Dive In Costa Maya, Mexico at Mahahual
Costa Maya in Mexico was an early stop on our 26 day cruise with Oceania Cruises. We debated with ourselves and finally booked an excursion to dive in Costa Maya. We knew that scuba diving in Mexico was sometimes hit and miss. And we knew that scuba excursions from a cruise ship or when diving is included “free” in a resort package, sometimes meant sub-optimal dive site selection.
When the ship docked we could see waves crashing up on the dock and we suspected that weather might further mess with our having a great dive in Costa Maya. It was a small group – just David and I with Stephanie (one of the ship’s excursion team). Stephanie occasionally got the chance to accompany the divers and go diving herself. A great treat for her!
The Dreamtime Diving shop staff picked us up just on the dock and had us fill in yet one more set of paperwork and then bundled us into a jeep-like taxi for the ride to the dive shop. There was a running commentary on the area and the little fishing town of Mahahaul as we drove through.
The dive shop was small but well outfitted. The map on the wall showed the quite extensive reef that was offshore at this point to go for a dive in Costa Maya.
We were handed off to Mike as we walked over the sand and into the water to get into the small dive boat. With the waves smacking at the little boat I was worried about my ability to haul me and my gear up the little ladder after the dive. Good thing I got help to take off my gear and weights before I tackled getting back into the boat!
The Soft Coral – Scuba Diving at Mahahaul
We did two dives with a short interval to change out tanks at the pier. With only 3 divers, it was almost as if we were on a private dive charter which allowed us to move slowly and stop when Mike found something we should look at.
We were told it would be a drift dive but with a heavy current and regular surge, it felt like on both dives we were swimming constantly. We saw mostly small fish with lots of soft coral on both dives. The Whale Sharks certainly weren’t in this part of the reef at this time of year!
It was an ok dive in Costa Maya but not one I would need to sign up for ever again. Diving in Cozumel had been much better – even with coral that had been sand-covered from a hurricane. Our trip to the mainland of Mexico to dive in the Cenotes had been much more interesting. But on this excursion we did get great exercise – to offset the desserts for the rest of the day! And we did get some diving in to help us stay current.
We had another dive excursion booked for Grand Cayman but we would later find that this was cancelled due to the low number of divers from this cruise. Maybe we shouldn’t have bothered to haul all of our scuba gear on the cruise. A good thing to consider next time!
Did you dive in Costa Maya? Have you had a better experience diving on the coast in Mexico?
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