Dykkeren

This blog entry was written by a good friend of mine, Alice Jensen who has the pleasure of being in Mexico at the moment. (lucky girl)

Already in the car from the airport, it is clear what this area is all about, as a segregator large coloured figures of seashells and fish leads the way; I do not know weather to laugh or cry.I’m going to dive with “Yucantan divers”, and when I arrive at the dive centre the next morning, they are nice and helpful and we arrange that I come back to diver later that morning.I live next to the dive centre, hence I spend the next hours watching an open water course and a scuba review in the hotel swimming pool; quite entertaining.Jarolines and Shangri LaThe dives on the near by reefs starts in the dive centre where all the kit is collected and carried on transport bikes to the beach where the dive boat is anchored – the walk from the centre is app. 10 min, and even in our wetsuits and booties that constitutes no problem, though I hardly feel smart when I cross the high street.The reefs are nothing like anything I’ve seen before. They do not contain a lot of different colours, instead they sort of looks a lot like how I’ve always imagined Mexico; dusty and with the western-feel you might remember from the movie “Babel”. There however the comparison stops. From the beginning of the first dive I’m amazed with the amount and diversity of fish; They are all over and in amounts and sizes I have not experienced before. I see huge moray ells, Soldierfish, Squirrelfish, Grunts, flounder, triggerfish, cleanerfish and large shoals of different fish. We do two dives this day at Jarolines and Shangri La, since we are no deeper than 10 m the light an colours is still good, and we only need a short break between the two. On both dives we drift along an easy current making it comfortable to lie and watch the fish.Dos OjosI was very excided by the thought of cenotes. Since I’m no cave diver, the dives would be cavern dives (no more than 40 m, always with acces out etc.).The day started a bit on the down side, with us having to wait for the bus to take us to the Dos Ojos site, it was longsome, but it the end I think it became an advantage.Dos Ojos (app. 45 min. from Playa Del Carmen), is a cenotesystem a good quarter of an hour of the main road towards Tullum. The divesite it well developed with a small shop that sells oft drinks and snacks, an eco toilet, and benches where it is possible to place your gear. The way down to the main entrance is good with easy steps, and the cenote itself looks wonderful when you walk down towards it.We did two dives; Barbi-line and Bat cave. They where quite different but both very worthwhile and I hardly noticed, that the maximum depth was 10 m. The first dive was all about the light for me; diving around the small holes where light came into the water the reflections and colouring was a new world to me. The second dive was a lot darker, and midway we entered the bat cavern. Here it was possible to breath above the water, and in the ceiling you could see bats – really beautiful.When we came to the dive site, it was full of divers, and I feared that it would be horrible, but it turned out to be very nice; a lot of the other divers had there lunch when we did our 1. dive and also on the 2. dive there seemed to be even fever divers, a thing that was confirmed when we came out of the water and the majority of divers had left.

No Comments »