The “Dream Extreme” trip we did last week took care of 5 diver’s bucket list staple items at the same time – not bad for one 4-day vacation! And the trip schedule was designed to build up the excitement: every time we got out of the water, the first words I heard were “That was the best dive of my life!” And then the next day, “That was the best dive of my life!” And the next, and the next.
Day 1 – A real drift
Bucket list staple #1, Check!
Diving in Cozumel is always drift diving. It’s natural for me, as I was “born and grew up” as a diver here, but not every destination offers drifts and for many people it’s a thrilling and sometimes challenging novelty. This is something every diver has to experience at least once, whether they get hooked on it and decide to move to Cozumel for more thrill or not.
My personal favorite dive in Cozumel is reef San Juan. Located in the North of the island, outside the marine park, it features fields of beige-coloredstylophora pistillata (club finger coral) and – almost guaranteed – a current so strong that your encounter with any marine life here is only in passing, “Hi, turtle! You are cute. Oh, bye, turtle, gotta go!” It’s a gorgeous dive. Flying over psychedelic corals and sponges is a spectacular sensation: surreal colors, surreal shapes – nice smudges of dimly bright blue, strange yellow, bright green. San Juan reminds me of a Persian carpet and always makes me feel like I’m gliding through a painting, like I am part of this painting – a moving dot ready to jump off the tip of an artist’s brush onto its new perfect spot.
Every time I dive San Juan I rediscover the feeling of pure unconditional happiness. Drift diving just does this to you – you become one with the magnificence of nature. And there are over a hundred different dive sites in Cozumel: each of them unique, each of them gorgeous, and each of them – almost always – an exciting and dreamy drift!
Dive Log – Day 1
August-20-2011: Dive #1 – Palancar Caves: max depth – 76f; bottom time – 44 min; water temp – 84F
August-20-2011: Dive #2 – Cedral Pass: max depth – 55f; bottom time – 58 min; water temp – 84F
Closing sentiment of the day
The first day of our trip was spectacular. Happily tired, we went straight to bed after dinner in anticipation of another long and, hopefully, wonderful dive day.
Day 2 - Cavern mystery
Bucket list staple #2, Check!
The official definition of a cenote is a sinkhole with exposed rocky edges containing groundwater; typically found in the Yucatan Peninsula, cenotes constitute a complex natural underwater cave system. My personal definition of a cenote is a heavenly haven. I have never seen anything more pure, beautiful, and serene. It is both an amazing visual, providing some optical conundrums as you gaze through the absolute transparency of the fresh water onto the jungle outside the cave, and an incredible sensation of all human emotions descending upon you all at once, forcing you to simultaneously feel peace, quiet, danger, age, exhilaration, sadness..
In my opinion, this is the closest feeling to flying. The water is crystal clear and fresh, there are no waves or ripples, there’s no marine life – sometimes you honestly forget that you are diving, especially if you look around and see other divers literally suspended in the air!
Cavern diving assumes you penetrate a cave filled with water – and even though while diving a cavern you are always within the reach of natural light (as opposed to technical cave diving), you are still surrounded by walls and a ceiling, which sometimes close in on you pretty tightly. In other words, whereas for some people cavern diving is a serene meditation, for others it could be an adrenalin-pumping challenge. Both experiences are good in their own right, but I don’t really recommend trying it if you have even a little bit of claustrophobia.
Your buoyancy has to be very good to dive a cenote. The floor of the caves here is comprised of limestone silt (not sand), which means that if by accident you brush over the floor with a tip of your fin, the visibility will immediately drop from 100% to 0%, and sometimes for several minutes – risky and unpleasant. Luckily, everybody in our group had great buoyancy control and we were able to maintain the silt-free environment during our both dives.
Another amazing thing about cenotes here in Yucatan is their location. They are usually tucked away neatly in the middle of the jungle, where the luxuriant vegetation makes you feel like you are being filmed for one of theIndiana Jones movies. Beware of vicious mosquitoes though!
VERDICT: IT'S EASY TO FALL IN LOVE WITH CENOTES!
Dive Log – Day 2
August-21-2011: Dive #1 – Chikin-Ha, right “wing”: max depth - 43f; bottom time - 36 min; water temp - 75F
August-21-2011: Dive #2 – Chikin-Ha, left “wing”: max depth - 40f; bottom time - 43 min; water temp - 75F
Closing sentiment of the day
Another day in paradise! The day was long and full of movement – we had to cross over from Cozumel to Playa-del-Carmen to dive cenotes and then left for Cancun right after the dive, but that didn’t diminish our childlike excitement in the least!
Day 3 – Wreck diving and Underwater art
Bucket list staples #3 and #4, Check-Check!
C58
Wreck diving is yet another special kind of diving where your objective is to explore shipwrecks (or crashed airplanes). Wreck diving is usually deep, as wrecks in shallower waters tend to deteriorate faster. There are thousands of popular wreck diving sites in the world. Some of these are artificial wrecks or wrecks sunk deliberately to attract divers (such as the USS Spiegel Grove in Florida and the Bianca C in Grenada). Others are wrecks of vessels lost in disasters (such as the Zenobia in Cyprus and MS Mikhail Lermontov – a 177-meter cruise liner lost in 1986 – in New Zealand).
Wreck diving options range from no penetration dives over the wreck to explorations of all narrow passages of the vessel, which can go beyond the scope of recreational sport right into the realm of technical diving. Shipwrecks seem to appeal to the human soul on many levels: from inspiring or heart-breaking stories to the mechanics of huge vessels to the ghosts.
On this trip, we went to the C58 shipwreck, located between Cancun and Isla Mujeres. It’s an advanced dive due to its ripping current reputation. And it surely lives up to it: at the safety stop – which we did hanging like grapes on the line because it was impossible to stay together otherwise – I was seriously preparing myself for the possibility of my regulator being kicked out of my mouth by the current! It wasn’t scary a bit though – so much fun! You just have to know what to expect and be ready to act fast, that’s all. Some people in our group had never done wreck diving before – boy, were they excited!
VERDICT: WRECK DIVING IS FUN AND CAN CERTAINLY BE ADDICTIVE!
MUSA
MUSA – Museo Subacuatico de Arte (Underwater Art Museum) – is one of the largest and most ambitious underwater artificial art attractions in the world (I’m sure they’ll soon build something in Dubai to beat that thoughJ). It consists of over 400 permanent life-size sculptures and was created in the waters surrounding Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Punta Nizuc in 2009 by Jason deCaire Taylor.
The museum aims to demonstrate the interaction between art and environmental science and forms a complex reef structure for marine life to colonize and inhabit. Each of the sculptures is made from specialized materials used to promote coral life, with the total installations occupying an area of over 420 sq.m of barren sea bed and weighing over 180 tons!
Today, the underwater museum comprises of 4 installations: Garden of Hope, Archive of Lost Dreams, Man on Fire and Silent Evolution. The Silent Evolution seems to be the most ambitious project – it’s a collection of over 400 life-size sculptures, forming a vast gathering of people aiming to define a new era of living in a symbiotic relationship with nature. Casts for the Silent Evolution were taken from a broad cross-section of society, predominantly Mexican, and from all walks of life: an accountant, yoga instructor, fisherman, student, acrobat, carpenter and park ranger – we are all facing serious questions concerning our environment and our impact on the natural world.
Conceptually, MUSA is a very interesting dive, making you ponder all the questions that inevitably always pop into your head in an above-water museum. In terms of ethics of conscious living, this is a very educational dive. From the diving standpoint though, it’s very easy – shallow (maximum depth – 25 feet) and relaxed (the current is minimal to none, the visibility is great, the water is warm).
VERDICT: MUSA IS AN INTERESTING SAMPLE OF MODERN-DAY ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS!
Dive Log – Day 3
August 22-2011: Dive #1 – C58 shipwreck: max depth – 78f; bottom time – 40 min; water temp – 82F
August-22-2011: Dive #2 – MUSA: max depth – 29f; bottom time – 64 min; water temp – 84F
Closing sentiment of the day
Diving extends far beyond fun, raising important questions that humanity is wrestling with – be it natural or man-inflicted disasters. As divers, our job is not only to get technically more advanced, but also advance ethically and apply this advancement into action…
Day 4 – Swim with the biggest fish on the planet
Bucket list staple #5, Check!
The highlight and grand finale of our “Dream Extreme” trip was snorkeling with whale sharks. Oh, I honestly don’t know where to begin!
Maybe the worry… For the past several years, whale shark gather every summer in the waters near Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Isla Holbox to feed onplankton, their favorite delicacy being tuna eggs. It’s a long – about 2 hours – boat trip from any of the three locations. We left at 6.30AM in an attempt to be the first boat on the feeding site so that we can have all the whale sharks we see completely to ourselves (usually this trip starts at 8.30-9.00AM). For miles and miles we were the only boat on the entire visible calm and quiet surface of the ocean. For miles and miles we were happily looking around, excited about an occasional passing dolphin, entertained by the fun stories of the captain. We knew that the trip is supposed to be long, but gradually everybody started to develop this trembling anxiety, “What if we don’t see any whale sharks!” And it’s quite possible – after all, whale sharks are wild animals and nobody can force them to feed on the boat schedule. The worry was heated by the “hit or miss” stories that we heard all over the place in Cancun and by the fact that during the previous two days only 2 whale sharks were encountered (and that is for over 30 boats!). As the leader of the group, I somehow felt personally responsible for success of this mission. To keep the spirits up I kept saying, “Don’t worry, guys, the captain is very experienced. I’m sure he’ll find some whale sharks for us, I wouldn’t worry at all! In fact, I have a feeling that we’ll see at least 60 (no clue where this number came from)!” But secretly, I was getting more and more nervous as time passed and we kept seeing only the calm surface of the ocean. Some grand finale it will be if the most amazing scheduled experience will not happen!
But then… Happy screaming on our boat took me out of my worry-thoughts loop announcing that we have arrived!!! And – my intuition truly impresses me sometimes – there was AT LEAST A HUNDRED whale sharks all around us! “Ahhhhh”, I could finally exhale with relief now. “Oh my God!”, I was screaming with the rest of the group next.
Immediately, we jumped in the ocean and dispersed in little groups to start the chase after several sharks. Boy, they swim fast! We were lucky that there were so many sharks that day: otherwise they would have to enforce their usual rule – 2 people per whale shark for as long as you keep up swimming with it, then you are taken back on the boat, approach the shark again and the next 2 people go in. We, on the other hand, spent hours in the water! I got exhausted after about an hour and a half and watched the rest of the swim from the comfort of the boat, but our videographers were there until the very last – three and a half hours without any break!
We asked why it is not allowed to scuba dive with whale sharks, only snorkeling is permitted. It turns out that scuba can actually harm the animals. As there are filter feeders, they keep their mouth constantly open. Consequently, if the shark accidentally swallows the bubbles produced by scuba diving, this can interfere with its digestive system.
Whale sharks are HUGE! I knew that whale shark (rhincodon typus) is the largest living fish species, but before you actually see one, you cannot even imagine the grandeur of this magnificent animal – they can apparently reach 42 feet in size and weigh 79,000 pounds! They are not scary though. Despite their formidable size and 4,000 teeth (no, it’s not a mistake, they do have 4,000 tiny toothpick-size teeth), whale sharks don’t emanate any subliminal signals of danger. On the contrary, they radiate great peacefulness – you feel like time doesn’t exist anymore, you are unquestionably “here and now”, the best set-up for a Buddhist meditation.
VERDICT: SWIMMING WITH THE MARINE GIANT IS A HUMBLING AND PEACEFUL EXPERIENCE!
Dive Log – Day 4
Snorkeling with whale sharks: Cancun-Holbox-Isla Mujeres; duration – 3.5 hours; visibility – excellent.
Closing sentiment
Sometimes we forget that our world is full of miracles… Adventures like this is a good reminder that we are part of this natural wonder. We just have to step outside the box we tend to put ourselves into, open up our horizons, and enrich our life one little magical moment at a time.
Hi Maria,
ReplyDeleteSounds like your divers had a wonderful four days of diving. Good variety! I love San Juan
also! Hey, what happened to the divers with
scuba mau. Sounds like they went a little too
deep.
Hi Mark!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great time for sure! As to Scuba Mau, I don't know really. You know how stories spread - I personally already heard at least 5 versions of the story, and I'm now in NYC... But the fact is that something terrible did happen and they are in an awful condition with long-term consequences... Sucks.