Joanna, that was exactly the sort of info I was looking for when I originally posted! But I made do with the internet, and we were pleased with the package we wound up with.
Hotel Vista Caribe was adequate, and probably typical of the local hotesl in its price range. The desk staff, generally very young men, spoke minimal English but as so often happens they would nod and say "Yes" if they didn't understand, resulting in some amusing (in retrospect) misunderstandings. An example: the last day we asked for a late, 1PM check-out for teh following afternoon and were assured there was no problem. SOmehow this was translated into a 1 AM wake up call! Not funny at 1AM but I can laugh now. Despite our advancing ages and cumbersome equipment, they were consistently surprised when we asked for help getting our bags to the 3rd floor suite (no elevator of course) and back down again. Thankfully the heavy bags have wheels and traction bars on the underside.
We were very pleased with Tanh-Ha Dive Center. Our main guide was Pancho, who really went out of his way to accommodate us. The first day was to Cozumel, which I have to say is not worth the effort for a day trip -- if you want to go to Cozumel, just go there.
The second day I begged off due to a cold and ear problems, so Pancho found us a driver to go to Coba' and Tulum - both worthwhile, but get up early if you want to avoid enormous crowds! (No tour buses for us!) Day 3 was our first Cenote dive, and as soon as we emerged we cancelled all our ocean dives for more Cenotes. Challenging photography, but what a world under there! I never thought I would enjoy anything resembling cave diving, but these caverns were fantastic, and thanks to the eerie ambient light and my BF's video lights, I was able to get a fair number of keeper shots, and some that I think will be competitive. As far aI can tell, I can't post a photo into this post or I would show you.
Lillian
