Dove Xcalak recently?

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The drive down is fine. Be prepared to have the military search your car. There is a reten (roadblock) just befoe you reach Marhaual. Its at the road junction of the new road going to Ixcalak. The road from Limones to that reten is not in good shape and is being widden for the cruise boat idiots docking in Marhual. Take it easy and you should have no problem. Gas up your car at Carrillo Puerto (last gas station). Bring an ice chest and loat up on what ever snacks you favor. You may want to bring fixin for sandwithes since lunch is sometime hard to come by. Thomas at Tierra Maya is first rate. I saw the article that Doc V posted and it was a few years old. Thomas (the owner manager of Tierra Maya) sold the dive shop two or three years ago. Ixcalak is very laid back. Various B&B places in the area plus Costa de Cocos. Make your own observations once you are there but you will not go wrong with Tierra Maya.
 
Geek diver--heard good things about Maya Ha, too--though I must admit that a resort in the shape of a Maya pyramid (is it true?) is a little, er, tacky. However, I've heard their dive op is first-rate. Eagerly awaiting your report and seconding cmay's wishes for a safe and fun-filled vacation.

Augustus--Appreciate the info on the Limones to Majahual road conditions. We're coming down from Playa del Carmen and will get an early start so we don't have to race before the sun sets. Appreciate the snack tips. Also pleased to hear that the Tierra Maya is "first-rate". Laid-back is what we were looking for.
 
Well I'm back from Mexico and had a great time. We didn’t get to dive the Banks due to the weather (bummer, heavy sea's and wind). I made 7 dives (depths of 70'- 100' but there are lots of places to dive shallow or go deeper) on the inshore reef at/near Maya Ha. Inshore reef was great diving lot of life and color and is just off the beach (300') so not much of a boat ride. Lots of lobsters, crabs, turtle's and reef fish. Got to end my last dive with a pod of 7 spotted dolphins. Dive op is nice, they have a Projet 48' dive boat. Divemaster was very helpfull, safe and attentive but not to restrictive. I wasn't rushed in or out of the water and had small number of divers on the boat. I have my own eq but the rental reg's were Scubapro MK20's w/g250 regs (not what I would call typicle rental stuff). The drive down was very long (4 hrs)and the road construction made a rough ride. Maya Ha was very laid-back and had nice staff and had great food (there are no menus it's just what ever there fixing but all was great). The villas are nice, clean and well maintained. If you want to get away from it all and just dive this is the spot. No TV's, Radios, Clocks or phones and is right on the beach. When I get a bit more time I post a more detailed report.

Oh I forgot the restaurant/Bar is in the shape of a pyramid.

Geek
 
Diving with a pod of 7 spotted dolphins? Thats sounds wonderful. Sounds like a very good time overall.

How was the weather and the water temp while you were there? Looking forward to hearing more, Geek. Thanks.
 
Sundog,

Weather wasn't to bad just windy and a bit of rain. Surface temps were 75-80 with water temps 77-79. The dolphins were too cool and hung out for about 5 min. They were real fast and zipped in and out of site had a couple slow down and cruse by me around about 10-15 ' away.

Geek
 
I exchanged emails with Suzanne from XTC Aventuras dive shop. She cautioned me that the weather there in March can be "tempestuous." However, in the event that the sea is to rough for diving, she will often arrange to dive Cenote Azul near Lake Bacalar. Any experience diving at this site?
 
Sundog,
Take a look at http://www.mxtravel.com/xcalak.html for lots of info on travel and diving in the Xcalak area.

Tierra Maya is a good place to stay.

Suzanne was telling you the truth about weather conditions impacting diving there. If it's rough, you don't want to travel out to Chinchorro. In addition to the cenote, there is good local diving about 1/4 mile offshore.

I happen to have been in Xcalak at the same time as DocVickingo (met and talked to him on that trip) when he had his bad experience there and it was several years ago.
 
Part of the appeal of going to a place like Xcalak, Mexico is the fact that not many other folks are going to be there with you. It sits near the end of the world, seven miles from the Belize border on the Yucatan cost. There is no nightlife to speak of, the accomodations rather spare by Mayan Riviera standards and the diving not available at times based on the weather. However, I cannot remember a vacation that I enjoyed more in recent memory.

My wife and I just got back from 7 days in Xcalak. We flew into Cancun on Continental from Minneapolis via Houston. We had reserved a sedan with AC and "good tires" from Budget. We filled out the necessary paperwork and listened to the Budget salesperson's pitch for a breakfast at the Mayan Palace, some new resort monstrosity north of Playa. I smiled and nodded for a minute and kindly declined the offer to view the property even when an offer of "$100 dollars off your bill" was thrown in for good measure. If you have the time or more interest in new all-inclusives than I do, you might see this as a better deal than I did.

We spent the first couple of nights in Playa del Carmen. We stayed at the Hotel Lunata on Avenida 5, which we found out was the major thoroughfare for all the walking and partying traffic in town, right across from a TGIFriday's. Needless to say, it was noisy. To compound the noise issue, every morning we would awaken at 5 am to the sound of jackhammers ripping up the building next door. If you could get past the noise, the hotel was nicely appointed, with large open wood rafters and beautiful saltillo tile floors. Breakfast was served in a small palapa in the central courtyard. Price for a room with AC + tax-$80 US. We would look for a better bargain next time.

On Saturday we headed down good ole Hwy 307. The road was in much better condition than even I had hoped. We sped at 110 km/h all the way to Felipe Carillo Puerto before getting gas--currently the last stop for gas on the way to Xcalak although a new Pemex is going up in Majahual thirty miles north of Xcalak within a month or three. BTW--if stopping in Felipe Carillo, stop at the Pemex in the center of town, not the one on the northern edge. This way you will get a chance to stop at the large torteria on the side street north of the gas station for a delicious torta de pollo, or carne asada. Mixed with peppers and topped with a special sauce that will make you weep with pleasure, I will never miss this stop.

On to Xcalak. Continue from Felipe through Limones. Buy some sugar cane or pistachios from the nice Mayan girls standing on the topes grandes in the middle of the road--might as well. Turn east on the highway to Majahual. Continue down the road now under construction. Go to your happy place as you dodge car-sized potholes and construction vehicles and bounce over tope after tope. Say "Hola" to the officers at the military checkpoint. Open your trunk, let them see that you are carrying dive gear and not bales of marijuana and they will wave you through.

Continue down a lonely ribbon of tarmac crowded by jungle vegetation on both sides until you get to Xcalak. The dust swirls and the dogs race for cover as you drive down main street. Two grocery vendors, two restaurants and a bar. The aquamarine water is to your right as you drive north out of town to Hotel Tierra Maya, a six-room hotel that sits a stone's throw from the beach.

Tom and Yamira are wonderful hosts and they really seem to appreciate their guests who make more than average effort to reach their outpost. The rooms start at $75 a night. They all have balconies and small refrigerators for snacks. Breakfast is served every morning and dinner reservations can be made for any evening as long as they are placed by noon. We arrived after two weeks of very high winds. No fishing boats (or dive boats) could make it out of the small cut in the reef so no fresh fish was available on anyone's menu. By Monday though Tom had secured a big black grouper for dinner which was eagerly enjoyed by my wife and me and several dinner guests.

The diving--
XTC Diving is a very professional but laid-back dive op located just north of town, about half a mile from Tierra Maya and several other nearby resorts. They have a large 45-foot boat (Tzmin Ha) and a couple of pangas for shallower exits near the reef. I made seven dives while I was there, all on the local reef as I had no desire to make the hour and a half boat ride to Chinchorro this time. I wanted to get a few more dives under my weight belt and have a good time. Tina and Baldino, the divemasters I dove with were very attentive but not restrictive. They allowed me to dive my own profile with my computer.

Two outstanding sites: La Poza and Scott's Playground.

La Poza is a unique geological formation that still puzzles marine geologists. It is essentially a long box canyon bordered on one side by the coral reef and by a sand embankment on the other. It is perhaps half a mile long by several hundred yards wide. To enter La Poza you are brought by panga to the inside edge of the reef. The waves were high and the surge fairly strong so as soon as you roll overboard you descend to 15 feet and follow the divemaster through a small cut in the reef. From here you descend to the floor of the box canyon. We saw an ancient hawkbill turtle on as soon as we nosed over the edge. Tarpon school here and barely part as you swim through them. Two eagle rays swam within 20 feet of us and veered off to our left up the embankment as we passed.

Scott's Playground. Imagine a fairyland of thirty-foot coral mushrooms packed so close on the sandy bottom that sometimes their edges touch. Swimming through Scott's Playground is a wonderland of swimthroughs and nooks and crannies. Visibility on the day we were there was in the 80-100 ft range and you can see daylight above you in most cases so it is not intimidating but it is a good test for buoyancy control. Saw many lobsters, a few curious barracuda, and a few gobies poking their heads out of the sand floor. Really special place.

Other dives included tongue and groove coral formations, some 30-40 feet deep. I saw my first shark--an eight nurse shark (or "gato" cat shark as they are called here because of the catfish-like whiskers). It was no great white but it made my logbook partly because it turned around and swam through my legs when spooked by another too curious diver.

Xcalak is not for everyone but it is a pristine reef and if you like diving without seeing a hundred other pairs of fins in the water with you, this is the place.
 
Enjoyed your narrative. Do you know anything about Costa de Cocos? What about drinking water and roadside stands (x from Pemex)? How about car insurance....any suggestions? Thanks, Rufito
 
Costa de Cocos page is http://www.mexicoholiday.com/destinations/cocos-facts.html
Just down from Xcalak and the price includes breakfast. Very nice opertaion with private rooms scattered among the coconuts. As to driving if you are coming from Cancun your last Pemex is in Carrillo Puerto. After that you can find a few small tiendas selling gas by the liter. Its also available in Xcalak by the liter at one or two stores. Fill up when you pass through Carrillo. Insurnace is nice to have since if you get into an accident you likely will be held until you can prove you are able to pay damages. With insurance - in theroy - that is your get out of jail card.
 

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