Back into the deep blue ocean

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We had 1 thing in mind when we got to Playa del Carmen - Diving! It took a few days to get around to it - we got distracted as detailed in the last blog.
On our first day in Playa we had made some enquiries about diving, but I'd not been impressed by the answers to my questions, and didn't feel too positive about the shops I'd visited. Safety and feeling relaxed and happy are probably the most important things when going diving.
Jess found a dive shop online with its own boat to Cozumel, which avoids having to get the ferry over, so we went to find them and see if they were any better. Luckily they were! As soon as we got to Tank-Ha we felt much more confident that they would stick to the PADI standards regarding our safety, and be more professional. I was so convinced that I decided this would be a good place to get my advanced certification.
We signed up for a pretty standard 3 day package - 1 day diving off Playa, 1 day off Cozumel and 1 day in the cenotes. We also added a night dive, because why not! On the 2nd day the boat for Cozumel was being repaired, so we added an extra day in the cenotes instead, and extended our stay for the day.
On my first dive I was very excited to have seen a sea horse 😊 these are very easy to miss, and not overly common. I was also very lucky to get to see an Octopus, although he was trying to hide so I didn't get to see him moving around.
Diving the cenotes is very different to anywhere I've dived before! The main attraction here is the flooded stalactites and stalagmites, and the amazing beams of light flooding in. You also get a hazy halocline line, where the saltwater and freshwater meet, which can be seen very clearly. This impacted my visibility whilst in it, but was really cool to see and experience. The best by far was the pit, which we dived on our 4th day diving. Luckily it was a sunny day, so we got to see the light beams in their full glory. Unfortunately it's very hard to photograph, so I didn't get any good pictures.
On day 3 we were very lucky to get to see 4 nurse sharks! The biggest was around 6ft long. They were so cool to watch swimming around right by us. Hopefully they'll be the first of many sharks we'll get to see.

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