Playa Del Carmen Trip Report

[Aquatrax]

What a great week. Incredible hotel and my first blue water dives.

I scheduled my dives with Jason at Fantaseadive and when he says he is at Calle 2 and the beach, he is not joking. The road ends at the beach, look left and there is the shop.

Jason arrived right on time, I was there early(very excited). We talked for a few minutes and he told me he had some severe sinus issues (couldn't equalize) and could not make the dives but that he had arranged for another instructer to take me. Talking about going over and above, I was impressed. Luis from Playa Scuba was my new dive leader and an equally great guy. He is the Cavern Instructor for Playa Scuba and an excellent diver.

They get the boat ready and we head out. I was the only diver going out that day and I must say, kinda nice having a private dive charter and your own personal Dive Master for your first ocean dives.

On the way, Luis asks if I just want to see the turtles at Tortuga Reef or check those out for a while then swim with the current to check out the Tarpon school a ways away, Ok course, I opt for both. Gear up, buddy check and back roll into the blue. AWESOME! We start our decent down to 60f and come down right beside a large sea turtle. Spectacular! Luis points out Parrot fish, Jelly fish the size of a fingernail and so many other species, I can't remember them all. We then head out with the current and get to second reef for the Tarpon. Very cool.

Luis deploys the SMB and after the safety stop, we surface and the boat is right there. Alberto the Captain must be watching pretty close because we covered a pretty good distance.

Second dive was Barracuda Reef and my Peak Performance Buoyancy dive. Current was much milder here. Luis tells my what he wants to see and how to do it. 1 foot horizontal hover above the sea floor and then an inverted hover with my head 1 foot above the floor using just my lungs. Too much fun! He then adds 4lbs of weight has has me recover from that and repeat the hovering. He signals enough training and we head over to the reef. This was the aquaruim dive. Lots of color, schools of fish and more turtles. FANTASTIC!

Thanks to Jason and Luis for an awesome time and I will be back soon!

[caroln]

Very cool report. What a way to experience your first blue water dives. I am impressed that they took the boat out with only a single diver. Some shops will cancel if it's just you because the fuel prices are so high. So did you do any more dives over the trip?

[Aquatrax]

I was scheduled to do 3 dives the next day but Jason was still suffering from his illness and Luis was doing some cave training in the Cenotes. Jason met me at the shop the next morning with his video camera and gear and was willing to make the dives but I told him no. I thought it would have been pretty crappy to let him suffer just so I could go.