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Well this was my first trip as most of you know, I stayed at Scuba Club with my dive buddy, we had an incredible time.
I tool the advice of many here and we signed up to take our AOW while we were there, it turned out to be quite a deal financially.
We got there Friday evening just in time for the Mexican Beach party dinner and pinata, signed up for diving the next day, and settled into our room.
Sat morning, we signed up for AOW with Jose and then did our first boat dives. We did our first dive at Palancar Gardens, our divemaster was Rafael and we only had 1 other diver with us. No current on this dive, max depth was 92 feet, 45 mins bottom time. We did a lot of swim throughs on the reef and found eels, squirrelfish both pink and red, huge gorgonian fans, many blue tangs and butterflyfish of every color, the best was an anemone with purple tips.
The second dive was Paraiso Reef with max depth of 48 feet and 62 mins of bottom time. Many juvenile fish on this reef, puffer and file fish, several groupers, and a couple of huge hermit crabs, I didn't know they got that big.
Sat night we did our first shore dive, starting around twilight and diving into the darkness. Max depth was only 20 feet and bottom time of 57 mins cause I got a little chilly. We swam toward the lighthouse with our new buddy Kevin who had lost his diving buddy for the night and tagged along, of course the 2 men put me in charge of direction, the person who needs the navigation course. Anyway we swam south against the current towards the lighthouse, cleaner shrimp, yellow stingrays, a barracuda in the waning light as darkness approached, the temple in front of the resort next door was amusing to see, again many schools of juvenile fish, we drifted back and as Kevin pointed out the stairs Brian spotted an octopus poking his head out of the marker in front of the hotel.
Sun morning, 2 more boat dives, Columbia reef with max depth of 89 and 40 mins bottom time, I loved the way the edge of the wall just falls into the abyss, we found a very large green sea turtle hiding on the reef during this dive. During our SI the boat captain spotted a good sized eagle ray which with the clarity of the water you could see his spots from the boat.
The second dive was Tormentos Reef, and now I know what drift diving really is. Definitely had current on this dive, our max depth was 60 feet and bottom time of 61 minutes. Some very large lobster and I was greeted at the bottom by Mr. Barracuda, Kathy pointed behind me and I turned around, what a surprise.
Mon morning, and we started our AOW today. First dive was Palancar Caves, we were doing our required deep dive. Skills were opening a combination lock on land and at 100 feet, doing arithmetic and distinguishing colors. Our instructor Jose was with us, skills took a few minutes and then we gradually ascended to 60 feet through many swim throughs, max depth was 101 and bottom of 38 mins due to depth.
Second dive was at San Francisco Reef, we dove again with Jose and the other student taking AOW, we sort of talked him into it. It was a very nice drift dive, seahorses, spotted drum which we had been told disappeared after the hurricane, again lots of blue tangs on this dive.
2 more dives this day, twilight at Paso Del Cedral, we did our next required AOW, Navigation. 2 nurse sharks, a 6 ft green eel, green sea turtle and my first splendid toadfish. Max depth was 54 with bottom time of 51 minutes, I messed up the navigation, I was supposed to swim 1 min, 1 min, 1 min, 30 seconds on 90degree turns, and did 1, 1, 30, 30.
Our Night dive which was one of our elected AOW classes was at Paradise Reef. My first scorpionfish, white eel, lobster, cleaner shrimp hanging in sponge, and lots of little critters in the darkness, max 41feet and 54 minutes bottom time.
Tues morning, more boat dives. Our instructor Jose went along, though we dove with Rafael, first dive Devil's Throat. Max depth 127 feet, bottom time 43 minutes. This was a nice swim through, thou there was someone in front of me who kept stopping to gaze around, caused quite a bottleneck not to mention some tension due to being in an enclosed space with no chance of escape if something goes wrong When I got to the cathedral and turned to follow the group I heard a life flash before your eyes POP, realized I had forgotten to remove the disposable underwater camera from my BC pocket:11:
Second dive was Las Palmas Drop Off, max depth of 60 and bottom time of 50 mins. Saw my first jawfish, a turtle having the meal of his life with 2 large queen angelfish staying on both sides of him to catch the scraps. We did our next AOW on this dive, Bouyancy, how fun on a drift to just stabilized at 40feet and hold it there, flying like an airplane on the current.
Third dive of the day was our next AOW, the wreck of the Felipe Xicotencatl. How incredible. I loved this dive and found myself a fire worm on the deck. Many large fish, parrotfish, groupers, and snappers. The inside was like a fish hatchery with large schools of varying sizes, we did max of 71 feet and 41 minutes.
Weds morning, our last 2 boat dives. First was a repeat of Columbia reef and the second was at Bolones De Chankanaab where I finally saw an entire splendid toadfish with the yellow dorsal and all. The coral trees coming up from the bottom are taller than I am, I did settle next to one just to make sure.
We did another night dive in front of the hotel, just Brian and I with a max of 19 feet and 49 mins, I got cold again. Saw a trumpetfish finally, glasseye snapper, more shrimp, lots of small schools of fish, a scorpionfish sitting on a piece of broken pier, and a beautiful octopus right at the entrance who kept changing incredible hues of blue, purple, and green.
Thurs we did our last dive, a shore dive again, more spotted drum, barracuda, red snapper, I saw 2 sand divers, yellowstripe goatfish, trumpetfish again, filefish. Max was 20 feet but we stayed in for 69 mins and still had 1200psi, ran out of film though.
Thurs afternoon we rented a jeep and toured the island, saw San Gervasio, had the biggest Lobster for dinner at Lobster house, expensive but very good.
I can't tell you how much we enjoyed everyone we dove with and the service we got at Scuba Club. I'm already thinking about another trip.
Thank you everyone for all your tips before my trip. I felt so well informed when we got there. We flew into Cancun, but had no issues coming or going with the airport, ferry, or taxis.
San Gervasio was beautiful. I was surprised at how many people were staying just in the main area through the entrance and not going down the long paths. We explored every path and building we could. Since I had not seen it before I can only assume it is the same from before the hurricane. I do have a couple of photos. I guess I should load some to the computer.
though I have to say, those things are only rated to a max of what, 40-50 tops on some models? I'm suprised it stayed down that long.
Yea, we walked down the paths at the ruins as well. It was closing time and we were like the only ones there besides some French people. I'm sure if the ruins are still standing after all these years, then they are probably still the same!
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When I got to the cathedral and turned to follow the group I heard a life flash before your eyes POP, realized I had forgotten to remove the disposable underwater camera from my BC pocket:11:
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