Enchanted underwater castles!
Trip Start
Jul 04, 2006
1
24
42
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Cancun,
Mexico
Thursday, November 16, 2006
I arrived Cancun yesterday and I left Colorado at a perfect time, my flight was in the morning and a blizzard was supposed to hit Boulder sometime in the afternoon. Great!!
I had pre booked an inexpensive hotel a stone throw from the beach and a stone throw from the main street in Playa. I wasn't expecting much for the price I had to pay, but it's actually a great place. It's a little older than the hotel I stayed at 8 weeks ago, but for less than half the price it's good value at that location. It took me around 20 minutes after my arrival in Playa del Carmen to find a dive operation to go with today, I have my priorities in order.
After having settled who to dive with, I found my way to the great design hotel Deseo for drinks (see pics posted in September sometime) and chilled there for a while. I also stopped by their sister hotel Basico which was fun but as the name insinuates, it's a more basic place even though it is a design hotel. I'll go to another island in a weeks time, Isla Mujeres where they have the third hotel in the same chain, called Hotel Secreto, they all seem great.
I got up pretty early today to go diving in one of the freshwater caves that are so famous here in Yucatan. I've never dived in freshwater before and was pretty excited after seeing photos from the caves. It took around 40 minutes by car to get to Dos Ojos (two eyes) and we got geared up at the entrance of the cave. The dives were.... absolutely amazing, there are stalagmites and stalactites everywhere, and the dark vs light depending on where you are positioned from the entrance makes it absolutely stunning. I had my dive light turned off almost all the time since the darkness made it more beautiful in my view. (Seeing shadows of stalagmites against crystal clear blue and green water.) It was like diving inside an enchanted castle. The visibility was easily 100 meters, as crystal clear as you'll ever get! And I hardly needed any weight to keep me down, only 2 kgs, so it feels like you are flying being so light. We did 2 dives at the same location, the dives were very different. I am toying with the idea of becoming a cave diver now, but that's for another trip and with another budget...
But I've booked two more cavern dives for Friday of course, there are plenty to choose from. Tomorrow I've signed up for some dives in the ocean, the first dive site is called Tortuga which means turtle, so I guess I'll be pretty happy with that place, depending on how many I am able to see.
It's time to eat dinner here in Mexico, diving makes you hungry. I'll write more later and the pics will be uploaded when I get back to Colorado in 2 weeks. Think I got some good shots of the sunset today. I'll stay here in Playa 3 days and then go to the island Cozumel, a short ferry ride away from here. I'll stay on Cozumel and dive for a week before chilling 4 days on beautiful Isla Mujeres.
