Outstanding diving on Isla Mujeres

2. September 2018

In our hostel in Cancún we had met Raphael, a Brazilian flight attendant, who asked to join us to Isla Mujeres. He also brought with him Valter, another Brazilian he had just met the day before and off was the party crew.

We checked into the same hostel on Isla Mujeres and checked out the area together. Isla Mujeres was definitely more touristy than Isla Holbox and even though the water and the sand at Playa Norte were even more caribic style than on Holbox it was crowded with people at the beach and yachts in the water.

In order to avoid the crowd a bit and see more of the island we rented a golf cart the next day, loaded it with some beers and music and drove all around the island with several stops along the coast. The west coast had some nice, less crowded beaches and Club de Playa at Garrafon de Castilla even offered some pretty good snorkeling. Punta Sud was also interesting as it was the place where the sandy beaches ended and the steep coastline started. The rocky coast stretches all along the east coast with water so rough it was literally unswimmable.

On this day trip we also learned what it meant to be a true instagrammer. The two Brazilians were constantly shooting videos and photos with their mobiles and posting stories on Instagram. And when we showed Raphael the drone video we had just shot he insisted on having it immediately. Not in the evening, at that exact moment, so he could send it to his family. But for them that was just normal and probably also thanks to all this service Raphael had more than 23’000 followers on Instagram. His abs did the rest ???? We were impressed!

After our two new friends left the island we booked some dives for the following two days with Mexico Divers (www.mexicodivers.com). It was a cool group and the diving was quite spectacular. On the first day we dived the Machones Reef with some beautiful corals and all sorts of fishes. Two barracudas, two sea turtles, gobbies and some beautiful cow fishes as well as a yellow-black colored stingray we had never seen before. These were probably the highlights in this amazingly colorful underwater landscape.

The next day we explored a sunken gunboat. Our dive guide George claimed that he was the only one leading groups inside and he is only going with advanced divers. As we entered we also understood why. It was so small and narrow that we had to be quite careful when maneuvering and our group of seven people almost filled the entire boat. Strangely I felt way too light and constantly had to avoid hitting the ceiling of the boat. As I later found out, the reason for my struggle was the loss of my weight belt. I must have lost it right after entering the boat.

The second dive was at Punta Negro, supposedly the best spot at the island, and it was quite a ride. The current was strong and we made a good distance on this dive, gliding along beautiful corals and examining all sorts of fascinating marine life.

In the end we didn’t find another perfect beach on Isla Mujeres but we made new friends and enjoyed some outstanding diving. We were pretty surprised how amazing the diving and how healthy the underwater world was in Mexico.

1 comment

  1. Comment by Oscar Verdun

    Oscar Verdun Reply 13. April 2019 at 04:22

    Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Very useful info specially the last part 🙂 I care for such information much. I was looking for this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.

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