TULUM MEXICO 2006
A joyous return to the seas and cenotes of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Reefs: Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Mahahual; Cenotes: Dos Ojos, Gran Cenote and more.
Day 1: It was great to be back in the Yucatan again, sleeping on the beach with the sounds of the jungle behind. Up straight away for a day in the magical waters of the cenotes. Two morning dives in Dos Ojos are on the schedule and I go. It is a grand and spiritual place to dive where the Maya mythology makes sense and truly comes alive. It feels obvious this is where life begins, you can feel billions of years in the making of this place, a majestic temple of stalactites and stalagmites in crystal clear cool water. The water is so clear, it seems you could just take the reg out of your mouth - it must be air. Fossils on the walls and bats on the ceiling, there are several areas where you can surface and look around at the jungle spilling down into these limestone caverns. The afternoon cenote is a special, shallow sink hole with a ceiling of mangroves and lots of crevices to explore. I follow a school of surprisingly large fish down to a super warm halocline. I just sink down into a warm crevices and watch the fish blur by.
Day 2: Today the ocean has relaxed, the port is open in Playa and, after a relaxing morning, 2 afternoon dives on the reef are in order. I follow my friend's Open Water group along the edge of the reef, and good chance because out in the sand a huge grouper is hunkered down in his sandy groove, perfectly calm. A bunch of skates are out as well and they startle an open water diver who is not prepared for their sudden departures out of the sand. The reef is still full of silt from the hurricanes last year so the vibrant colors are not coming through. No matter, for this reef remains abundant in species; I can't recall a boring dive in 5 years. The parrot fish are still here in numbers so it reassures me that the coral lives. Always slow, unconcerned turtles moving by slender trumpet fish dangling in the gorgonians, and eels of several varieties popping out of all crevices. Peacock flounders, bat fish and puffer fish, giants of a few species grace our dive and I am so excited to show my Open Water friend this beautiful world, teeming with life.
Day 3: Off to the cenotes again for a moving magical day, just me and my guide. We go to a site that is basically a vertical sink hole, deep, with a layer of decomposing vegetation that gives the appearance of a cloudy sky once beneath it. The world below is infused with the muted light from above, illuminating skeletal trees that turn to powder if touched (so don't touch, ok?:). The fallen trees looming out of the eerie light and the hills of silt evoke a dangerous forest where creatures of dark myth roam. It is a too brief stay at 40m before a slow ascent up through the white soup slowly reveals the body and I linger with my feet in, slowing stirring my fins out and dipping them back below view. Somewhere along the way up, the trees above, the birds, and the real clouds become visible from depth and it is a certain sense of juxtaposition, the eerie forest below and the crazy jungle above, that always makes this dive one that I dream about when I am getting ready for another trip down to the Yucatan. How to follow up a dive as magnificent as this? Only the Gran Cenote will suffice. This place is truly a temple of nature, a place where even an atheist may have to ponder god. It is a spiritual experience every time, a cenote better with the lights off, immersed in the amazing multitudinous depths of blue only the Yucatan shows. It is the shortest 40 minute dive you will ever have.
Days 4/5: The ocean in Tulum is not cooperating and we decide to move. It is back to the reefs of Playa del Carmen for the next 3 days, jam-packed full -- 4 dives a day in a bliss of sea creatures everywhere. There are 2 new species that have arrived here since the hurricane, an eel fish and a nudibranch, the flamingo tongue. These are exhilarating drift dives and I even see my first bull shark in Mexico. He is a curious little guy (about 2m) who came back for a visit several time throughout our stay on Moc Che.
Days 6/7: A 4-hour drive takes us down to the reefs of Mahahual. Still a sleepy fishing village by night (but cruise dock by day), this is the Mexico I fell in love with in the early 90's and I finally become relaxed. The seas are not so friendly but I do as many dives as she will allow and the coral canyons are rewarding even in the dim light. I tell my friend to combine this site, fished out of a rich presence of species, and Playa and she will know what Playa used to look like -- and what the whole barrier reef should be. The barrel sponges and the sea fans are still here, untouched by the hurricanes further north, springing out of 13 technicolors of coral. You dive up and down canyons here, canyons perpendicular from shore as opposed to the lazy parallel drift of Playa. The dive shop keeps the cruise passengers separate from the resort divers so there is never a feeling of crowding on the reefs. We forget the cruise passengers exist and spend 2 days in an erstwhile Mexico, before the advent of the megaresort.
Day 8 is a travel day and with Day 9 comes with an ear infection so this expedition is cut a bit short. The reefs of Tulum will have to wait for next time, ocean permitting.
-Brenda, a zerobar.org zooplankton
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