After six Cenote dives, I will go into the ocean for the last dives on this trip today...
130 kilometers north of Tulum is the city of Cancun and the island Isla Mujeres, the latter hosts the underwater museum MUSA.
For more background information, you can visit their site here (opens in new window).
I got aware of this, when the latest installation with contributions by Jason deCaires Taylor was opened to the public near Lanzarote, Canary Island, in january (Click. Opens in new window)
I had researched some possibilities to visit this site and booked a dive with Manta Divers Cancun, 81US$ for two dives, 7 US$ for a wetsuit, dive time limited to 45 minutes.
Meeting point is 12 o'clock at their dive shop, so I started at 10am, after a coffee at Art Hotel Tulum and a short breakfast at Ki'Bok.
Passing the tourist trap of Playa del Carmen, I arrive at the dive shop in Cancun, Zona Hotelera, a high class tourist ghetto with big hotel complexes and heavily armed police, at 11:35. The two ladies in the shop seem to be surprised I am early, we do the paperwork, liability waiver, check my certifications, and find a wetsuit for me.
I ask my usual questions when coming to a new dive site, currents, reef hook necessary, should I bring my smb, is it ok to use a pointer stick, maximum depth and dive time, who is the guide, how many divers in the group, open water or advanced and so on.
No currents, maybe some surge, don't need an smb, the guide has her own, only one other diver.
The guide is a girl in her mid-twenties, Ellie, and the other diver is an Open Water Student, they will do some skills underwater for five minutes and then visit the museum. OK for me, I am not in a hurry.
One dive goes to the museum, one is a reef dive nearby. It takes a 40 minutes boat ride from the shop at Marina del Rey to the dive site.
The student tells me it is his first time in the ocean and his first dive ever, he has only had a pool session in the morning.
When we arrive I check the waters and decide to take my smb with me. A lot of boat traffic, slight current and a guide who is concentrating on dive theory with her student make me do so.
Once in the water, we meet at the bow and descend, one of the two boat crew joins us, Ellie and her student do their skills, mask flooding and regulator recovery, and then the guide/instructor swims toward the museum. I have difficulties following her, she goes very fast. After a minute or two I look back and see the student far behind me, not able to follow the pace. I wait for him, putting me in the middle between him and his instructor....
The museum is awesome, the statues are being conquered as habitat by the marine flora and fauna, and the light is good at depth of 10 meters.
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| Inside the New Beetle fish found a habitat |
After 25 minutes the student is out of air and must surface with the instructor, I wait at the bottom with the captain, and then continue for another 15 minutes.
At the end of the dive, I am at 80 bar, the guide signals me to shoot up my smb. Does she want to see, if I am able to do it, or what?
Back on the boat she frankly tells me she forgot her smb on the boat...
The student is seasick and doesn't want to take the second dive. Ellie tells him to get off the boat and in the water it will be better. He has to put on his equipment in the waves, and we descend again to the reef Manchones Chico. Nothing special here.
After 21 minutes student and instructor surface again, instructor comes back and we continue for 23 minutes.
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| Master of disguise |
This guy had arrived in Cancun at 4:30 am, after flying in from California, probably didn't sleep that night, showed up at the shop at 7:30, took his first pool lesson, had a big lunch and then went on this first real dive at 12 (Just for information: My flight from L.A. to Cancun lasted 6 hours). His instructor forgets her smb, doesn't care about him for 5 minutes during his first real dive in the ocean, and forces him into the water and down for 21 minutes although he is very uncomfortable...
I just want to get out of this mess, get my logbook stamped in the shop and good bye. I am always willing to help with equipment, boat, tanks and everything, but not here.
If you want to dive the MUSA, find another dive shop, don't go for Manta Divers at Marina del Rey. I cannot recommend this dive operator.
Back in Tulum at around 6 pm,
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| Mariachi |
I drop into the Scuba.Tulum dive shop and show some pictures of my trip to Isla Mujeres. We know each other by now, the shop is slowly filling with clients, the season is picking up, I did not intend to, but I book another two tank dive for tomorrow, after Marina and Luis told me to not miss the Dreamgate and Taj Mahal Cenotes. A third dive group is set up for tomorrow, and it's only me. Unexpectedly, I will do another two dives with my highly estimated guide and buddy Rubi, exciting!
After some food around the corner I get stuck at Batey's until 10:30, then back at the Art Hotel the patio is full of people and music, they have a party and invite me for a drink. I am glad I speak some spanish, have another mojito, no tan dulce por favor, and go to bed at midnight, with a guitar player singing down in the patio. I feel very much at home here.
What a trip...
See you under water
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