Yucatan, Mexico, March 2012

Another take at capturing the magic of cave diving in Yucatan.

Mexico - info sheet

Visum	Belgian citizens, among others, automatically get a three months visum upon entry. No departure tax.
Transport	• Shared mini-bus from Cancun airport to Tulum pueblo (53 USD/person): 2h • Taxi from Tulum pueblo to the beach (50 Pesos) • Taxi within Tulum pueblo (20 Pesos) • ADO AC bus from Tulum, via Playa Del Carmen, to Cancun airport (168 Pesos/person): 2h.
Time	Cancun winter time = Munich winter time — 7 hours
Weather	Air temperature: 30°C warm & nice. Fresh water temperature: 24°C (in the cenotes).
Currency	1 EURO = 16 Pesos , 1 USD = 12 Pesos
Language	English is spoken. But knowing a bit of Spanish is recommended when you don't know your way around.

boot Düsseldorf 2012

Overnight train trip to Düsseldorf (109€ return in a 6 bunks cabin) to visit boot, the world's largest annual water sports fair (e-ticket 14€).

Having no important gear agenda this year, I actually had plenty of time to just stroll about and chat with several owners, managers & representatives of various resorts, located primarily in Indonesia, my favorite destination for recreational diving.


First up was Selayar Dive Resort, which I've had on my wish list for a while already. Being off the main tourist paths, it's a bit harder to get to, which makes it even more attractive to me. Definitely an option for our next trip, maybe in combination with a short stay on Bali?

Another one on my critter list is Lembeh Resort. They now also have a second place to stay further down south, near an abandoned gold mine, for some normal reef diving and non-scuba activities higher up inland. Sounds like a very nice combo to me!

Anke from Blue Bay Divers, where we stayed back in 2007, proudly presented her brand new 30m long Pinisi-style wooden live-aboard, the KLM Sunshine. Just my kind of diving, let's go sailing :o)

For live-aboard lovers, the MSY Seahorse looks pretty nice too... but with high class rates of about 400 USD/day too deep for my wallet.

Dreaming on, the exclusive Wakatobi Dive Resort is now getting some relatively affordable competition by the Patuno Resort Wakatobi.

It's possible to book directly with all of the above mentioned resorts and most will also arrange local flights where necessary. Or you can trust the whole travel organization in the hands of e.g. Aquaventure Tauchreisen, who smoothly arranged my 2010 trip. Their tip to me now being The Three P Holiday & Dive Resort on Romblon island in the Philippines... who knows?

Still high on my list is of course the Nautilus Explorer with its great white encounters at Isla Guadalupe, manta ballets around Socorro Island and/or kelp forest diving with sea lions near San Benitos.

And for a bit of action closer by, I might check out Atlantis Qualidive in nearby Austria this summer? [ see also: Attersee Diving World ]

Dry spell

No diving this year, for the first time since I got certified in 1993.

French Polynesia, October 2010

Snorkeling with humpback whales, face time with feeding blacktip reef sharks, eye-contact with play-fighting adolescent bottle-nose dolphins, diving with more than hundred gray reef sharks, swimming with napoleon, ... plenty of fascinating encounters indeed!


travel blog

French Polynesia - info sheet

Visum	For Europeans a valid passport is enough, but when transiting through the USA a to be paid and approved ESTA application is also required.
Time	French Polynesian time = CEST — 12h
Weather	Air temperature: around 25-30°C, with occasional rain showers. Water temperature: 26°C.
Currency	1 Euro = 119 XPF
Language	French & English are spoken by most.

Teatime with a nurse & some hungry boys

→ Among Sharks, clip #5: Nurse & Blacktip Reef Sharks

Dream over

Woke up in my own bed this morning. A dive bag full of salty gear and a light suntan the only apparent reminders I did not just imagine everything... In other words: I've got some back-logging to do.

Back to the future

Our time travel journey started yesterday at 5am with a 15' transfer by van to Papeete's air-port, for the first jump of our voyage, arriving in Los Angeles 3h into the future, after having hung 7h30 in the sky.

After a short Starbucks break, we boarded another, less comfortable but more efficient time machine, fast-forwarding us to Paris 9-1h* into the future in only 9h30. (* Losing one hour due to a seasonal irregularity, i.e. summer time returning to winter time overnight.)

From Paris to Munich time remained un-stretched, meaning we flew one hour and arrived exactly one hour later too. In time for our 2h earth-bound shuttle to Sonthofen.

Simply said, it took us 30h to get back home from the other side of our blue planet. With all our luggage. And some jet-lag.

Fakarava - Tahiti

Shortly after breakfast we're brought back to the atoll's populated north by boat (1h40) and pickup (25'), where after check-in at the airfield we're treated by our host to a plate of spaghetti so as not to travel with an empty stomach on the short (1h) flight to Tahiti.

Pink sand motu

Napoleon

Burning ear

Worrisome. As soon as we submerged my right ear started acting up: a slight discomfort and constant crackling noises at first, a painful burning sensation later on. So much so I had to abort the dive after having endured it for 44', my ear by then claiming my full attention.

Frustrating. Now that we at last enjoy warm sunny weather, with a beautiful reef full of sharks at our doorstep and curious napoleons begging to be photographed, I can't put my head below the waves.

Gray parade

The incoming tide today graced us with great viz and a stream of at least a hundred grays flowing by supremely.

The passage

Tetamanu's tidal passage is a less demanding and thus more enjoyable dive than Rangiroa's high-flow Tiputa. Not only that, the local gray reef sharks can be observed here within recreational depth limits, that is, between 20-30m. Special encounters are less probable though.

Besides the resident grays (carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) and the occasional blacktip (carcharhinus limbatus, not to be confused with the more common carcharhinus melanopterus, a.k.a. blacktip reef shark), the healthy reef's alive with smaller & bigger fish, most noteworthy of these being several napoleons, which, like sharks, have alas become a rather rare sight these days in asian waters a.o.

Rangiroa - Fakarava

Short 1h30 flight from Rangiroa to Fakarava*, via Manihi, followed by a 25' pickup ride and 1h30 speed-boat transfer to Tetamanu Village, a basic but friendly resort located on Fakarava's south end, right beside the Tumakohua passage, French Polynesia's #1 dive spot.

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We're warmly welcomed by Annabelle, Tetamanu's charming hostess. The two french guides though seem a lot less enthusiastic. Both are here temporarily. Not surprising I guess given the rather isolated nature of the resort and the fact that there's only one great dive site.

Polynesian black pearls

Today we visited Gauguin’s Pearl Farm, where we got shown around the sweat shop and informed about the pearl cultivation process.

Silver banquet

Got my mask knocked or kicked off upon back-roll entry. Luckily another diver saw it sink and caught it before it disappeared into perdition. Not quite the close contact with wild-life I had in mind coming here.

After several no show dives, our guide once again took two frozen tunas down with him to attract some action, desperate to offer us some entertainment. This time on Avatoru's reef edge, under slightly better controlled circumstances.


Guest list: one large & one medium silvertip, besides a couple of smaller ones for good measure and some gray reef sharks.

Forbidden attraction

Forbidden shark feeding dive off the coast so as not to upset the local fishermen? The sharks weren't hungry though, with just one silvertip and less than a dozen gray reef sharks joining our party after hanging around in the blue for almost half an hour.

I'm no expert, but hanging down some boxed bait from a bobbing boat while having a dozen uncontrolled divers hovering all over the place waiting for some feeding action, just doesn't feel safe right to me.

Eye-contact!

This morning we've been split up in two teams. A deep six team and a shallow four team. I'm in the latter by choice. No way I'm diving to 50m on a single tank of air with unplanned decompression and possibly strong currents, just to get a bit closer to the gray sharks congregating down there. Not to mention with a bunch of unknown, probably unqualified, and thus for me unreliable divers.

Soon after submerging, we're passed by a tight pod of seven bottle-nose dolphins and get approached by the resident school of large barracudas. Still wowed by these wonderful sightings, Yann suddenly points upwards. At the surface, two dolphins are taking a deep breath before plunging 25m straight down towards us. WOW! They appear to be two adolescent males undecided about play-figthing together or taking a look at us mesmerized tourists. So they show off both to each other and us, swimming real close to me several times. Once even close & slow enough for a brief eye-contact!

Afternoon slack-tide dive without anything worth mentioning. That's just the way it is with action diving. Either it happens or it doesn't.