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| New Instructors! |
| Dec 01 08 |
Congratulations are in order to Dive Aventuras' newest Open Water Scuba Instructors, Nick Schruver and Javier Fortunado. After weeks of preparation with Nils, a PADI Master Instructor, and some quality time with Monica Hartleif, a PADI Course Director, Nick and Javier participated in PADI's instructor examination course this past weekend. The three day exam is intense and thorough. It includes standards and academic theory exams, classroom presentations, as well as rescue skills testing, confined and open water testing. Those of us who are Instructors know how nerve-wracking the process can be so we are particularly proud of all their hard work and success. Well done fellas!
New PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors, Nick and Javier |
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| My Sand Dive |
| Oct 19 08 |
Often, when we hear divers talk about "a sand dive", it doesn't evoke good thoughts. However, last week I went out to a sandy spot 40ft deep and 50ft x 50ft near one of our shallow dive sites, Castillo Bajo, and had the most incredible dive I can remember in a long time. In some ways, it reminded me of dives I've done in the "muck" of Indonesia (only the sand was white and I could see much further!). My intent was to photograph some seahorses that had reportedly taken up residence on small fans and gargonians in that area. Well, I saw seahorses all right, five of them, but I also got more than I had ever imagined!
Concentrating only on small things and looking down in the sand (okay, and occasionally at my buddy too) I found a beautiful orange seahorse, very slender, on a mid-size gargonian. After spending a few minutes waiting for my little friend to overcome his shyness and look at my camera, I located a larger, red seahorse closeby. I was just positioning myself for my "National Geographic moment" when I saw Andres waving franticly for me to come over. I swam over to him, all the while hoping I could find my way back to my latest discovery, and there, making his way across the sand in full defensive display was a Flying Gurnard looking very much like an underwater peacock, Now, in all my dives, I've only seen a few of these but this one was certainly the most beautiful.
After taking about 10 photos and feeling a bit guilty about so much exposure from my strobes, I left him to be and went back to my search for seahorses. Again, Andres was in my periphery vision, waving like a madman so over I went to find another unusual site. A small rough box crab, about 2 inches wide who would scurry across the sand then stop, and bury himself up to his eyeballs (which were perched high above his shell) and wait for us to back away. Once we permitted him some personal space again, out he would pop and continue on his way. It was very comical and fun to watch.
I resumed my search for seahorses and found a number of interesting things along the way. A teeny tiny hermit crab, the size of a kernel of corn, was hiding in the joint of a gargonian. I could barely make him out but my macro lens found him anyway.
Floating just above a small fan, something caught my eye and upon close inspection, I realized it was a pair of arrow shrimp. They looked like sewing needles in the water and once they retreated to the safety of their sea fan, were almost impossible to see.
 
After a 65 minute dive in this small, sandy environment, I had seen so much life that the next time a diver tells me they had a "sand dive" I'll be really happy for them! |
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| So What's Different? |
| Oct 08 08 |
People often ask us "What makes Puerto Aventuras diving different from scuba diving in Cancun, Playa del Carmen or Cozumel?" I tend to get lost in the answer because it's a whole lot of some things and a little bit of other things. Sound confusing? Well here's a list:
First, and most obviously, our location in the Riviera Maya which offers Caribbean reef diving just 5mins out of the marina and Cenote diving just 10 mins from the dive shop. No wading out into the sea with your gear to load the boat like in Playa del Carmen. No long ferry rides or van rides from Cancun or Cozumel to go diving in the cenotes. It's all right here! That means less time getting there and more time diving! It also means you'll spend less time getting to some of the other topside activities because of our central location.
Okay, enough about the topside logistics, what about the bubble blowing? Unlike Playa del Carmen, Cancun, or Cozumel, here at Dive Aventuras we are fortunate to be located along a little jog in the coastliine. That translates into mild to almost no currents. Granted, some divers love the thrill of being swept down the reef in a swift current. But for us slow pokes, folks who like to dive slow and look at all the cool stuff, watch fish behavior at a cleaning station, or for photographers who need time to "work" a subject, the easy going diving here is bliss! For training dives or for new divers still working on their bouyancy, it's a "no stress" environment for learning. No walls here and although I love a nice wall dive as much as the next diver, we do have deep sites with cuts and canyons and shallow reefs of coral gardens and finger reefs. That means divers can spread out and find their own space instead of lining up single file behind the guide for a forced march down the reef. Our divers often find the multi-level dive sites and the relaxing diving improves their air consumption and dives often last up to one hour.
I won't use this blog to go on and on about our customer service and personal attention. You can read what our guests say about that in the comments section of our website. But in a nutshell, that's the answer to the provebial question, "so what makes us different?". I hope we get the opportunity to share our differences with you on your next vacation to the Riviera Maya. |
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| Funny Things... |
| Sep 16 08 |
A couple of funny photos have appeared in my inbox this week and I thought I would share them.
Andres took this photo while diving last week of a sponge that looks like The Gingerbread Man. Although it appears relatively small in the photo, he says it was big enough that he actually considered putting a scuba mask on it to take the photo. I wonder what other nursery rhyme characters are out there??
The second photo comes from our friends Tom and Andi Moffitt from Minnesota. During their last visit, they went on and on about the Minnesota State Fair. They are huge fans and their stories brought back lots of good memories of the Dixie Classic fair that I attended as a child. Apparently, they were spending lots of time in the livestock exhibit and it seems that 4 out of 5 goats surveyed, preferred a Dive Aventuras hat!
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| New Dive Site! |
| Sep 06 08 |
Okay, truth be known, it's a little slow here right now. With most family vacations over, and kids back in school, the slow season is upon us. However, it's a great time to be here with flat seas and 84F degree water so the staff is taking advantage of that and diving as much as possible. One of the things we like to do during this time is explore areas we may want to add to our regular dive site lineup. Nils and a team of our staff cave divers have been off in the jungle laying line in a new cave site they are mapping. But for those of us who prefer a little "natural" light when we are diving, the big news is The Pelicano. This 50ft trawler had a past life here in Puerto Aventuras as a fishing and snorkeling boat but now rests upright on a sandy area of Paradise Deep at 117ft. This is a great dive for advanced, wreck, and nitrox divers. Even though the depth limits your bottom time significantly, the reef is very closeby and the profile can be mulitleveled into a 40min dive. I was out to it twice this week and although there is little growth on the wreck at this point, it is easy to penetrate and the fish life is healthy. There was a big green moray tucked up near the propeller on the stern and the huge anchor sits photogenicly just off the bow. The nearby reef is lush with orange elephant ear sponges, big gargonians and blue vase sponges. We saw three turtles, Baracudas, Spanish Mackeral, and schools of jacks. We're all pretty excited about this dive and look forward to sharing some of our new finds with you on your next visit.
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