Xcalak/Dos Ojos/Cozumel, Mexico, 2000
Author: Instructor Gadget

Getting There:

The plane taxied down the runway and had already gotten into the queue to take off when we turned around and when back to the departure dock. They had apparently forgotten to close a hatch to the luggage compartment, and fortunately someone spotted the door hanging open and radioed the tower. It would not be cool to arrive in Cancun only to find out that everyone's luggage was spread out over a couple of thousand miles. I shutter as I think about the environmental impact my dive bag would have upon plummeting from 30,000 feet up and striking the Earth's surface below. I believe such an impact caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Once the cargo hold is sealed we taxied back out to wait in line to take off. We're an hour late getting into Cancun because of this.

After finally getting our luggage we found a courtesy van that would take us to the car rental agency. We had reserved a Jeep with National Car Rental a month earlier through the American Express Corporate Travel Agency. I had called several car rental agencies trying to line up a Jeep for that weekend, but nobody had any. As a matter of fact, they all told me they had no vehicles left to rent. They had all been reserved for the Memorial Day weekend like 6 months in advance. So when I called American Express Travel to see if they could find me a car, they found one easily and even said they had a Jeep for me. What luck!! Well, we get to the National Car Rental Agency and they had us down to be put into a VW Beetle. I pulled out my conformation letter from AMEX showing a Jeep reserved and they just shrug their shoulders and tell me they don't have any left. This was not going well at all. There was no way to put Rosie and I with all our dive gear and stuff into a VW Beetle. I don't care how many college kids can fit into one. We can't fit all our gear in there and still be comfortable for the 4 hour drive to Xcalak. They finally located a small 4 door VW sedan with tires the size of the 10 peso coins in my pocket. At least it had air conditioning. Well, it kinda had air conditioning. I know the Europeans have never had great air conditioner units in their vehicles because they don't need them, and this one was no exception. The only time it would blow out cool air (not cold) was when we drove at least 100km/hr. I would have thought a new car with only 17000km on the odometer would work better, but it didn't.

We headed out south on 307. This is a very nice highway and driving it wasn't any problem. Rosie (my wife) decided we needed to buy a cooler to put some drinks on ice in for the drive down to Xcalak, so we stopped at every little convenience store along the way. She would go in and ask for a cooler in Spanish (It's great to have an official interpreter with you. Since Rosie is Mexican, Spanish is her native language.) and they would tell her they don't have any, but the store down the street does. The next store would tell her they don't have any but the store across the highway does. The store across the highway would tell her they don't have any, and they would point us back to the first store we stopped at. At Playa Del Carmen, we decided to stop and eat. We found a nice little taco vendor on the street and we had 4 pork tacos and a coke. This cost us $2.00 and they were quite good (and we didn't get sick either, this was even better). I didn't see any cats or dogs running around so I figured this was a good sign. Afterwards, it dawned on me that NOT seeing any cats or dogs may be a bad sign. Everyone knows that "TACO" spelled backwards is "O'CAT". Rosie then headed down the main street going into the shops asking for a cooler again. I stayed with the car to keep an eye on things (and because Rosie says I butcher her language when I try to speak Spanish). An hour later she returns with no cooler. We begin to realize we might be able to make a small fortune selling drink coolers down here. We decide to blow off the cooler and get heading down to Xcalak.

We stopped in Tulum (about half way to Xcalak) to get something to drink at a convenience stored with the words "Stop N Go" painted on the side. Well what do you know, they had a Styrofoam cooler. We bought it, some drinks, and some ice, so we're all set. I paused briefly at the words "Stop & Go" painted on the side of the building, and after a quick calculation of what the cooler, drinks, and ice cost us, I decided I should sneak back in the middle of the night and paint "Stop & Rob" on the side instead. Off we go at 130km/hr down the road.

We're almost to the turn off point to get to Majahual and then on to Xcalak, and we're passing through the little village of Limones. We get behind a Semi-Truck that is easing through the town at brisk pace of 10km/hr. The truck slows down even more on the highway and then comes to a complete stop. I'm thinking it's either a traffic jam ahead of us or maybe an accident on the road (there are lots of crosses along this highway so we figure a lot of people must die traveling this route). After a few minutes the truck driver opens his door, jumps down, and walks across the highway to a little café across the road. I'm thinking, "What the f…" and slowly easy our car to the left so I can peer down the highway. There's not a vehicle in site. Well, I guess the trucker was hungry and what better place to park your truck than the middle of the highway. It sure makes getting out of the parking space and back onto the highway a lot easier, since you're already on the highway. After a few kilometers I'm traveling at warp speed again (it takes awhile for this vehicle to build up speed).

We reach the turn off to Majahual and it's getting to be late as the sun will be setting in about an hour. Almost to Majahual we pass a Jeep (probably the one I was suppose to get), and I see the driver is covered with tattoo's. In my rear view mirror I see him apply his brakes, and I do the same, and put it into reverse. This has to be Chas whom goes by "tat2chas" on the Diver to Diver Message Board I'm always conversing on. We're suppose to meet up with Chas at the Mayaha Resort there between Majahual and Xcalak to finalize our diving plans with the resort. We do like the locals do and park our vehicles on the highway and get out to chat. Chas has a great personality and is a lot of fun to talk with, so it you ever get a chance to meet him, you should.

Xcalak:

Chas informs us that there are no dive boats running our to the Chinchorros Banks since the wind and the seas are too rough for them to venture out (bummer batman!!!). Chas and his companions are heading back to Tulum to get a cabana on the beach for the night and then on to Cozumel in the morning to try to get in some more diving there. Rosie and I were bummed for driving all this way and we won't get a chance to dive the Chinchorros Banks. We tell him we'll try to meet up later as we want to go check out the beach and the towns. We have an appointment for Sunday morning to look a properties down here as we where considering this as a possible location for a dive boat operation. However, if the diving is this sporadic then opening up a dive boat operation here would not be that great of an idea or investment. As we saw later in Xcalak, several dive shops are for sale (not a good indication). We decided to leave a message for the woman that was to show us her properties that she is selling. At this point we are no longer interested in buying here because of the sporadic diving conditions. If you want a quite secluded place with beautiful beaches to get away from it all, Majahual and Xcalak are the place. But don't get your hearts set on diving. We talked with Mike at Mikes Marina there in Xcalak and he said they haven't been able to go out for 2 weeks. I'd hate to take a vacation for a week of diving just to arrive there and find out that you can't dive the whole week your there. The sun has set and we jump back in the car and head back toward Tulum.

We arrive in Tulum at 11:30pm and my eyes are crossed. So we pull into the first hotel we see to get a room. What do you know, there is the old familiar "Stop & Rob" across the street. I ponder briefly about locating some paint to change their name with, but it's late, I'm tired, and I figured I'd have the same luck finding a can of paint as we did trying to find the cooler to start with. The next morning we get up and head out to the cabanas to find Chas. We find the cabanas and Chas is getting ready to head to Cozumel to get in some diving. I told Chas that we would meet him there in Coz later because I saw cenote diving all along the highway and I've always wanted to try it. Rosie wasn't crazy about the idea of diving in a cave but she went along with it anyway. The Dos Ojos Cenote was recommended to us and it's just north of Tulum there on our way out.

Dos Ojos Cenote:

We find the entrance to the Dos Ojos Cenote with the dive shop and restaurant just off the main road there. The owner/operator, a very friendly American, showed us pictures taken down in their cenote and it's absolutely beautiful. Rosie says she has changed her mind (I quietly think to myself, "I hope this one works better"), and she wants to dive the cenote too. They informed us that I-Max was just there a few weeks ago filming the diving in their cenote for a show they are putting together. This is something to look forward to.

They load our gear onto the remains of what once was a truck, but is now a frame with an engine, 4 tires, a drivers seat, and a wood flat bed in the back. I ask the driver if this vehicle has passed State Inspection, and he just looks at me blankly. I have my wife translate it into Spanish and he still looks at us blankly. Oh well, I guess it looses something in the translation. It got us to the cenote, about 3km down a rocky dirt road, 20 minutes later.

The opening is only about 6 ft by 4 ft wide. You put your dive gear together on the surface and they lower it down with a rope to a platform inside the cavern. Then you climb down a ladder and it opens up into a large chamber that is filled about 1/3 with cool, clear, fresh water. The chamber here is about 75ft square and the water is crystal clear (about 200 ft visibility underwater). The water is about 75 degrees. Just the perfect bath water temperature for me, but Rosie is shivering already just thinking about getting in the water. I rented Rosie a 3mil shorty to wear under her iso-fleece dive skin, but she still got cold. As for me, I was hot in the water and secretly wished I could dive down there naked (but this is a site the nobody would want to see). They have a large wood platform built a few feet above the water. The Dive Master gives us a briefing into cavern/cave diving and how to kick to avoid stirring up the sand on the bottom. We use Force Fin Pro's so we tell him we swim by just flicking our ankles anyhow. He picks up our fins and inspects them and flips them back and forth. He smiles and says he likes em. All the Dive Masters/Guides come over and look at our equipment because they've never seen stuff like it before. We're using our AGA Full Face Masks with the OTS SB-1001B Underwater Communications systems, and I'm using my NightRider Digital NR-4000 Dive Light with the twin beams that I strap to my wrist so both my hands are free. They seem most interested in the communications equipment though, and keep asking me questions about range, clarity, and of course cost. I wasn't too sure how the comm units would work inside a cave or cavern but this would be a good test. Well, maybe not. Rosie and I where never out of sight of each other so the comm signals never had any blockage to try and go around or echo off of, so they functioned perfectly in that condition.

You do 2 tank dives. Each lasts about 40 minutes. Your never get below 30 feet and most of the time your around 10 to 15 feet in depth. We arrived back at the platform after each dive with around 1500psi still in our tanks. There aren't any currents so the swimming is slow and easy. You swim though stalactites and stalagmites and the beauty is breathtaking. I see the allure that cave diving has for the cave divers now. Somehow, all the imagery seems unreal. As if this was something created for us to look at, and admire the handiwork of some unknown artist from eons past. If you every get a chance to dive this cenote or any others like, it's definitely worth your time to check it out. Would I do it again? Yes, definitely.

On To Coz:

We left the dive shop about 5:00pm and headed to the ferry that would take our rental car across to Cozumel so we could try and meet up with Chas again, as he is there arranging a dive boat to take us out in the morning. We find the port that ferries the cars across, and find out that the next ferry leaves at 5:00am in the morning. We have to be there by 3:00am, and it's $120 round trip for them to take us. And it's a 3 hour boat ride on that ferry. Well, no way Jose. We drive back down to Playa Del Carmen and we parked the car in a parking lot for $5/day so we can hop the passenger ferry across for the $25 round trip. The parking lot is about ½ mile from the ferry dock so we begin pulling my dive bag along for the trek toward the dock, which fortunately was mostly down hill. I wonder as we are heading toward the dock how I'm going to get this dive bag back uphill, and begin to search for a street down to the waters edge that I can drive the car down. No luck, it's just sidewalks and shops all along the way. We just missed the 7:00pm ferry leaving (we saw it pulling out as we arrived at the gate), so we had to wait for the 9:00pm ferry, but at least it only takes 45 minutes to cross on this ferry. We have dinner there at the ferry pier at a place called Senior Frogs. The food was really bland and expensive, just like the tourista's like it. A cute Mexican waitress approaches us at our table and asks if I would like to try "Sex on the beach". I'm thinking "WOOHOO!." Rosie must have noticed the smile on my face, the gleam in my eyes, and the rise in my Levi's, because she quickly said, "It's NOT what your thinking!! It's an alcoholic drink". I don't drink, so except for the cute Bud Lite commercials I see on TV, I don't have a clue as to all the names of alcoholic beverages. Now don't get me wrong, I'm no prude. I just have never liked the taste of alcohol, so why should I drink something if I don't like the taste of it. Of course, I don't mind if Rosie has a drink every now and then, which she occasionally does. As a matter of fact, I kind of like it when Rosie has a few drinks and gets a buzz on. You know, when your wife/girl-friend has had a few drinks it's the only time it's legal to speed on the Texas highways.
"I'm sorry officer. I didn't mean to drive so fast, but my wife here has a buzz on, and I have to get her home before it wears off."
"I understand sir, allow me to offer you a police escort back to your house."
Rosie declines the drink and I think to myself, "Damn!".

Dinner was bland and expensive. Just like the tourista's like it. We had left an item in the car, so Rosie decides to go back to the car and get it while I wait at the table for her to return. As soon as she disappears, the same cute Mexican waitress that had offered me "Sex on the beach" earlier (unfortunately just a drink), comes back to my table and asks me if I'm a scuba instructor (I had my Scuba Instructor hat on). I reply "Yes", and she begins to tell me how she is a Dive Master and use to take divers in Cozumel out, and all the things she use to see down there. She asks me about places I've dived and where I'm from. I tell her Dallas Texas. She has a shocked look on her face and say's "There's an ocean in Dallas?". I laugh and say no, just mud in the lakes. She wants to know what I see in the lakes and I tell her not much. You only dive the lakes in Texas for training or practice. The real diving is, and always will be, in the ocean. We continue to talk, and I told her about diving in the different parts of the world that I've been too. After awhile she spots Rosie returning and abruptly leaves. Rosie gets back to my table with a scornful look on her face and asks me, "What was SHE doing back over here talking to you!" I just laughed and told Rosie about how she was a Dive Master. How we were just talking about all the places we've dived. Of course Rosie doesn't believe any of this, so thinking quick, I come up with a good lie that she will believe. I say, "Ok, she really came back to offer me 'Sex on the beach', and it wasn't the drink this time either". Of course this, Rosie believes, so she glances daggers out her eyes at the waitress and then at me. I cringe as I think back to an evening awhile ago as my stepson and I were watching an episode about UFO's on Unsolved Mysteries. In the middle of the show, he turns to me and asks, "Have you ever seen a flying saucer". Without even thinking about it, I replied, "Yes, every time your mother gets mad at me". Word of warning. If you're ever married to a woman of Latin American decent, don't piss her off. Does John Wayne Bobbit ring a bell. I see Rosie looking out towards Cozumel and wondering aloud, "Where's that damn ferry".

The Ferry:

The ferry arrives about an hour later, and we haul or bags to the boat. A skinny little porter tries to lift my dive bag up onto the ferry and he can't budge it. A second skinny porter comes over to help and both of them can't lift it. They come to me and tell me I have to go pay extra to have that bag brought onboard. I just look at them stunned and lift my bag a few inches off the ground in an attempt to demonstrate that it's not that heavy. I feel a pain in my groin, and it's not from thinking about the waitress earlier. The boys don't buy my demonstration, and still insist I go pay extra for the bag. Rosie steps in and begins to talk to them in Spanish. I can't understand a word she's saying (maybe if they would talk really really slow I could grasp a few words), and I think I hear her say "kafayo gringo". I remember from watching "High Chaparral" as a young boy that "gringo" means American, so I assume she is trying to convince them that I'm a very important person back in the United States. Hey, I know a guy that once talked to a plumber, that has a second cousin, that shook the hand of a man, that has a daughter, that does the hair of the personal secretary to the President of the United States. Why Slick Willie and I are practically on a first name basis. Anyhow, after a few moments, Rosie convinces them to load my dive bag onto the ferry. It takes 3 porters lifting and 1 porter on top of the ferry pulling to get the bag onboard. The ferry begins to lean to port side as my bag is hoisted onboard. I tip them each 10 peso's, and their eyes got really wide. I figure they must not have ever been tipped this amount before as they go off in amazement muttering what sounds like "kafayo gringo" again. I didn't want to tell them I really wasn't that important because I figured they'd have fun telling all their friends about me, so I let it slide.

Cozumel:

We get to Cozumel, grab a room at the Suites Colonial, and get a taxi to help is locate Chas since Chas was kind enough to give us the address where he was staying. The Cabby locates the street and the address but it looks like a small apartment with no upstairs, and Chas said he was upstairs. We couldn't possibly see how you would get up there. So at 10:30pm we start yelling out Chas' name. A few moments later we see Chas appear on the balcony (looks more like a roof), and I think we must have woken him up (Sorry Chas). Chas glances at his watch and grimaces at the thought of it being zero-dark-thirty at night. We ask him if he got a dive boat arranged for us and he informs us that he had a place for us on the boat with Dive Paradise, but since we were so late getting in, they sold the last 2 places to someone else. We decided we'd have to locate our own boat and would get up early in the morning and go out to the dock to ask if anyone had room.

We got up at 6:00am and got down to the dock by 6:45am and saw some dive boats loading up tanks. Rosie asks them about taking us out with them, and they tell us we have to go to their dive shop when it opens. Problem is, the dive shops usually open after all the dive boats have left. We go and sit down for breakfast and Rosie mentions to the waiter that we are looking for a dive boat to take us out. It just so happens that a dive boat operator is having breakfast there so the waiter sends him over to talk to us. He has a large boat with only 4 others going out so he agrees to take us out (what luck!!!). We met him at the dock at 8:30 and we're off to the Palancar Gardens.

The weather was overcast with heavy clouds so there wasn't much light to see any colours down there, but the vis is still good as always on Coz. However, it didn't seem as good as it usually is. I saw a lot of suspended particles in the water that seem to make it look hazy after about 80 feet even though I could still make out coral formations out to 150 ft. The currents seem to be light so it was just a slow easy drift dive. Of course any dive in Coz is a good dive when the only thing you have to dive in back home is mud. The boat was old, large, and slow and all the other six-pack boats zipped by us like we where standing still. It took us an hour to get to the Palancar Gardens. There are 2 other couples on the boat. A couple from Ohio that seem pretty nice. They were about in their early 50's and she was skinny as a rail. She had on what looked like at least 2 6mil wetsuits with hood and gloves and she still complained about being cold after the dives. The other couple where European. He was from Italy and she was from France. Again, both of them were in their early 50's or late 40's and were there taking their Advanced Open Water Course so they had a woman instructor (whom we found out owned the boat we were on). Turns out she was French as well and they just sat over on their side of the boat talking in French the whole time. We never saw them during our dives, so I guess they were off doing their own thing. Sometimes they would speak in Italian and Rosie could understand some of what they were talking about since Italian and Spanish are very similar. Afterwards, Rosie told me how they were making fun of our AGA Masks. I just said, "Well, they've never tried them, and of course they're European. They'll always make fun of someone else's equipment if it's not what they're using."

The Dives:

I don't know if it's just me, but seems each year I go back to Coz and dive, there seems to be less and less fish life. Just didn't really see anything much this time around. Maybe I just wasn't looking. I was helping Rosie work on her buoyancy control. She seemed to be overweighed to me so on our next dive I had her reduced her weight 3 pounds. Afterwards I realized she didn't have her integrated neoprene vest attached to her bc, so this accounted for some of her overweighing. Our second dive at Cordona was much better for her since she didn't have to add so much air to her BC to become neutrally buoyant. But pretty much the same lack of fish activity at this dive site as well. We did see one big school of Grunts, and a passing Barracuda that I couldn't even get to slow down to look at the long, shiny, dangling earrings I had my wife wear for the dives. I was hoping to get some good Barracuda action on film. She doesn't realize that the earrings are actually fishing lures that I bought at a local sporting goods store back home. The dives were uneventful.

After the 2 dives we check out of the hotel and caught the ferry back to Playa. The ½ mile trek back to the car is mostly uphill, and as I struggle to pull my dive bag (Charon), I briefly wonder if the waitress from Senior Frogs is anywhere near. I'd pay good money to have her pull my dive bag uphill as I push from behind.

Conclusion:

Anyhow, that's all the diving we could do since our plane was scheduled to leave at 1:00pm the next day. All in all, it was a very good trip. We didn't get to dive our plan, but we did get to plan some dives that we wouldn't have dived if things had gone completely right. If it was any consolation, even the locals said diving at the Chinchorros Banks isn't all that great. They don't know why all the dive magazines are making such a big fuss over it. But as long as it brings in the tourista dollars, they don't care.

I hope yall enjoyed this report. Sorry for the length of it, but I tend to get a bit wordy when I start talking about diving. I left out the fun we had in Cancun at Pericos Restaurant that last night we were there to keep it this short. What a wild place. Be sure to go there and eat some evening if you're near Cancun. The food is fantastic!!!

Travis (Instructor Gadget)

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