Megs in Mexico - A Trip Report

EBT

Is that a recognised anti marriage treatment?

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MikeH

Wow...that's quite the opposite of the experience I had at Villas de Rosa last December. My stay was great.

As for the problems trying to cave dive....well, it's Mexico, and things are quite different down there. If you aren't known and liked by the locals, you're likely to have problems. It's a great idea to either hire a "guide"(who doesn't necessarily have to dive with you, just make the dive arrangements) or hook up with somebody that knows the place pretty well and knows all the quirks.

Just wait til you try to go dive in a much more uncivilized part of the world...

Mike

mattmexico

yo all

I do have some comments about bribe and guide.....

Bribe....well, where to start... I sure have done it in my 10 + years living there but only about three times, and that is a long time ago. The currently elected governemnt of Presidente Fox of the PAN party was the first governement elected 71 years after the revolution that was not part of the socialist PRI party. When Fox came to power ( new presidential elections in July ) he took over with the promise to fight corruption and he has done a great job trying to fight the multi headed snake monster. He changed government policy, fired a lot of people, started public anti bribing campaigns and ways to pay tax, fees and governmemnt deposits in a way it is impossible to bribe. In my years of being there I have witnessed a large success in the fight against corruption.

Is it still there ?. You bet it is but not nearly as bad as it was only 6 years ago, the term of a single term President in Mexico, no reelection possible by constitution, thats to bad in his case. I just hope we will get as good a President the next time around.

The highway patrol ( Federales ) and local police that has jurisdiction over only small parts of HWY 307, particular from about 10 kilometers north of Playa to around 3 kilometers south, to just after Xcaret is targeting especially tourists with rental cars. Its kinda funny ( no realy ) to see them stop nobody else but rental cars. They target foreigners because they know most Mexicans, and that includes me, do not bribe anymore, but write down their name and license plate number and report them. So when I drive up and down the highway I see that all the time. White boys and galls arguing with them cops.

I guess that 1) the fear in a foreign country is great specially if you have only a couple of days and don´t want to go to the police station ( which is no fun and time consuming ). Guess what....them cops don´t want to go their neither. They know what they do is ilegal and they can´t do it on the station.

The Federales are a little different. They don´t need to go to the station, they are their own station with authority. And unfortunatly if they have set their sights on you you are at their mercy but keep in mind that a relaxed composure, a smile on your face ( even if it does not come easy ) and a non confrontation attitude will help you going a long way.

My motto is, no bribing anymore. For a long time. No way. I know I have not been speeding or do any other thing wrong. I tell them thank you very much for the education. All Federales speak perfect english. They are very well educated.

No bribes. No corruption. Not intrafic. Not in boat issues. Not in business relatesd issues or needed permisos. No bribes period. I do not support corruption. I care about this country. I have more time then money.

Guides ... long one too ... When people ask me how to cave dive in Mexico I usually ask them how many times have you been cave diving in Mexico and with their answer differs my response to them.

1) Never been there before. Well, you should take a guide. First you can tell them guides if you want to be held by the hand, if they should be in front, if they should prepare the lines for you or not. Just tell them. They work for you to make your experience a nice one. The guiding experience gives you time to aclimatize to the new environment, gets you used to particular unique rules or regulations , the low flow environment, the halocline, percolation, fine silt, velcro rock, great viz and them speleothems.

Since we are diving in such a fragile environment we really have to take care of it, activly protectiing it to conserve the natural treasure of this country, Mexico. Some local rules and regulations can be learned during the guided experience ( it is a federal offense and to break and collect speleothems ), as well as to learn how to deal with gate keepers ( sign some books at some locations ) , what the cost is ( between 60 and 125 pesos ), where to park, where the roads are, what to do and not ( Maya Blue and Angelita beware of break ins ) and the like. The same time you can dive the top 10 locations.

2) Been there before and have done 1) ... well cool. So you know the ropes, know how to deal with entrance, know that most cenotes close at 5 p.m., know the roads, know where to get air and at what times, rent tanks, where the roads are and the like. Only thing you need is a rental car from the airport and a set of tanks, stages, some kitty litter, some o2. Great. Go for it.

I believe that the step 1) and step 2) aproach makes sense. That is what I do when arriving at a new location. That is what I was taught in my very first openwater course. Aclimatizing to a new environment, learning local laws and regulations, ease into the new environmnet, have more fun that way too.

Greetings
Matt

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nmanfield

First of all congratulations - however I'm not in a good position to advise you on the Highlands. I only went there once- skiing when I was in the Army - My advice would be DONT go skiing in Scotland - apart from that it seems very nice . You might want to take your dive gear with you (do you really need that wedding dress?) and get over to the Orkneys to dive Scapa flow - It's supposed to be fantastic (though I've not been myself)

Congrats again,

Nick

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RonMicjan

Well the only thing Matt did not say is, The very best place to dive and stay is at his place in Playa, Mom's hotel and Protec diving, which is in the same building. I have stayed and dived there twice and am signed up to do my full CCR Cave next january with Dave (wedivebc). I highly recommend everyone at protec, its an awesome operation with no turnover in staff, ever. Matt, next time feel free to blow your own horn some more, its well deserved.

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decoweenie

IMHO, Scapa Flow is over-rated. I would simply drive over to Oban and dive (with Mark Henry).

Scott Carnahan

Thanks for the good words Ron. We still like to hear we are doing a good job for sure. Of course Matt and I would hate to mention that ProTec is the best cave/rebreather dive shop in Mexico too much although we work pretty hard to make that happens.

Matt pretty much hit the nail on the head with the bribing thing here in Mexico as did others. It sucks that it happened in the trip report, so of course it still will come up, but I recommend people just forget it as an option. I know that is easier to say from this side of the computer than on the side of the road with a policeman behind you but really just dont do it. Nobody actually goes to jail for swerving in Mexico and the issue of bribing is falling out of the country at a pretty rapid rate. It still happens for sure, but as somebody mentioned its pretty rooky really compared to a lot of countries. My advice on bribing is this, pretend it is not an option and you have never heard of it. Play dumb all the way and it goes away.

About guides. Guiding is the way to go I feel. When I go fly fishing I pay guides a lot of the time when I travel. In a way I still feel stupid with all my gear, experience, whatever, but the truth is I have always caught more fish in a place that was not "mine" with a guide. Every time. Diving is the same I feel. (And fly-fishing is way more expensive as a side note.)

For sure the days of hand hold guiding are over for cave diving. We as guides dont even want that. I will speak for myself when I say I want to dive with good divers and do good dives. I will do all the logistics, speak the language needed, tell the person what reels to bring, show them some navigation to get to where we want to go, get the right gases arranged, drive the car, and show you where the best shrimp tacos are on the way back. Im not going to put your gear together for you, Im not going to carry it to the water, and Im not going to dive beyond the limits of the diver Im guiding. I rarely lead the dives.

I hope everyone comes and enjoys the cave diving in Mexico, we really do have some great ones.

Scott

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www.protecdiving.com

giosoleti

Hi Brian, hi Heather,

I have been twice to the Yucatan and loved it. I do speak fluently Spanish and some other languages and that makes it easier to go around. Villa de Rosas has a good visibility outside of Mexico due to their ads in various magazines therefore that were the first place my wife and I went there to gather information. We had been told that it was easy to get lost in the Cenotes and the best thing would be to have a guided tour for the first day or two. We spoke to Nancy too and she wanted a fee per dive which reminded me more of some New Yorker attorney’s fee. At the end, my wife and I decided that we had been cave divers for so many years and that we would go on our own. I have to admit that we had been also encouraged by the people of Aktun Dive Center (www.aktundive.com) in Tulum. They are located at the corner of the first traffic light in Tulum (next to the grocery shop). Some of the most known and easy cenotes are few minutes from them. Our experience was great! The following days were exceptional. We moved our stuff to the Aktun Hotel. They give us every morning tips where to dive. We also met some of the local dive instructors who were very nice too and indicated us other cool places to go, they explained us where the tie-off would be and in one case even took me to the Mayan Chief home to introduce me and get the key to be able to dive Angelita (wonderful experience!!)

We went back to Aktun this January and found a new owner who was very helpful too. They also have the keys to access some of the local dive sites. By the way, filling up tanks have never been an issue at any time! The only problem is that the shop is not really set up for rebreathers.

The only advice I can give to cave divers is to hurry up, because the area is being subject to intensive real estate speculation and here and there some of the developers are not take seriously what is underneath their building. Some of the cenotes have been already restricted or closed down.

The second advice I can give you (for those who usually dive in North Florida), bring more cookies with you and never take short cuts. They have mostly T-junctions and not jumps where you have to place your reel, therefore it’s easy to miss a junction.

For those who have been already a few times to the area and would like to see something else. Try to contact the guys from protecsardinia.com in Sardinia, Italy. We have met them this year. They have opened up Protec in Sardinia, but used to work in Mexico prior to moving to Italy. They organize trips to the jungle around Merida to more remote areas. My wife and I are planning to go with them next year. By the way, they are nice guys and extremely professional (I’m not related to them, but I’m always happy to find people who are professional in an industry that lacks most of the time professionalism). I don’t know the guys from Protec in Mexico, but I assume they do a great job too.

Save diving.

Gianni

Scott Carnahan

Gianni

You are correct that Patrick and Toddy run great trips into Mexico (ProTec Sardinia). This year they do have a number of them planned in the November and December time. Those trips are a combo of trips into the State of Yucatan and Cave diving in the Riv Maya. http://protecsardinia.com.jovinus-me...le=580&lang=en that is the link to the Merida stuff in English. That is a good chance for a lot of people to get into some newer and different diving sites that are off the beaten path and see some great sinkholes and just neat places. When you go their website it comes up in German but at the top there is a switch to English though.

The other thing everyone could do if they want to meet the guys from Sardinia is go over to Italy and do some rebreather or cave diving there this summer also. Matt is there right now for the next week doing some diving in Sardinia with his Meg.

Sorry for the commercial break, no matter what we hope to see everyone in Mexico one way or the other.

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Explorer

We dove Scapa Flow for a two week stretch three years ago and had a blast. The Diving Cellar operation gave us great service and allowed us to explore the island with their van.

Next trip would be to explore the wrecks on the outside of the Flow.

Still, all in all, a great trip and experience, eh.

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