Day 1 – 2/23 – Dive 1
Aldora Villa – 20’ for 80 Minutes
Arrived at the hotel (Casa Mexicana), got unpacked and then headed to Aldora Villa for a check-out dive to get my weighting down. Had a nice shallow/long dive. Sawa few nice critters and a couple of scorpionfish locked at the mouth. I got pretty close and they shot off and scared the crap out of me.
Day 2 – 2/24 – Dives 2, 3, and 4
Columbia Deep – 96’ for 57 Minutes
Santa Rosa Wall – 79’ for 69 Minutes
Delilah – 59’ for 84 Minutes
This was our first day on the boat with Aldora. We had some nice/long dives on some amazing wall/reef structures. Saw the biggest green moray eel of my life and my very first Toad Fish.
Day 3 – 2/25 – Dives 5, 6, 7, and 8
Canterell (Eagle Ray Wall) – 85’ for 62 Minutes
Balonas Shallows – 54’ for 43 Minutes
Seahorse Dive – 20’ for 21 Minutes
Santa Rosa Shallows (Night) – 54’ for 62 Minutes
This day was a mix of dives. Eagle Ray Wall was amazing, saw several Eagle Rays gliding along. Balonas shallows was a pretty “junky” dive. Viz was bad, very sandy, but got to see a Batfish. Our dive was cut a little short because we lost one person. The night dive was phenomenal and by far, my best photography dive of the trip.
Day 4 – 2/26 – Dives 9 and 10
Kukulkan Cenotes – 47’ for 32 Minutes
Chac Mool – 41’ for 44 Minutes
On Thursday we dove the Cenotes in Playa Del Carmen. They were absolutely amazing. My pictures do not do the site justice. In fact, no pictures/videos can show the awesomeness of these sites. I decided to shoot without any strobes. First, and didn’t want to be distracted with the strobes and second, I wanted to capture the sunrays without flash.
Day 5 – 2/27 – Dive 11, 12, 13, and 14
Palancar Caves – 91’ for 67 Minutes
San Francisco – 65’ for 76 Minutes
Punta Taneche (sp) – 68’ for 64 Minutes
Seahorse Dive – 32’ for 72 Minutes
This was another amazing day filled with cool dive sites and experiences. The highlight was going back to the Seahorse Dive site and spending some quality time with the horses. This was my first time seeing seahorses, how cool are they! Awesome stuff.
Day 6 – 2/28 – Dives 15, 16, and 17
Columbia Deep – 105’ for 56 Minutes
Columbia Shallows – 28’ for 107 Minutes
Chanakuub (sp) (Night) – 49’ for 63 Minutes
This was a special day because dive #17 was my 600th dive. It was an amazing day, we had a ton of fun on the long shallow dive and the night dive.
Day 7 – 3/1 – Dives 18 and 19
Santa Rosa Wall – 71’ for 69 Minutes
Francesca – 66’ for 82 Minutes
This was the last day of diving. It was an awesome and quiet day. Time for reflection and realizing I need to head back to the grind ☺
Thank you gDog for such a great trip. Can't wait to see your pics and corrections to my attempt at naming the sites :-)
Aldora kicked ass!
