From: mayne@pipe.cs.fsu.edu (William Mayne)
Subject: Re: Trip report - Cozumel and Akumal
Reply-To: mayne@cs.fsu.edu
Organization: Florida State University Computer Science Department
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 01:10:49 GMT

In article <9209091651.AA05509@nettlerash.berkeley.edu> RFLNG@CLEMSON.CLEMSON.EDU (Reef Fish, Large Nassau Grouper) writes:
>Bill Mayne <mayne@ds1.scri.fsu.edu>
>
>> The Diver's Inn had changed to the Scuba Inn, ...
>> ...                          Rates were $150 person double occupancy
>> for 3 nights and 2 days diving, as we originally planned, $215 for 4
>> nights and 3 days which we actually did. These go down a bit Sept. 15.
>
>You can do better than that.  Perhaps you (or others) can try this
>formula (for comparison purposes) the next time:...[omitted]
>
>Using Bill's $215 for 4 nights/3 days example, we can estimate his room cost
>to be 2 * (215 - 120)/4 = $47.5 per night assuming a 10% dive discount.

I should have negotiated, it seems. The posted price for the room was
$40, though that probably did not include tax, which the package did.
That made the 3 day rate just the price of the dives plus the room,
but without a discount on the dives, saving the tax an the room, and
getting tanks for shore dives. Admittedly not a great deal, but better
than other places I checked out there. The extra night and day of diving
were discounted just a little from the flat rates.

>Not bad for the "medium-price" season of mid-Apr to Sept.  However, some dive
>operators give better than $40 per 2-tank package deals and several hotels
>near Pro-Dive Pier (downtown) offer amenities comparable to (or better than)
>Scuba Inn at a cheaper price.  Check out the Hotel Sobranis or Bahia Suites,
>especially during the low-season of 9/1 - 12/15.

I wanted to stay down town but my wife wanted a place near a beach.
Is there decent shore diving from the down town area?

>Normally a Punta Sur dive would NOT include either the Cathedral or the
>Devil's Throat -- Bill was VERY lucky (or semi-lucky -- will explain later)
>to have done them on his Punta Sur dives...
> -- there're many spectacular tunnels and
>cut-throughs and there's actually one site that RESEMBLES Devil's Throat
>(unfortunately, I THINK Bill dove that one) but is not the REAL Devil's
>Throat.  I know -- I've been to both.  The REAL one has a much narrower
>passage and has a section that is COMPLETELY DARK (from which the name
>Devil's Throat was derived) and exits near 130 feet.

From your description I think I got the real Devil's Throat.

>>    ...            The plan was to dive a coral cave called the Devil's
>>  Throat, which starts at about 85 feet, goes by some skylights, never
>                                                                  ^^^^^
>>  completely losing daylight, and emerges on the wall at 120 feet.
>   ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^                             ^^^^^^^^

I might have called it 130. It was in that range. The passage was
pretty small at the Devil's throat. Often what a lot of cave divers call
restrictions I just call small places in passages. Also it was very close
to totally dark for just a few feet at the throat itself. Again my cave
diving standards for total darkness aren't most people's. Except for the
throat itself I believe it would be easy to go through the cave with
no lights, though you wouldn't see as much. The Cathedral was rather
distinctive with the sky light and the coral cross on the wall.

>If you thought it worthwhile to take the time away from Czm diving to go
>dive in Akumal (I've never done it).  If so, what are some special
>attractions (other than the cave systems -- I'm not into cave-diving)?

For open water diving alone I wouldn't take time away from Cozumel.
The attraction for me was definitely the caves. Other than that it
is just a more laid back tropical paradise, if that is what you are
into. Here, as promissed, is more on Akumal.

We got there by taking the 9:00 AM ferry to Playa del Carmen. $5 apiece
and about an hour's ride, very pleasant. Akumal is about 20 miles south.
Taxi drivers ask $25 but the going rate is around $20. A hard bargainer
might do better.

There are actually at least a couple of places along the coast there
with Akumal in the name. It means place of turtles in Mayan. We went
to the one to the south called Aventuras Akumal, after the taxi mistakenly
took us to another a few miles closer to Playa del Carmen. We stayed at the
Villa de Rosa because it is run by cave divers Tony and Nancy de Rosa, is
well known to cave divers, and our friend from Tallahassee, Shelly Baker,
is now living there. She is a cavern instructor and takes open water
divers on the very easy and safe cavern tours after a short intro,
without requiring you to sign up for a full course. Courses can be
arranged, too. Advance reservations should be made for courses. The cavern
dives are relatively expensive, $45 per person including transportation
and one tank. But it is worth it for the unique experience. Cave dives
are $65 including double tanks, transportation and guide. My cavern
dives were included as part of cave dives. Shelly will guide a cave dive
for just one customer, never more than three, I think. But for a lot
of cave diving a package trip run by a guide based in the U.S. would
be cheaper. Also all prices quoted here are discounted for cave divers
and some extras were thrown in.

I first went out snorkeling from the beach. I had been told
to go out past the surf. I wound up missing the main reef on
the way out and swam for the farthest breakers a few hundred
yards off shore. On the way in I found the reef, which reached
almost to the surface of the water. I had to be careful not to be
dropped onto it by the surf. It was a strenuous swim, quite
different than the gentle snorkeling in more sheltered water.
I got to like snorkeling there, though.

The day of our arrival we went on an afternoon open water dive
run by the dive shop at the big resort at the end of the road.
The reefs are close to shore so they run one tank dives. In
the morning they go to an area with depths to 100 feet which
is supposed to be better. For the afternoon dive we had a max
depth of 50 feet. There was a gentle surge even at the bottom
which was like a pulse, with waving sea fans. The reefs were
about 15 feet high. This was okay but not as good as Cozumel.
Rates for guests of the Villa de Rosa and probably other local
places are $18. The undiscounted rate is $25. I think night
dives were around $40. Besides the Villa de Rosa and the Club
Med style resort at the end of the road there are several places
renting rooms and condos.

The Villa de Rosa rents one and two bedroom apartments with
full kitchens, living rooms (including T.V., I think), and
patios facing the beach. These rooms are air conditioned, not
that you need it. Very nice. I don't have the price list handy.
We got the romantic Crows Nest, which is on the roof of the shorter
and older of the two buildings. It has a large room with a thatched
roof and ceiling fans (no air conditioning), a bed and sofa, a
minimal kitchen outside at the bar, next to a large patio facing
the beach. There is also a Yucatan hammock in the room. It is
rustic, which suited our tastes well, and was only $35 per night.
The food plan was expensive, $25 per person per day, but covered
gourmet meals catered to our room. One problem is that there isn't
much alternative to this kind of plan. The only restaurant out there
is at the big resort, which has an expensive buffet. Car rental
is very high, as are the local taxis, so going into Tulum for meals
isn't very practical.

A short walk away is a rocky point where you can find glass beads
from a 170 year old ship wreck in shallow water. Unless you can
catch it when it is calm this is another surf snorkeling place.
We also went on a tour of the Tulum ruins, snorkeling sinkholes,
and visited a turtle nursery at a beautiful place called
Xacel (sha-sell). They take care of baby turtles hatched from
eggs collected from nests. We were lucky to see a rare albino
baby turtle. An interesting place was a sinkhole about 100 yards
from the beach which is connected to a big fresh water spring
just off the beach at a bar called Casa Cenote. There was a lot
of fresh water coming out and mixing with the sea water, making
a blurry area. In spite of its interesting points that tour was
the one thing I wouldn't do again as it was with an obnoxious group
of honky tourists. I hate waiting for people at cureo shops.

In summary the main attractions besides the caves are that it
is a very comfortable and quiet sea side location without all
the traffic and business of Cozumel. Tony and Nancy and Shelly
are great hosts and it is like staying with friends, even we
hadn't known Shelly before. My wife, who is not a cave diver and
who I had trouble convincing to take a chance on the place loved
it.

The first cave I did was Mayan Blue, which was about a 70 minute
dive with a max depth of maybe 80 feet. (I don't have my log
book to check.) In spite of the shallow depth we did have some
decompression on this one. Shelly and one other guest and I
did it together, following B tunnel to a jump to E tunnel,
turning not quite at thirds at the jump to F tunnel. The passage
is large, with massive formations. At one point formations almost
block the tunnel, but most of it is wide open, 30 to 40 feet high
and 70-80 feet wide in places. There is no noticeable current.
There is a halicline and you are diving in salt water most of
the time, though it is fresh at the entrance. The water is as
clear as air, though sometimes a slight colored haze is
noticeable when you look from salt water into fresh or vice
versa.

Next I did Car Wash, starting with a cavern dive on the up
stream side, then some exploring on the less often visited
down stream side. As with Mayan Blue there were massive
Carlsbad sized formations. Upstream is a better dive.

Finally we did PonDeRosa. This starts at a huge entrance.
There is a 400 foot traverse to another cenote called
the Corral which has an island in the middle and a cavern
all along the sides. From the low point 300 feet in you
can see both entrances. Continuing around the edge to
the tunnel to the Chapel we passed a couple of other
tunnels. The swim to the Chapel takes 30-40 minutes.
We took it slow, enjoying the scenic cave with delicately
eroded limestone in salt water. The formations in the tunnel
have eroded away. The Chapel itself is a large room with an
air space at the top and still growing formations. The cave
dive took 76 minutes of dive time, not counting 10 or 15
floating around in the Chapel. After that my wife and some
other visitors joined us for a cavern dive duplicating
the 400 foot traverse and looking around the cavern
zone in the Corral. My wife told me later she was crying in
her mask it was so beautiful. She was pretty emotional
from watching Shelly and me go into the cave before,
thinking we might not come out. But now she is thinking
about getting cave training just to see more of those
beautiful caves.

I want to go back on a cave diving trip so I can do many
more. It is very unusual to find such formations in
underwater caves. The water is so clear and the formations
so normal looking that looking at photographs you can't
tell they were taken under water unless there are bubbles
or a diver for scale.

>>Thanks for an interesting post.

Thanks for filling in more details which may help me plan a future
trip. I'm especially interested in staying in town on Cozumel if
there is shore diving there. But it will be hard for me to pass
up any time at Akumal when I down there next.

Bill Mayne
Newsgroups: rec.scuba