Snorkeling in Mexico - Akumal
Last May 24 weekend me and a 4 of my buddies went down to Mexico for my cousin George's bachelor party. We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe just south of Akumel. We spent a lot of time in the water exploring the reef.
Most of the reef near the shore is in rough condition. Mostly gorgonian corals or large LPS (favias, maze), a few SPS corals, porities, stag, and monti cap. Although coral was lacking there was a tonne of fish.
Two of the my friends (George "the bachelor" and Lee "lewis844" on the forum) have their scuba licenses. They went on a few dives and said that the reef was way better out where they were diving. Here is Lee's pics from their dive trip.
http://www.thefragtank.ca/forum/index.php?topic=1208.0
I took with me 2 disposable underwater camera and took all 48 pics. Only about 15 of them turn out OK. Next time I will be buying or borrowing a proper camera.
The lay out of the land and sea
The first day - Partied our asses off. No time in the ocean.
The second day - The waves were really big so snorkeling at the resort was not an option. I knew there was a small bay just south of the resort (thanks to google maps) so, Lee and I decided to take a walk and have a look.
The waves were much smaller in the bay but the viability was crap due to the choppy water.
Here is a picture of the bay.
Angle fish?? not sure what kind.
We found this huge school of silver fish. The picture didn't turn out but it was a really cool sight. Literally tens of thousands of these swimming together. Kinda freaky though once i realized that this amount of fish ought to draw in larger predictors. Lee saw a stingray large but I missed it. We were in about 25-30ft of water (hard to see the bottom).
The 3rd day - We snorkeled a bit in front of the resort but there wasn't much to see. A few damsels, blue tangs, yellow wrasse, and lots of black urchants/snails/blue legged hermits.
My buddy John and I took a hike up the beach to the town of Akumal. I read that Sea Turtles frequent the shore right out side the town. It was a bit of a walk (about 4km north of the resort) but well worth the trip. We swam out quite away before finding a turtle. Water was super clear. Depth got as deep as 15-20 ft.
Turtles, barracuda, tangs, wrasses, damsels.
Here is a picture of the area we swam just outside of Akumel.
Barracuda 5 1/2 - 6 feet
Purple porities it think?
Octopus under the cement
Anemone
The Turtles!!
The 4th day - We all went to Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha cost us about 70USD. Defiantly a bit of a tourist trap but it was a super fun day. Snorkeled in the lagoon for 4-5 hours and saw a tonne of fish species. upside down jelly fish, turtles, huge conch snails, angles, tangs, damsels, jack fish, butterflies, parrot fish, grunts, stingrays, huge grouper. Not much for coral though.
Most of my underwater pics here didn't turn out for some reason.
Cliff jumping!!
El Gagante
Mangrove Tubing - Trying to know each other off the tubes was a blast and swimming between mangroves was incredible. Again, I took a tonne of underwater pics in mangroves because the water was crystal clear but the pics didn't turn out this time because there want enough light underwater.
Last May 24 weekend me and a 4 of my buddies went down to Mexico for my cousin George's bachelor party. We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe just south of Akumel. We spent a lot of time in the water exploring the reef.
Most of the reef near the shore is in rough condition. Mostly gorgonian corals or large LPS (favias, maze), a few SPS corals, porities, stag, and monti cap. Although coral was lacking there was a tonne of fish.
Two of the my friends (George "the bachelor" and Lee "lewis844" on the forum) have their scuba licenses. They went on a few dives and said that the reef was way better out where they were diving. Here is Lee's pics from their dive trip.
http://www.thefragtank.ca/forum/index.php?topic=1208.0
I took with me 2 disposable underwater camera and took all 48 pics. Only about 15 of them turn out OK. Next time I will be buying or borrowing a proper camera.
The lay out of the land and sea
The first day - Partied our asses off. No time in the ocean.
The second day - The waves were really big so snorkeling at the resort was not an option. I knew there was a small bay just south of the resort (thanks to google maps) so, Lee and I decided to take a walk and have a look.
The waves were much smaller in the bay but the viability was crap due to the choppy water.
Here is a picture of the bay.
Angle fish?? not sure what kind.
We found this huge school of silver fish. The picture didn't turn out but it was a really cool sight. Literally tens of thousands of these swimming together. Kinda freaky though once i realized that this amount of fish ought to draw in larger predictors. Lee saw a stingray large but I missed it. We were in about 25-30ft of water (hard to see the bottom).
The 3rd day - We snorkeled a bit in front of the resort but there wasn't much to see. A few damsels, blue tangs, yellow wrasse, and lots of black urchants/snails/blue legged hermits.
My buddy John and I took a hike up the beach to the town of Akumal. I read that Sea Turtles frequent the shore right out side the town. It was a bit of a walk (about 4km north of the resort) but well worth the trip. We swam out quite away before finding a turtle. Water was super clear. Depth got as deep as 15-20 ft.
Turtles, barracuda, tangs, wrasses, damsels.
Here is a picture of the area we swam just outside of Akumel.
Barracuda 5 1/2 - 6 feet
Purple porities it think?
Octopus under the cement
Anemone
The Turtles!!
The 4th day - We all went to Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha cost us about 70USD. Defiantly a bit of a tourist trap but it was a super fun day. Snorkeled in the lagoon for 4-5 hours and saw a tonne of fish species. upside down jelly fish, turtles, huge conch snails, angles, tangs, damsels, jack fish, butterflies, parrot fish, grunts, stingrays, huge grouper. Not much for coral though.
Most of my underwater pics here didn't turn out for some reason.
Cliff jumping!!
El Gagante
Mangrove Tubing - Trying to know each other off the tubes was a blast and swimming between mangroves was incredible. Again, I took a tonne of underwater pics in mangroves because the water was crystal clear but the pics didn't turn out this time because there want enough light underwater.
