Trip Report Puerto Morelos

[jwarrenod]

Spent 10 nights at our condo in PM (should have been 11 nights, but the crew/equipment issues delayed us by a day) and dove twice out of PM.

12/30 afternoon trip with Trippy Divers, first time with them. Nice people, nicer boat compared to others out of PM, a bit wider, and a bit more stable. Fish Market and Aquarium are the sites. 3-5' chop with some 8-10' rollers from time to time made for an "interesting" to say the least. Nothing the dive shop could have done and it certainly was safe to be out there. However, the most of the time land lubber did chum between dives!
Vis was good, strong current that we had to deal with a bit, but dives were still enjoyable. All in all a fun trip and I've recommended Trippy to friends who are renting our condo next week and will be diving.

12/31 morning trip with Wet Set. My son and I have dove with them before. Seems that there is a new owner of the shop who was on the boat with us teaching a few guys. Super nice guy from upstate NY, seems very involved in the shop. Typical PM dive boat, a bit more narrow that the one Trippy uses, but just fine.
Revisited Fish Market and then did 6 Toed Cat for the second dive. Fish Market was more enjoyable today, less current, maybe a bit more visibility. 6 Toed Cat was a nice reef with more "channels" to swim in, more reminiscent of KL but not as much vertical wall to swim, over and around.
Seas were close to flat, very enjoyable trip.

Side note, both days I dove in a 3mm shortie wetsuit. Water was 75-77F. Pics of my son and I before checking in and the final sunrise of 2022!

Probably won't dive when back in early Feb, mucho family will along. But hoping to do 2-3 trips in early March and son and I are planning on AOW cert when we're both back there in May over his birthday.

 

[rick00001967]

nice that you and your son can enjoy that together

 

[drrich2]

Interesting. I'm not familiar with Puerto Morelos. What drew you to that area? When you guys encountered current, did you do a drift dive or have to fight it a bit? Any idea whether current is commonly encountered on the diving there?

Any topside entertainments to be aware of? It might help others who consider it an option to have some idea what the merits vs. alternatives are.

 

[jwarrenod]

We've been spending Christmas in Mx since 2017 and our niece lives in PM. We did an AirBnB there twice and decided to look into the condo development that our niece is in sales for. Love the small town and price was very right so we bought our condo, development is Selva Escondida, they're adding on also with Selva II.

Puerto Morelos (or PM as most refer to it as) is a small town with two distinct sections, the port side along the water which is about 4 blocks deep and maybe 1.5 miles long with resorts only on the far N and S ends. Lots of fun restaurants and a long block of the main N/S street is closed in the evenings to allow for a more festive dining/bar scene. The portion that is about a mile W of shore is called Colonia and is where most of the population lives (90% of the locals about about 80% of the decent sized expat community). Several condo devs completed and more on being built. Many, many great local type restaurants in Colonia which is easy to get around in. Taxis are cheap and plentiful. PM is about a 20 min ride from the Cancun airport. Lately there's been some highway work along the stretch of 307 that runs up to Cancun so travel times can be a bit extended, but still a really short drive.

As for the diving, we worked into the current a bit at the start of each of the first day's dives and then drifted along, it was a planned line descent but someone else was on the body already so all 4 dives over 2 days were free descent drift dives. Current was dealt with, it just made some areas more work to get to on the first day. I've done 4 2 tank trips out of there and 6 2 tank trips out of Riviera Maya and that was the only day that we ran into sig current that altered our dive course. Not a huge sample size, but it's not been a recurring issue to deal with for me.

 

[BRT]

Interesting. I'm not familiar with Puerto Morelos. What drew you to that area? When you guys encountered current, did you do a drift dive or have to fight it a bit? Any idea whether current is commonly encountered on the diving there?

Any topside entertainments to be aware of? It might help others who consider it an option to have some idea what the merits vs. alternatives are.

We have been going to Puerto Morelos almost every year since 1997. Most Puerto Morelos diving is low current. There is a wreck that is popular that just sits in the sand at 90' and can have a lot of current. Beautiful easy to dive reefs at 30-70 feet and lots of schools of fish. There are places near Puerto Morelos for current diving but it is hard to get shops to go there. It is very different from Cozumel in that the current dives are not on a bottomless wall (for the most part) and when you go to those places your boat will probably be the only tourist boat around. If you get lost, there are not 100 other dive boats to pick you up. But oh do I love dropping into current at 100-130' and tearing through the canyons, large schools of big fish, enormous barrel sponges and such. A 15-20 minute joy ride and then you drift up through the water column while watching life go on below you. We found a place last year where the current would carry us along a bottom at 50-70' crossing ridges of coral 20' or so tall, one after another. We did the first dive, and when the DM asked where to go for the second dive we just started 50' or so from the original drop point and did it again.

 

[jonhall]

Glad you enjoyed your trip - thanks for sharing. PM has really grown since I was there in 2010. Nice to see a trip report with some details of the diving. I thought the diving was much better in PM compared to areas in Playa Del Carmen that I dove in 2016.

Any topside entertainments to be aware of?

PM is located between Cancun and PDC - not far from either one. Not sure of in town attractions, but like anyplace along the Riviera Maya, including Cozumel, there are many attractions nearby that one can get to either on their own or by tour company. Eco-parks (water parks), historical sites (Chichen Itza & Tulum to name a few), zip lining, hiking, beaches, snorkeling (or diving) cenotes or with whale sharks, golf, even a Cirque du Soleil show, and the list goes on. Pretty easy to find something to do.

 

[Lorenzoid]

PM is located between Cancun and PDC - not far from either one. Not sure of in town attractions, but like anyplace along the Riviera Maya, including Cozumel, there are many attractions nearby that one can get to either on their own or by tour company. Eco-parks (water parks), historical sites (Chichen Itza & Tulum to name a few), zip lining, hiking, beaches, snorkeling (or diving) cenotes or with whale sharks, golf, even a Cirque du Soleil show, and the list goes on. Pretty easy to find something to do.

I haven't been to PM, but every time my wife and I drive past it we say we wish we had time to stop and check it out. As I understand it, the attraction of PM is that there are no attractions--they say it retains at least slightly more of the feel of its fishing village roots than other places on the Riviera Maya (though from the sound of the OP's situation, condos are springing up there like anywhere else). I will check it out one day for sure.

 

[jwarrenod]

I haven't been to PM, but every time my wife and I drive past it we say we wish we had time to stop and check it out. As I understand it, the attraction of PM is that there are no attractions--they say it retains at least slightly more of the feel of its fishing village roots than other places on the Riviera Maya (though from the sound of the OP's situation, condos are springing up there like anywhere else). I will check it out one day for sure.

For now at least. Its growing quickly (we’re part of the “problem” as new property owners there). But for now its still a somewhat sleepy Mexican town. The people are very friendly and welcoming and helpful, the roads have lots of potholes, the city streets have the occasional dog loping across them, the whole package!

What I have heard will be the largest shopping center/mall in Latin America is going up pretty much 1/2 from the Cancun airport to PM. Things have changed greatly in the last 10 years according to the locals and long time expats, and the rate of change won’t be slowing down any time soon.

 

[BRT]

For now at least. Its growing quickly (we’re part of the “problem” as new property owners there). But for now its still a somewhat sleepy Mexican town. The people are very friendly and welcoming and helpful, the roads have lots of potholes, the city streets have the occasional dog loping across them, the whole package!

What I have heard will be the largest shopping center/mall in Latin America is going up pretty much 1/2 from the Cancun airport to PM. Things have changed greatly in the last 10 years according to the locals and long time expats, and the rate of change won’t be slowing down any time soon.

Not so many years ago the highway by Puerto Morelos was 2 lane and had big ropes on the pavement for speed bumps.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @jwarrenod

Thanks, I enjoyed your review, it brought back good memories.

My wife and I had a wedding to attend in Playa del Carmen in December of 2010. We stayed in Puerto Morelos and did 3 days of diving before the wedding. The operator we used, Dive in Puerto Morelos, appears to no longer be in business.

We did 7 dives in 3 days. The reef dives, Barco (sp?) Uno x2, My Reef x2, Sirenitas, and Puentes, were shallow, with a maximum depth of 40-61 feet. Aside from the usual reef fish, there were numerous Southern Rays and Moray Eels. In addition to Green, Spotted, and Goldentails, I saw my first Chain Moray at Puentes. The dive on the C-56, Juan Escutia, was quite good. The C-56 was purposely sunk as an artificial reef in 2000. This was a deeper dive at 89 feet. The highlight of this dive was many Eagle Rays circling the wreck for much of the dive. I don't remember hearing about the Bull Shark dive on our visit, though we were there in season.

Twelve years ago, Puerto Morelos was still pretty small and quiet. We enjoyed walking around, shopping for local crafts, and picking among the many small restaurants. It would be interesting to see it again today, I would imagine very significant development