat operation...no frills, but Luis is a great DM. They also start a little latter in the morning, so there is no rushing to eat and all. Usually boarded the boat between 9 & 9:30 & got back around 12:30. 6 divers was the most we had aboard. We did two shore dives prior to doing any boat dives. First day of boat dives was at Cedral Wall, and the current was pretty stiff...felt like flying. Second dive was at Chankanaab Shallows. First time diving that site and was pleasantly surprised. Also, didn't see any lionfish at either site, but did see a couple of really large groupers that we hadn't seen the last few times diving in Coz. Glad to see them on the reefs again.
We skipped a day diving and ended up around Isla Mujeres so we could swim with the whale sharks. Set that up through the hotel, & were supposed to go to Holbox, but the operator was switched & we ended up at Isla.....actually went out of Puerto Sam. The time with the whale sharks was awesome, but the van ride to & from Playa del Carmen was a utter disappointment. The outfit that was contracted was totally unprofessional...got lost 4 times getting there & twice on the way back. Worst part was the two guys kept putting on very explicit rap music. We would ask them to turn it off, which they would, for about 5 minutes & then they would crank it back up. Very uncomfortable for the 3 women in the group. We did report it when we got back & were refunded the cost, but it still put a negative light on what should have been a great day.
Dove again the next day at Palancar Caves & Cedral Pass. Both had a lot of caverns & swim throughs. Currents came & went at both sites and both sites were very vibrant. The reefs are in great shape...better than last Feb. Amazing how fast they are returning. Marine life seemed to be on the increase also. We did see lionfish on both those dives.
We didn't dive as much this trip as we usually do, because we just wanted to relax a bit.....has been a really hectic 2 months & both of us need to just chill. We did visit some excellent restaurants. Ernesto's close to the hotel was better than we were expecting, Camilo's and El Capi were as good as promised,Kinta did not disappoint and Casa Mission on our last evening was the perfect ending.
Finally, we were able to check out a few properties. It is getting closer to decision time and we seemed to create more questions than solutions. Now we just need to decide if we want a place in town, or some acreage and build our own....decisions, decisions, decisions!
Oh well.....
The links below have some pics with embedded videos of the dives and a video of the whales sharks. Did all the video with the video setting of our Cannon SD870 & it came out good enough, I may never haul my video rig around again.
Mike
MobileMe Gallery
MobileMe Gallery
