Hello and
welcome to Part 4 of our trip to Mexico
For this
blog we thought that we would talk about our diving experiences which were
4 dives spread over two days as well as food and the trip home.
The first
two dives were on Tuesday and ended up being a full day trip to Cozumel island
and the third and forth dives were some cavern diving in one of the Cenotes near our resort on Thursday.
I want to
apologize in advance for the lack of photos from me in this blog as we didn’t
have an underwater camera. We fully intended to get one, only when Kyran went
to buy it last minute they were out of stock of the waterproof casing we needed. So I will try to steal as many
photos as I can off the internet to supplement ours and to keep the stories illustrated.
So lets get
straight into it!
Cozumel
Island
We had to
meet our driver at the dive shop within our resort where we were then taken to
Playa del Carmen where we met our dive instructor who thankfully organised all
our tickets for the ferry and taxis to and from the ferry terminal on the other
side.
There were 2 ferry companies that go between Playa del Carmen and Cozumel Island so with people arriving and leaving the terminal it was important to make sure
we go on the right ferry with the right tickets at the right time.
Below: The journey that we made to get to the dive site.
Below: The journey that we made to get to the dive site.
Story time:
I know that
I am prone to sea sickness but usually it is not too bad and I can handle my
life. Well to the way to Cozumel island the seas were so rough and the ferry
was going so fast that I can imagine the ferry just flew off of each and every
wave.
So I ended up spending the entire 45 min trip focusing on not dying. Then we got off the boat straight on to the taxi and the taxi to another boat and then into the water.
If I was to summarise it was a full day of seasickness and trying not to feed the fish while underwater (puke). The only time I was not focusing on not dying or recovering from not dying was when we were underwater - so I was happy to get in and go straight underwater, away from the up-and-down motions. Anyways enough about the seasickness as it was a good day with all that aside.
Our dive
instructor was a big German guy called Olaf who I ended up nick naming “The
General”. He was always walking around organising everyone and with a very good
posture and commanding tone! He was not messing around and he got us moving quicker and more
efficiently!
The diving took
place in the Cozumel Marine Park Reserve which we needed a permit to dive in
which wasn’t too expensive(maybe a few $ US), but I thought it was a great idea to help fund the conservation
efforts of the reef.
Below: All the dives that you can do around Cozumel Island
Image from:(www.changovilla.com/things-to-do.html)
Below: All the dives that you can do around Cozumel Island
Image from:(www.changovilla.com/things-to-do.html)
As you can see there are a lot of dive sites in the area that we were in and we ended up doing Columbia
Shallows (Columbia Reef on Map) and the second was Palancar Gardens.
The Columbia Shallows was an isolated ridge of coral surrounded by a sandy vegetated area. As the name suggests the deepest this dive got was only 12 meters and we were very lucky to see some awesome things in such a small area. Within the first 20 minutes we saw a Spotted Eagle Ray, two giant lobsters that were at least 2 feet (~60cm) long each. There were also some smaller sting rays which we are used to seeing in Australia, so it was not as exciting for us. What did also stand out was that there was a lot of sponge corals which were interesting as some were small and others large enough there were like mini gardens growing inside them. They were like big colourful tubes, open at the end so you can see down into them.
The Columbia Shallows was an isolated ridge of coral surrounded by a sandy vegetated area. As the name suggests the deepest this dive got was only 12 meters and we were very lucky to see some awesome things in such a small area. Within the first 20 minutes we saw a Spotted Eagle Ray, two giant lobsters that were at least 2 feet (~60cm) long each. There were also some smaller sting rays which we are used to seeing in Australia, so it was not as exciting for us. What did also stand out was that there was a lot of sponge corals which were interesting as some were small and others large enough there were like mini gardens growing inside them. They were like big colourful tubes, open at the end so you can see down into them.
Below: I
have stolen some photos off the internet so that you can see some of the types
of things we saw.
Below: Spotted eagle ray, if you click the link for where I stole this image from it is actually a video and it is amazing! (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwPkbI5Ljng)
Above: Sponges ww.brentdurand.com/keyword/Cozumel/
Below: Spotted eagle ray, if you click the link for where I stole this image from it is actually a video and it is amazing! (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwPkbI5Ljng)
Above: Sponges ww.brentdurand.com/keyword/Cozumel/
Left: Lobster www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g150809-d1637329-i119732559-Pro_Dive_Mexico-Cozumel_Yucatan_Peninsula.html
Fun Fact:
- Sponges do not have distinct circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and excretory systems – instead the water flow system supports all these functions. They filter food particles out of the water flowing through them.
- A few species that live in waters where the supply of food particles is very poor prey on crustaceans and other small animals. In most cases little is known about how they actually capture prey, although some species are thought to use either sticky threads or hooked spicule.
- Sponges are similar to other animals in that they are multicellular, heterotrophic, lack cell walls and produce sperm cells. Unlike other animals, they lack true tissues and organs, and have no body symmetry. All sponges are sessile aquatic animals.
More Info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge
Anyway moving on...
The Palancar
Gardens dive was a sort of drop off/ shelf, where there was about a 20 meter tall wall of
coral and sponge formations before a very steep drop off into the open ocean.
It was
definitely different to diving a marine park as the fish were bigger and there
was not one piece of fishing line (I usually spend half my dives
picking up fishing line and rubbish) I think the fact that it is protected
meant a greater attraction for divers so there were a lot more boats and divers out on the water than any
other site that I have dove at.
I should mention we got to Cozumel Island and once off the ferry we took the taxi to the Iberostar resort, where the Dressel Dive shop (same company as we booked through from our Barcelo Maya resort) operates from. The Iberostar resort was nice enough, probably a 3 or 4 star, and more cozy than ours. There were all sorts of exotic animals to see here, including a "flamboyance"(name for a group of) of flamingos, and some peacocks. The Iberostar also had free Wifi! Better than our resort!
It was a great day out on the boat and diving, and we managed to get back on the ferry to Playa Del Carmen and back to the hotel safe and sound.
I should mention we got to Cozumel Island and once off the ferry we took the taxi to the Iberostar resort, where the Dressel Dive shop (same company as we booked through from our Barcelo Maya resort) operates from. The Iberostar resort was nice enough, probably a 3 or 4 star, and more cozy than ours. There were all sorts of exotic animals to see here, including a "flamboyance"(name for a group of) of flamingos, and some peacocks. The Iberostar also had free Wifi! Better than our resort!
It was a great day out on the boat and diving, and we managed to get back on the ferry to Playa Del Carmen and back to the hotel safe and sound.
Diving in the Cenote and adjoining caverns
The second
set of dives we did were on the Thursday and they were in a Cenote (sink hole). If you have
been following the rest of our trip in Mexico you will know that we have
already visited one other cenote and one underground river (which joins the
Cenotes) so they were both very similar in terms of water, fish and rock
formations. Well for this dive we got to go into what were essentially flooded chambers that opened up to the world above every now and again.
Below: An example of what we saw with the God rays etc. but what we saw was 10 times better!!
www.worldadventuredivers.com/2013/12/23/between-fresh-sea-water-the-halocline-effect-of-playa-del-carmen-mexico/
Below: An example of what we saw with the God rays etc. but what we saw was 10 times better!!
www.worldadventuredivers.com/2013/12/23/between-fresh-sea-water-the-halocline-effect-of-playa-del-carmen-mexico/
It is
probably a good point to mention that this was our first fresh water dive and
it was also our first dive that if something went wrong there was no surface
that we could just go up to.
Apparently,
this type of diving is called "cavern diving" rather than "cave diving" as you can
always see light coming through at some point nearby you. Cave diving is when you
are in complete darkness. That said we did have to use a torch and swim in
single file. We also had to learn to do some basic signals (like "okay" and "holy shit i'm going to die") with our torches instead of our
hands as it was mostly dark, so you could not see our hands.
In contrast to the ocean with all the fish, there was very little life in the Cenote. There were small catfish and some sort of guppy/mosquito fish, so the dive was mostly about viewing the rock formations and sea shells encased in the rocks, and how the light filters through the sink holes above.
The most amazing thing though was the water. Because the Cenotes are part of the underground rivers they do feed out into the ocean, so the water level is always the same as sea level. At some points in our dive we would actually encounter the salt water and how the two of them meet. Fresh water is lighter then salt water so it sits on top of the salt water and the two don’t mix. This type of separation of water due to salinity is called a Halocline.
This was such an amazing experience for me! I have added some photos that I stole off the internet below so that you can get an idea of what a weird thing it was to see the two waters sitting together. Weirder again was if the driver in front was swimming right in the middle of the halocline transition plane then you couldn’t see very well, because it was like when you add water and oil and then you shake it up and it becomes cloudy - well the same thing happened when the salt and fresh water mixed. If you swam a little higher you could see perfectly, or the same if you swam a little lower but right in the middle you couldn’t see anything where it was disturbed and mixed up.
Above: www.nachogil.com/personal/yucatan.html
Another
peculiar thing about fresh water diving which makes sense, but you don’t really
think about is that you are less buoyant in fresh water, so you only need half
the amount of diving weights that you would usually use in salt water. This means
that when you are swimming in the halocline and you cross between the fresh
water and the salt water you can feel your buoyancy change noticeably and you kind of float
back up to the fresh water on top.
Below: www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/65keop/the_separation_between_fresh_and_salt_water/
Well I guess that probably summarises our diving experience down in Mexico for this trip. I hope you have enjoyed the summary and the photos that I didn’t take but that illustrate what we saw (more or less).
Story time from our day trips out to the Mayan ruins and our conversations with our guide Marco:
The Mayan people migrated from Asia a very long time ago, across the Bering land bridge which spanned the Asian and North American continents during the previous ice age, between 16,000-20,000 years ago.
The humans traveled to North America and brought with them dogs - the dog species which came and settled with the Mayans was the hairless dog known in English as the "Mexican hairless dog", or in Mayan as "Xoloitzcuintli" (Xolo for short, pronounced something like 'sho-lo'). Talking with Marco, this was the first time either of us had heard about these dogs so it was pretty interesting! The pre-historical humans used dogs as hunting companions and to alert the camp when predators or other unwanted guests showed up.
Below: Photo I stole off the Internet of the hairless Xoloitzcuintli
www.dogbreedslist.info/all-dog-breeds/Xoloitzcuintle.html#.Wp2Q0-jFKUk
Modern mexican people still use this concept - there are 'community' dogs, which is something you do notice when going through villages, the random dogs everywhere.
None are really considered strays, the street dogs are owned and fed by the community, and the relationship is rather symbiotic - just like with the pre-historic human tribes.
The people throw their bones and food scraps to the dogs and the dogs just hang around as an alert system.
Apparently even the guys that still go hunting, when they plan to go, they grab a few dogs and tie them up with only water for a few days. Then when it is hunting time they let the dogs go and the dogs find and hunt very well on an empty stomach and with a strong motivation! Marco told us a story how one of the local Mayan farming communities had a Jaguar attack recently where the Jaguar was more hungry than usual and 14 of the community dogs were eaten as the Jaguar would jump the back fences and pick off the dogs.
Well this brings us to the end of our time in Mexico, I won’t lie I have felt tempted to move down here on a more permanent basis but as I sit here and write this blog at the airport I am kind of glad to being going back to where you don't have to bribe the police and where there is less humidity so that your clothes actually dry and don't feel permanently damp.
In the end everyone headed back to Canada and I headed back to England. Kyran had to get back to work in Canada for a few more weeks but he will be back to the UK shortly as I told him he had to be back for his wedding anniversary (9 years! can you believe it!).
Below: Black line= Me
Grey line= Everyone else
Well thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed reading about our Mexico adventures at least half as much as we enjoyed having them.
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In and around Mexico
Below: Some extra photos that didn't make the blog.
