gflat65
New member
Just got back from Cancun last night. Aside from airport issues (the entire computer system in Cancun went down, so it took 2.5 hours just to get a boarding pass..., then we waited over 30 minutes at the Nashville airport after going through customs fro someone to get off their $$$... uh break... and start the carousel. not happy last night. Good ole tax paying dollars at work-or not...).
Anyway, the trip was great. We booked through Orbitz and stayed at Dream Cancun-all inclusive. First time all inclusive. The hotel part of the stay was great, with a few minor issues, but not really worth mentioning. I'd recommend Dreams to anyone. Just be warned that if you order extras, like a trip to Chichen Itza and shuttle transportation through Orbitz, they use a company called Maritur to handle the extras. The person we were supposed to meet just couldn't find time to meet with us when she gave us scheduled appointments (or within an hour of the appointment), so we felt like we were working for her. Needless to say, we didn't make it to Chichen Itza again... We've logged a complaint with Orbitz and expect a refund. You shouldn't have to wait on someone for over two hours to do their jobs. We gave up on Chichen Itza again and decided to start enjoying the vacation.
Several firsts. We worked in 8 dives, and would have had at least two more if the winds hadn't picked up the last two days and the harbor master hadn't shut down the harbor. Our firsts were the cenotes dives and a two tank night dive. The cenotes were very interesting and can only be done in Mexico (maybe even only on the Mayan Riviera side). They are fresh water caves that were formed thousands, if not millions of years ago. You go into the jungle and find a hole and jump in
. When you find other openings while down, when you look up it's kinda of like being in Oz. It's black and white in the caves and a kaleidoscope of colors through the openings into the jungle. The water temp is much cooler than the ocean (~70F), so you'll want a wet suit. It wasn't as interesting as the reefs, of course, but definitely something everyone should do at least once. We got a video of it, so at some point, we may loan it out to interested parties to get an idea. We haven't watched the cenotes video yet, though. I couldn't get Pink Floyd's Echoes out of my head during the whole second dive (...labyrinths of coral caves. The echoes from a distant time come willowing across the sand...). There were fossilized coral and conch embedded in the rocks of the caves. It was tricky at first in the caves because you move through a saltwater/freshwater interface in several places. Made buoyancy control fun. You use about half as much weight in fresh as in saltwater, so when you hit the saltwater, you float to the top of the cave (pretty tight to begin with), and sink when you hit the freshwater again. Had it figured out by the second dive, though.
Our other first was a two tank night dive. We dove a shipwreck at twilight and saw a spotted eagle ray on the descent (another first). This was also the first wreck we'd penetrated. Really cool. Our second dive was at full night (no sunlight). That may be my favorite dive to date. To see the corals in full feeding mode was incredible. Massive brains of all kinds. We saw six turtles (ranging from 2.5 foot in diameter to over four feet in diameter), and several large green eels, as well as too much other stuff to describe. It was incredible. So much more comes out at night. I will do a night dive on every vacation from here on out...
We dove Cancun the first full day we were there. I was amazed that it had so much to show. I did get to see first hand the bleaching in the area. It wasn't a huge problem, but there were several large LPS that had bleached. We got a video of this one, too. For the first time, I got to see the Acro Elkhorn. That is a growth form for an acro I have never seen. It was massive. We saw several nurse sharks, but I don't count them as sharks. I want to be surrounded by black or white tip reef sharks. I noticed a ton of macro algae everywhere. I think that is a bad sign. There were only a few urchins to be seen, though some were a little bigger than my diadema. I didn't't see more than 10 urchin the whole time on all the dives, though. Something needs to choke out that macro before it takes over the corals. The color of the macro was incredible, though. I've had similar looking macro in my tanks from time to time, but none with the aqua marine coloring... We got a DVD of this trip, too.
We went to Cozumel for a dive trip day, but were somewhat disappointed. My favorite dive before this trip was Palancar caves. it was incredible-an 80 foot drop to the sand bed, then 30-50 foot structures that overhung with corals on all sides. We didn't;t get to dive Palancar again, but we hit Santa Rosa Wall. It was nice and had some nice corals, but Hurricane Wilma did some serious damage to Cozumel. Swimming through little caves was pretty cool and seeing the plating LPS along the walls and the overall structure gives me ideas for the 180. The second dive in Cozumel was pretty drab and boring. Wilma moved so much sand from the beach and put it on the reef (and 16 foot sand drifts in the jungle...). The second dive had a few small heads here and there, but nothing special. the reef had 3-6" of sand covering it. It is going to take a while for Cozumel to recover. I never would have thought that Cancun would have had better diving...
Just a word to those possibly planning dive trips... Cancun has better diving right now than Cozumel because of Wilma. Cozumel took on some pretty serious damage from the storm. Alot of the beaches were washed away, but they are repairing everything. Cancun did much better, though you can still see a lot of damage. Dreams is in the elbow of the hotel district, so it had to have been one of the first resorts hit, but you couldn't tell it.
Well, I'm gonna stop the novella for now because I'm probably going over the character limit for a response. I may have to split it up... I'll post some pics later.
Anyway, the trip was great. We booked through Orbitz and stayed at Dream Cancun-all inclusive. First time all inclusive. The hotel part of the stay was great, with a few minor issues, but not really worth mentioning. I'd recommend Dreams to anyone. Just be warned that if you order extras, like a trip to Chichen Itza and shuttle transportation through Orbitz, they use a company called Maritur to handle the extras. The person we were supposed to meet just couldn't find time to meet with us when she gave us scheduled appointments (or within an hour of the appointment), so we felt like we were working for her. Needless to say, we didn't make it to Chichen Itza again... We've logged a complaint with Orbitz and expect a refund. You shouldn't have to wait on someone for over two hours to do their jobs. We gave up on Chichen Itza again and decided to start enjoying the vacation.
Several firsts. We worked in 8 dives, and would have had at least two more if the winds hadn't picked up the last two days and the harbor master hadn't shut down the harbor. Our firsts were the cenotes dives and a two tank night dive. The cenotes were very interesting and can only be done in Mexico (maybe even only on the Mayan Riviera side). They are fresh water caves that were formed thousands, if not millions of years ago. You go into the jungle and find a hole and jump in
. When you find other openings while down, when you look up it's kinda of like being in Oz. It's black and white in the caves and a kaleidoscope of colors through the openings into the jungle. The water temp is much cooler than the ocean (~70F), so you'll want a wet suit. It wasn't as interesting as the reefs, of course, but definitely something everyone should do at least once. We got a video of it, so at some point, we may loan it out to interested parties to get an idea. We haven't watched the cenotes video yet, though. I couldn't get Pink Floyd's Echoes out of my head during the whole second dive (...labyrinths of coral caves. The echoes from a distant time come willowing across the sand...). There were fossilized coral and conch embedded in the rocks of the caves. It was tricky at first in the caves because you move through a saltwater/freshwater interface in several places. Made buoyancy control fun. You use about half as much weight in fresh as in saltwater, so when you hit the saltwater, you float to the top of the cave (pretty tight to begin with), and sink when you hit the freshwater again. Had it figured out by the second dive, though.Our other first was a two tank night dive. We dove a shipwreck at twilight and saw a spotted eagle ray on the descent (another first
). This was also the first wreck we'd penetrated. Really cool. Our second dive was at full night (no sunlight). That may be my favorite dive to date. To see the corals in full feeding mode was incredible. Massive brains of all kinds. We saw six turtles (ranging from 2.5 foot in diameter to over four feet in diameter), and several large green eels, as well as too much other stuff to describe. It was incredible. So much more comes out at night. I will do a night dive on every vacation from here on out...We dove Cancun the first full day we were there. I was amazed that it had so much to show. I did get to see first hand the bleaching in the area. It wasn't a huge problem, but there were several large LPS that had bleached. We got a video of this one, too. For the first time, I got to see the Acro Elkhorn. That is a growth form for an acro I have never seen. It was massive. We saw several nurse sharks, but I don't count them as sharks. I want to be surrounded by black or white tip reef sharks
. I noticed a ton of macro algae everywhere. I think that is a bad sign. There were only a few urchins to be seen, though some were a little bigger than my diadema. I didn't't see more than 10 urchin the whole time on all the dives, though. Something needs to choke out that macro before it takes over the corals. The color of the macro was incredible, though. I've had similar looking macro in my tanks from time to time, but none with the aqua marine coloring... We got a DVD of this trip, too.We went to Cozumel for a dive trip day, but were somewhat disappointed. My favorite dive before this trip was Palancar caves. it was incredible-an 80 foot drop to the sand bed, then 30-50 foot structures that overhung with corals on all sides. We didn't;t get to dive Palancar again, but we hit Santa Rosa Wall. It was nice and had some nice corals, but Hurricane Wilma did some serious damage to Cozumel. Swimming through little caves was pretty cool and seeing the plating LPS along the walls and the overall structure gives me ideas for the 180. The second dive in Cozumel was pretty drab and boring. Wilma moved so much sand from the beach and put it on the reef (and 16 foot sand drifts in the jungle...). The second dive had a few small heads here and there, but nothing special. the reef had 3-6" of sand covering it. It is going to take a while for Cozumel to recover. I never would have thought that Cancun would have had better diving...
Just a word to those possibly planning dive trips... Cancun has better diving right now than Cozumel because of Wilma. Cozumel took on some pretty serious damage from the storm. Alot of the beaches were washed away, but they are repairing everything. Cancun did much better, though you can still see a lot of damage. Dreams is in the elbow of the hotel district, so it had to have been one of the first resorts hit, but you couldn't tell it.
Well, I'm gonna stop the novella for now because I'm probably going over the character limit for a response. I may have to split it up... I'll post some pics later.
