The turtles

• Gregjul's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Akumal

Trip Start Aug 10, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Dec 27, 2007 Next
Entry

  Akumal, Mexico
Saturday, October 27, 2007

We decided to try snorkeling at a place down the Mayan Rivera called Akumal.  Akumal means turtle and we were told there were giant turtles just off the beach.

Apparently you need nothing, just a few pesos to pay for the snorkeling equipment.  So we grabbed a local taxi-bus (the only way to get there) and climbed on board the familiar looking taxi (thinking we were on our way to Buffalo Flats).

We were cruising along when Jules noticed we were passing the sign for Akumal!  We asked the driver and he apologised for missing the road, he simply pulled over and he told us to jump out ...... we stated to object when he pointed to another taxi-van that had stopped on the other side of the road.  So we ran across the highway, changed taxi-vans and were at the Akumal turn off in 5 minutes

A barracuda

.

We walked down the beach road and soon came to the main beach.  We went to a dive shop and asked about the hire of snorkeling equipment.  They wanted us to pay 100 pesos each for an hour snorkeling tour.  They would not rent us any equipment and were all in all full of crap.  They told us we had to do it as they were the only dive shop.

I told them to shove it, as we had been told there were two shops.  So we left the shop and prayed that there was another dive shop, or we would not be able to snorkel - pride would see to that!

Anyway, we found the other dive shop, good people who helped us.  They rented us equipment for the day, for 100 pesos!!  They told us where to snorkel and we were set to go and find the giant turtles.

It was an amazing experience ...... we walked down to the edge of the beach, put on our snorkeling equipment  and started swimming out to sea.  They have a line of buoys about 60m off the beach.  Along this line of buoys we found the second largest natural coral reef in the world

A huge shoal of fish

.

It was brilliant, we saw some barracuda, two massive rays, 100's of colourful smaller fish and three giant turtles.  The turtles were unbelievable, they were massive and swam around us slowly.  The best was to swim down near the sea floor and stare eye to eye with the big boy!

Then we had an amazing experience ....... we were swimming back to shore when we suddenly saw before us a massive wall of fish!  It looked like a grey mass of 1000's of eyes.  Wherever you looked eyes stared back at us.  The whole shoal of fish moved very slowly.  I swam in to the shoal (very slowly) and the shoal slowly moved away and around me.  We took turns trying to photograph us in front of the incredible shoal. 

It was something we will always remember. 

Then it was time to get the taxi-bus and get back to Playa del Carmen for dinner.  We had a steak at a restaurant along the esplanade where a live rock band was giving it horns.  After dinner we moved across the street and had a latte while continuing to listen to the band.

 


 

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

a pretty fishy	A turtle goes towards the surface	I get in front of the weird fish wall	I snorkel low and get eye contact
more pretty fish on the reef	Snorkeling above a big boy!	The beach at Akumal	The first giant turtle we saw
The shoal hardly moved

Slideshow Print this entry Share Akumal hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry