Beginner diver - Carribean/Mexico/Ctrl.Amer. preferred?

[KathyV]

Hi Scuba folks. I thought this might be a good forum to pose the following question; I'm a 57 yr old male looking for laid back/chill vacation (traveling solo, for 10-14 days) w/some random scuba diving thrown in amongst other activities. Looking for mid Jan/2018 trip...

This is very last minute and it may be too late, but Scubaboard is sponsoring a trip to Bonaire that leaves in a couple of weeks, see the link below. They may have other solo male divers looking to share a room. Or they may have some last minute cancellations and are looking to fill a spot - it might be worthwhile to enquire. Good luck!

ScubaBoard SURGE 2018 Bonaire Package Deal

 

[PatW]

For your kind of diver, you want shallow dives, you have that 60’ limit. For many places getting the advanced open water certification makes sense. It will give you more training and increase your depth limit.

You don’t have a buddy and insta buddies are a crap shoot. As suggested, if you go as part of a group, you can probably have a permanent buddy and possibly a roommate.

One of the best places I can think of for you to go is Little Cayman. On the north side, most of the time the dive site is in 20’ of water with a nearby wall. The visibility is generally excellent. The reefs are good. And it has some of the best reef life in the Caribbean.

 

[The Chairman]

For brand new divers or those needing a refresher: Go to Key Largo. Lots of shallow dives with SPECTACULAR diving, English Speaking instructors, No passport needed, lots to do with a short drive (Miami, Key Weird (er, West), The rest of the Keys The Everglades), Deep Sea Fishing, Back Country Fishing, Great restaurants and more, more, more.

 

[Mark IV]

At the risk of being repetetive, I'm going to echo the recommendations for Cozumel. The upsides are numerous:
It's about as close, or closer, than most other options.
It's about as economical, if not more so, than most other options.
It has other interesting stuff in the area to do/see, (unlike ultra-secluded locales, or live-aboards, which don't and can get kinda boring, fast).
It's pretty safe and gringo-freindly.
The entire waterfront and plaza area are a safe and cheap place to just walk around shopping, eating, bar-hopping, people watching, etc.
The quality of diving is very high, with enough sites to keep you entertained for well over a week+ of diving.
As mentioned above (I think that was this thread), a mainland cenote dive is VERY worth the effort. It'll be among the most amazing things you've ever seen.

 

[jontay]

Thank you SO much to everyone's response. Hey, I noticed that ddrich2 is all over this forum and taking time to do a lot of replies to folks so a special shout out to him for taking the time for his input...as well as all of you

So far the only thing I have done is I have booked a flight to Cancun and no real plans other than that. Trying to decide where to spend the first few nights and try to get some refresher dives in(?).
Right now, I am thinking maybe of starting at Puerto Morelos or Playa Del Carmen for a couple days and then maybe over to Cozumel. Cozumel seems to be coming highly recommended by many, but maybe with a tad bit more diving experience.

Hey Oldbear....I sent Brett Nelson a PM but no response back from him. He has a lot of really good review on his website but I noticed there was nothing since 2016. Anyone know if he is still around? The smaller, more personal service was sounding pretty good.

Still looking for cheap lodging as all I really want is a bed (safe). Thinking AirBnB might be a good way to go?

Won't be doing Hawaii....at least not yet....heart is set on the Mexico area for this round.

Please feel free to offer opinions if anyone wants to take the time.

Thanks for all of the great, informative responses. VERY much appreciated!!!

Jontay

 

[rongoodman]

If you're looking for lodging in Playa, check out Mom's Hotel. It's right next door to Protec and there are usually divers from all over staying there. It's an easy walk to restaurants and the ferry terminal. Not fancy, but cheap, clean, and safe.

 

[Mark IV]

.......Right now, I am thinking maybe of starting at Puerto Morelos or Playa Del Carmen for a couple days and then maybe over to Cozumel. Cozumel seems to be coming highly recommended by many, but maybe with a tad bit more diving experience.......

When diving Cozumel this time of year, you have to factor in the "nortes". ("norte" is spanish for "north", and it's the term for the big winter cold fronts, that are the exact same ones that are hitting the states at the same time).
When these fronts come in, they bring lots of wind, that churns up the water, often resulting in closed ports, and either no boat diving is allowed, or only larger boats can go out (which still sucks, for several reasons: The boat trip is cold,windy and turbulent, and all the dive operations frantically try to book the few large boats, which can result in different groups from different shops, all over-crammed onto one old, slow,boat that wasn't designed to be a dive boat, and isn't well suited for extra-large groups of divers. ).
And it isn't just the leading edge of these fronts that wrecks everything, it'll be the several days of wind that follows it.
Cozumel's western shore (where all the good diving takes place) is facing NW, so it takes the brunt of these storms, while Playa Del Carmen,etc. are on the lee side of the Yucatan land mass, and can often be much calmer, especially close to shore (where, unfortunately, there's pretty much nothing to see, but you could at least get in those refresher dives).
Most of Cancun's dive spots are out in the ocean off the north point, so they're still in the middle of it (but cattleboat operations like AquaWorld have big boats that aren't affected by the port being closed, and they'll drag 20 friggin' resort divers out there, and toss 'em in the water ! They don't give even a single a damn,LOL !!! ).
Anyway, the point is, closely check the weather, and even call the shop on Cozumel you plan to dive with (though if they don't have your money yet, they'll tell you everything's swell, come on over !!!) But, if you understand this weather pattern and it's effect, you can easily make you own predictions.
I haven't looked at the weather-sat lately, but I'd be willing to bet this nasty front we've been dealing with here in the US, is making life miserable for divers down in Cozumel right now, and will be for a little while.


edit: unless you're dodging bad weather, i wouldn't waste a nickel diving Playa or Morelos. If you're certified, you have plenty experience for diving Cozumel. Nervous,inexperienced divers are their bread and butter ! You'll be fine!

 

[jontay]

Cozumel's western shore (where all the good diving takes place) is facing NW, so it takes the brunt of these storms,

Hey Mark IV....what about east/southeast side of Cozumel?

 

[jontay]

edit: unless you're dodging bad weather, i wouldn't waste a nickel diving Playa or Morelos. If you're certified, you have plenty experience for diving Cozumel. Nervous,inexperienced divers are their bread and butter ! You'll be fine!

Certified......but very minimal experience and what little experience I had was in 2001 and it was just one open water in Lake Tahoe

 

[Mark IV]

The eastern side of the island is secluded, sandy beach and rock, and in most places stays very shallow, for a very long ways out. I mean, you can go several hundred yards out, and still only be in about 8 feet of water, and nothing to see. We used to go over there on occasion to finish certs when the weather was just too nasty on the western side, but that was out of necessity. You'd be better off diving somewhere on the mainland, versus the eastern shore.
And,again, your minimal experience level really isn't a big deal. Hell, even people that have a good bit of experience often can't dive their way out of a wet paper bag , running somehwere between totally clueless, to outright dangerous, LOL!
The divemasters/instructors there are used to running groups of divers that need a lot of help/supervision, it's a normal day for them. If you feel more comfortable doing a couple easy refresher dives, then by all means go for it, anything that increases your confidence and comfort level is a plus. I'm just saying that you should spend minimal time and money diving on the mainland, where reef life and water clarity are considerably worse than they are in Cozumel.
As long as the surface conditions from this big front aren't making it a nightmare to re-board the boat, you'll be fine. But, now that I think about it, you might should also make sure your first Cozumel dive isn't someplace like Columbia Deep, Punta Sur,etc. where the dive sites are much further out on the ocean, and the dive depth is noticably deeper than other wall dives, like the various Palancar reefs, Santa Rosa, San Fransisco wall, etc.
But if conditions are tough, they'll probably not want to go that far south, and will usually confirm the expereince level of the divers before going to more advanced sites.
Come to think of it, you can probably e-mail almost any operation down there, and ask them about current conditions. Of course, the conditions would like change by the time you got there, but this time of year, another pinche' norte' is surely right around the corner !!!!