Mahahual, Costa Maya

This is the place that got Hurricane Dean in 8/07 - cat 5 direct hit.  It really tore the place, up, but a year later, August, 08, it shows remarkable improvement.   We made this trip after reading the article in Scubadiving Magazine about Dreamtime in Costa Maya.  If you're thinking of getting a place to dive that's not as expensive as Cozumel, but just as good, this is it.  But also the diving is great for the price.  Currently this is a sleeply little fishing village with great reefs off the coast and only going to get better as it recovers from the hurricane.  Lots of small stuff I had never seen before, with the big stuff returning.  The diving is easy and the village is delightful.

We dove with Dreamtime divers and they are professional, looked after our gear (we could store it with them for the week), and were sensitive about our photography equipment.  You go out in small boats - no more than 8, and do two leisurely morning dives and they come back to shore then leave for one afternoon dive.  You can walk from Dreamtime to downtown Mahahual for lunch, or there are several really nice hotels up and down the coast from town. 

The reef did suffer during the cat 5 hurricane, but the formations are fabulous - lots of canyons, grooves, and swim-thrus that will make this a fabulous place to dive.  Dreamtime offers an "Exploration" dive, where you can go on further south on the coast and do a whole day diving rarely dived reefs, go on shore to eat a lunch and a little siesta, then back for your afternoon dive - it's recommended and worth the effort.  They also offer trips to the Chinchorro Banks, however we had heard that they were so badly damaged from the hurricane and the trip is a long trip out and back, we didn't make that trip.

We stayed at the Inn of 40 Canons, La Posada de los 40 Canones which is a delightful place to stay in the middle of town, but Balamku, Hotel Maya Luna, & Margarita del Sol are all great places to stay.  We just wanted to stay in town the first time.  They are clean helpful and all friendly - the whole town is friendly.

Such a great site, great op, and great hotel...what's the catch - it's 4.5 hrs south of Cancun, and that's the only way there right now.  There's scheduled to be a flight to Chetumal (capital of Quintana Roo), sometime this year, adn that will make it so much easier.  You can not fly into Belize and drive up (it's closer), because the rent-a-car places won't let you cross the border from Belize into Mexico -an insurance glitch.

We have a page devoted to our trip here with a little movie to see some of our fun.