The top northern reef

When I was asked, if I wanted to come along to the northern part of the Playa reef, a part not dived every day, I was not in doubt – I wanted to go.

The first dive site was Los Archos, here we did the first deep dive of the trip (31 m). The dive was a drift dive and there where many beautiful corals. We also dived through the arches; The first one was more of a tunnel, but nice none the less. The reef was very untouched, and therefore very beautiful, and hence it was possible to see that some of the other reefs had been dived a lot, and probably also had been marked by some of the hurricanes. The second dive was at Cerebros, and it was a nice reef dive with lots of fish. The dive was around a large number of corral boulders, and it was possible to swim around in the body-teams in order to discover the most interesting creatures and features.

Turtels and sea horses

One of the things that I would love to see was turtles, and the place to go for turtles is Tortugas, so naturally I had to go there… The ride there was quite bumpy in the small hard-bottom boats, and waves kept sweeping the boat leaving everything soaking wet, but apparently this type of condition was ordinary (next time I’ll do a sea sick tablet). The water wasn’t crystal clear, but when we saw the first turtle I forgot all about that and tried to do a photo. While we drifted we encountered 5-6 turtles, and I was happy. In addition to the turtles there was also several trunk fish, many small reef fish and a large shoals of very big unidentified fish.After what seemed like forever to a seasick person (me), we were told to kit up for the second dive of the day. Being seasick I decided not to bring my camera (what a mistake), and we quickly descented at the “Barracuda” dive site.The dive site was quite crowded, a bit like what you might encounter in the Red Sea, but everybody seemed eager to help each other to point to the most interesting creatures under water… and for the first time I saw a sea horse. I was absolutely beautiful, I in that moment I could have kicked myself for not bringing the camera along. Not only where there seahorses, on a coral almost next to it 3 flamingo tongues resided. I had come to heaven, no doubt about it. The dive continued with a big sea turtle, big crabs, different kind of trunkfish (and many of them), morays and fish… fish, fish, fish. From the soldierfish to the stoplight Parrotfish they all seemed decided to make this dive one of the most diverse I have experienced. Only thing to be done about missing out on the photo op for seahorses was to do another dive at Barracuda. Luckily we did find seahorses again, and I was happy. We also had the chance to enjoy a turtle eating. My buddy and I was fortunate to be able to spend perhaps 5 minutes watching how it grabbed and tore of a chunk of corral while Grunts tried to grab the smaller pieces.  In Playa del Carmen there is one small wreck. The former Shrimp boat is quite small and probably not really worth visiting; at least compared to some of the beautiful wrecks of the Red Sea. It does however makes a nice change from the reef diving.

Going deep and seeing a shark

The shark season has long gone, a thing I knew before I came to Playa. One of the lesser busy days at the dive centre, it was just me and a guide going diving. We ended op being the guide, me and one of the other guides from the dive centre (the last one doing some fun diving). We went to Moe Che deep, the deep reef at Moe Che and it was great fun and beautiful. Since we were doing no compression diving and had had a bit of a swim we could not stay long close to the reef drop off. We did however stay quite some time a good 5-10 m above the reef. All of a sudden the fun diving guide signals for us to come and see something, and there on a sandy shelf lays a nurse shark. Later we also see a Marlin swimming in the distance.     The second dive this day is very shallow, but after a deep dive (40m) and a very short surface interval that is also nice. At the second dive site Chun Zumbul I had plenty of time to use the camera. Flamingo tounges, parrot fish, pipe sea horses, reef fish etc. All in all a very nice days diving, with the perfect combination of fish, depth and diversity.

No Comments »

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 »