North of Mezcalitos

[Nevis Diver]

Getting excited about the dive trip in less than two weeks....

A couple of questions for the folks that venture out (way out) during days with no dives.... :depressed:

From a satellite map I saw there appears to be a very nice and secluded beach area about 2.5 -3 miles walk north of Mezcalitos. It is a bit of a peninsula beach and appears to be an awesome place to walk to. This beach may not even be there any more after Wilma.

Does the road north from Mezcalitos still go that far?

Has anyone ever walked this trail/road north?

I am sure Christi will let me borrow her truck to do a little off road exploring !

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Nevis Diver,

You are absolutely correct, there are many remote and incredibly beautiful beaches (and intact Mayan Ruins as well) to the north of Mescalitos. We have been to all of them many times in our search for diving alternatives during our infamous winter storms, and during the calmer summer months.

Prior to Wilma it was possible (when the law would allow) to reach them with a SERIOUS 4wd vehicle (don't even think about the make believe jeeps you can rent). The most interesting and beautiful is Hanan Beach which is 6km north of Mescalitos. That is the one that shows up best in the satellite photos.

At Hanan you will find about 1 km of beautiful unspoiled beach guarded by a fringing reef system of amazing structure. Called micro atolls, they are mushroom shaped structures rising from about 30 feet to the surface and they cover almost all of Hanan with the exception of a few cuts through which a boat can pass. That makes the water at Hanan normally calm.

We found the snorkeling and diving there to be extraordinary and completely pristine. Amazingly, the huge storms of 2005 did not damage the sea fans and soft corals like on the west side, and there is a forest of elk horn coral which is nearly extinct in the rest of the Caribbean. Topping that off, we found the remains of a Spanish Galleon an (so far) 17 canons and 3 big anchors nearby. After lots of exploration we began making dive trips there (only by boat) in 2006 and so far we have made about 30-40 such excursions. Most all who have done so have been enchanted and surprised at how different it is from the west side, and a beauty all its own.

By most measures the beauty of this area should make Cozumel "One Island-Two Destinations".

But the bad news is that it is virtually impossible to drive there now. Wilma the hurricane absolutely destroyed what pitiful road there was and for the most part the police have not let anyone up there anyway. It is now open, in theory, to locals and the politics of the new island regime may allow visitors to venture forth but anything in a vehicle would be foolhardy.

We have a couple big ford 4x4 trucks that we use to push and pull our two boats off the beach at Chen Rio. With those boats we make dive excursions to the north when the wind and waves are favorable. But given the remoteness we have always wanted some way to provide support by land. Last July we made an exploratory trip up that road with one of our "monster trucks".

On the way up I more than once thought that we ought to turn around and give up but we did go on to endure a truly ugly ride--but with the certainty that we would never do it again! Between rutted jungle and thru giant boulder fields it took us 2 hours to make the 6km trip.

Turning around we made less than 1 km before our overworked transmission died. We then had to force march out just before dark-- to avoid being eaten alive by jungle insects. NO, please don't think about driving there. On the other hand there are several nice beaches closer to Mescalitos but none that are suitable for snorkeling or diving, and they all will be a serious hike.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS We had to hire a bulldozer to go in and retrieve our truck.

 

[Cozdreamer]

Not to high jack Nivis Divers thread, but Dave, that was an awesome account of the "other side". Nice response. I loved hearing that story.

 

[cicopo]

I enjoyed you message too. Very appealing dive site from the sounds of it. Thanks, Larry.

 

[Augustus]

This year the road up north was reopened but you HAD to have a good 4X4 to get up there and I doubt even a 4X4 would have been able to reach Hannan. Recently the ATV tours "discovered" the road was again opened and started to run tours. This was reported to the authorities who again put up a road block. According to the policeman who was manning this last Sunday locals can still attempt to drive up there but that could change. Regardless if you don't have a 4X4 you will get stuck. The road was bad before the 2005 storms and now its horrible. You can always walk though.

 

[sealskin98]

Excellent write-up Dave! I wanna do the Spanish Galleon next time I'm there.

Gee, when I visualize y'all walking away from the stuck truck it seems that I hear music:

Indiana Jones Theme Song

My bad.

 

[sharky60]

One of them beaches up there is the type where people lay around with nothing on but a smile...of course this is just hearsay, not from personal knowedge

Just heard of the Galleon this past summer myself, I think Aldora is the operator that I read will take you there if conditions are right.

 

[Mawg]

Dear Nevis Diver,

You are absolutely correct, there are many remote and incredibly beautiful beaches (and intact Mayan Ruins as well) to the north of Mescalitos. We have been to all of them many times in our search for diving alternatives during our infamous winter storms, and during the calmer summer months.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS We had to hire a bulldozer to go in and retrieve our truck.

A bulldozer. Damn! What a pain that must have been. I first made the dive on the Galleon in 1997 with Felipe Quinones. IIRC, depth was about 19 feet and we were just north of Punta Salazar. I counted only 9 cannon and no anchors. Gotta go back with you guys and look at the rest.We did find one silver coin dated 1726 and some charred wood with metal rigging attached. From research I discovered that a small Galleon burned and sank in a storm off the north coast of Cozumel in 1729. The La Fetis had left Cartagena and was headed for Spain. I think it likely that this is the ship but it would be great to one day find a bell. Felipe said he knew where the smaller " mounted cannons " that were affixed normally to the stern deck were and would show me the next time we went but we never got around to it. We didnt take the road on that trip. Felipe took his boat from the Caleta all the way around to Mezcalitos where we were waiting, came in about 300 yds off shore and we swam out to the boat.

For a few years after that, we'd rent dune buggies from Dan the Car Man and make the trek up there to Hanan.The road then was passable but still an arduous journey to say the least. It is truly a BEAUTIFUL natural harbor and beach. To me it is the most beautiful beach on Cozumel.Once, Simoni Rossini went with us and led us on a dive through and to the other side of the coral wall that defines the harbor. It is so unspoiled over there and the coral is the most beautiful I have ever seen. I would advise anyone reading this to call Dave and make the dive over there. It is a unique and incredible dive that you shouldn't miss. There is another beach a little ways south of Hanan that is also very nice as well though not as big and without the barrier reef. I miss that part of Cozumel and hope to experience it again soon.

Patrick

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Patrick,

Thanks for your input. That sheds some different light on the background of the wreck. We had surmised by the style of the canons that it came from the early 1700s but that was as far as we have researched it. It was very curious for us to find the wreck in 2006 as we had been over the same area (towing my partner Memo Mendoza like trolling for sharks) and seen nothing in 2004 and early 2005. Of course we had also been searching for wall dives using our hand held sonar. Unfortunately for wall diving enthusiasts it turned out that "the wall" on the eastside starts at 200 ft so recreational wall diving was out.

But as you know, the shallow 20-60 ft dives over there are among the most pristine in the world and we hope to do all we can to keep it that way.

In that effort we have taken the Marine Park director and others over to dive those sites and we are trying to get some sort of legal protection for at least the marine areas of the east side. As you may know, the tour company Wild Tours used to take atv and dune buggy groups out there for kayak and snorkel tours when the road was passable. That meant cruise ship weenies who have been seen walking on the micro atolls, and doing untold damage to the inshore reefs. So in a major way, the road being destroyed, and the police keeping people out may have helped preserve the place better than politics might have. But we have to make sure stuff like that can never happen again. We will be doing our best to focus attention on that when we can, but a better informed dive community could surely help.

As for the wreck suddenly appearing to us after hurricane Wilma, it must have been by wave action blowing away the sand that may have covered most of the wreck and anchors for centuries. Now we think that there must have been more than one wreck as just last week we found another site with a totally different style of anchor, and much larger canon balls. That may be true of other wrecks that surely must exist north of where we have focused so far, so we do plan on some more exploration dives. That is pretty easy for us now that we have two boats on the beach at Chen Rio and all we need is light wind or a "good" norte.

As you might know, the logistics of bringing a boat over from Caleta is pretty tough and in our opinion-- it is not safe to have only one boat out in such a remote area. If you want to see how we go about it, and some photos of the anchors that you missed you can find them on our web page Aldora Divers of Cozumel. If I knew how to attach a photo to this post I would have.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Mawg]

Dear Patrick,

Thanks for your input. That sheds some different light on the background of the wreck. We had surmised by the style of the canons that it came from the early 1700s but that was as far as we have researched it. It was very curious for us to find the wreck in 2006 as we had been over the same area (towing my partner Memo Mendoza like trolling for sharks) and seen nothing in 2004 and early 2005. Of course we had also been searching for wall dives using our hand held sonar. Unfortunately for wall diving enthusiasts it turned out that "the wall" on the eastside starts at 200 ft so recreational wall diving was out.

But as you know, the shallow 20-60 ft dives over there are among the most pristine in the world and we hope to do all we can to keep it that way.

In that effort we have taken the Marine Park director and others over to dive those sites and we are trying to get some sort of legal protection for at least the marine areas of the east side. As you may know, the tour company Wild Tours used to take atv and dune buggy groups out there for kayak and snorkel tours when the road was passable. That meant cruise ship weenies who have been seen walking on the micro atolls, and doing untold damage to the inshore reefs. So in a major way, the road being destroyed, and the police keeping people out may have helped preserve the place better than politics might have. But we have to make sure stuff like that can never happen again. We will be doing our best to focus attention on that when we can, but a better informed dive community could surely help.

As for the wreck suddenly appearing to us after hurricane Wilma, it must have been by wave action blowing away the sand that may have covered most of the wreck and anchors for centuries. Now we think that there must have been more than one wreck as just last week we found another site with a totally different style of anchor, and much larger canon balls. That may be true of other wrecks that surely must exist north of where we have focused so far, so we do plan on some more exploration dives. That is pretty easy for us now that we have two boats on the beach at Chen Rio and all we need is light wind or a "good" norte.

As you might know, the logistics of bringing a boat over from Caleta is pretty tough and in our opinion-- it is not safe to have only one boat out in such a remote area. If you want to see how we go about it, and some photos of the anchors that you missed you can find them on our web page Aldora Divers of Cozumel. If I knew how to attach a photo to this post I would have.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Dear Dave,

Here are some pics, I hope, from a trip we made in 2001.










There is some confusion as to when the La Fetis was lost. I also have an account of it sinking in 1760. But the coin that we found, a 4 reales, was in excellent shape and the date, 1726, was very clear. It looked like it had been minted yesterday.The cannons we saw were greatly encrusted and thus we could not retrieve any info from them. Were you able to get info from the previously covered cannons that you saw? I'd be VERY curious about that. As we dove down on the site, the first cannon I saw was embedded in a small coral head about 5 feet off of the sand. Felipe told me there were several wrecks over there that he was aware of. One was a 19th. century paddle wheeler a little further south. He was gonna take us there but as you probably know, he passed away. I have an underwater metal detector and am anxious to get back over there and do some more looking. I cant imagine what Wilma might have uncovered. Regarding the second wreck, were the cannonballs made of iron? We brought up one from the other site back in 1997 and it was definitely made of iron and virtually disintegrated within a couple of hours. The number of cannons being found tells me that these were merchant Galleons or " Naos ". Treasure carrying Galleons would have had closer to 60 cannons on board. I would dearly love to see this other site you have found and I assume that it is approximately the same distance from shore as the first site and around the same depth.

I was very disturbed by the vision of a " typical " over fed cruise weenie tromping all over those pristine reefs over there. That is a crime of no small dimension to me. I sincerely hope that something can be done to protect that side of the island.

Patrick