Water WORLD
GET WET IN THE WILDS OF THE YUCATÁN. BY D. HEIMPEL
With fine, talc white sand and water so clear that you can see the silver angle-fish nibbling at your ankles, the Cancún area is a water enthusiast’s playground. It boasts reefs that rank among the best in the world, underwater caves that extend for miles, kitesurfing, man-eating salt water crocodiles and some of the ocean’s biggest sharks. Any way you slice it, it’s time to suit up for an adventure.
DIVE RIGHT IN
Just south of Cancún lies Puerto Morelos, a sleepy town of 3,000 people with a world-renowned coral reef. It is the second largest in the world and was recently named a maritime national park by the Mexican government. Because of this distinction, the naturally windy spot is forbidden to windsurfers and kiteboarders, who say that it was one of the best places for their sports on the Riviera Maya. Their absence has turned Puerto Morelos into a mainly diving town. There are three dive shops, and the diving opportunities are virtually endless.
Dive Puerto Morelos (www..divepuertomorelos.com) is a friendly shop run by a husband-and-wife team from Longview, Texas, who made Puerto Morelos their home 10 years ago. They offer everything from basic snorkeling to underwater cave or cenote dives.
Cenotes are large sinkholes in Yucatán’s limestone that can be found all over the peninsula. Because limestone is porous, there are very few lakes and virtually no rivers in the region, despite it having heavy rainfall. Because of this, natives traditionally fetched water from cenotes, some of which can be miles deep. The ancient Maya saw cenotes as sacred life-giving places—and at the famed Maya site of Chichen Itza, the green water of the Cenote Sagrado received many sacrifices.
Today, people are diving in willfully and exploring this rarely seen world. Dive Puerto Morelos offers tours to two nearby cenotes that go as far down as 125 feet. To blow two tanks and visit both will cost $125.
With Puerto Morelos off limits to kiteboarders, the beaches south of the beachside Maya site of Tulum are filled with huge kites and people roaring across the waves behind them. Marco Cristofanelli is an Italian beach bum who ended up in Tulum after diving in the Red Sea and the pristine waters around Malaysia.
“In 2004, I was sitting on the beach in Tulum,” says Cristofanelli, a man with a leathery skin. “I saw a guy flying on the sea, and that was my first encounter with kiting… I was in love.”
He has since turned that love into a business— teaching the technically difficult sport to newcomers and running tours from his hub at the aptly name Playa Paraiso. Through his Extreme Control Kiteboarding and Diving School (www..extremecontrol.net), rentals run from $70 an hour and go up to $450 for eight hours of instruction.
The beach itself is a great vantage, with square turquoise cushions on which to lie and servers ready with fresh beers. After a full day of being dragged by a kite, you’ll likely want a cold one—and the on-site massage bed may also be tempting.
PARK LIFE
Close by are two ecoparks, Xel-Ha (www.xelha.com) and Xcaret (www.xcaret.com). The paths of the two parks are built around mouths to underground rivers that spill out into the sea. At XelHa, you can explore the waterways in an inner tube, snorkel or even walk on the bottom of the sea floor with an oxygen helmet. Prices range from $39 at XelHa to $83 at Xcaret (where the price of admission also gets you a buffet lunch and snorkel gear).
Across from the Mediterranean-feeling town of Playa del Carmen (which is an hour from Cancún) lies Cozumel, a lush island with some of the world’s most renowned diving. What most of the 2.5 million annual visitors don’t know is that it is also home to salt water crocodiles that will swim as far as two miles out to sea in search of food.
The best place to see these beasts, which have been around for 240 million years, is Punta Sur Park (www.cozumelparks.org.mx), located five miles south of the Cozumel’s port. There are no buses, so you will either have to take a taxi or rent a scooter for $25 a day.
Punta Sur Park is an ecopark with a $10 admission fee.
This includes being carted around to a private beach and a boat ride in a large mangrove-lined estuary. There is an amazing array of bird life, with egrets and pterodactyl-like frigate birds swooping above.
The water is shallow and clear, and because it is calm, it is a natural site for crocodiles. You’ll be lucky to catch a glimpse of the beasts from the boat, but the park has a watchtower where spiky-toothed crocodiles converge.
A WHALE OF A CHANCE
Another island, with far fewer visitors, is Isla Holbox. Sixty-two miles northwest of Cancún, it is rarely on the average tourist’s Yucatán itinerary. But for anyone looking for high adventure sea sports, it offers something that no other island does: access to enormous whale sharks.
To get to Holbox, you will have to first get to Chiquila, a miniscule village with an hourly ferry. You can also hire a fisherman with a lancha (a small boat with an outboard motor) to take you across.
The water around the island is not the famed turquoise you will find further to the south; here, the Caribbean meets the Gulf of Mexico. While visibility is reduced, the water is charged with nutrients, making it a haven for dive-bombing brown boobies and fast walking shore birds. It is also attractive to 10-ton whale sharks.
There are many tour operators on the tiny island that will take you out on the water. All it takes is walking the sand roads that service the island’s 1,600 people to find one. Casa las Tortugas (www.holboxcasalastortugas.com; 52-01-984-87-52129), a beautiful beachside hotel, is one such operator that offers four-hour tours to see the world’s largest fish. The gentle giants are one of the sea’s most spectacular sights.
Holbox is also an excellent fishing destination. You can take a boat and find groupers, bonitos and maybe a marlin sleeping on the water’s surface. And for those who enjoy fly-fishing, the Isla Holbox Flyfishing Lodge (www.holboxflyfishing. com) is a great base to explore the island.
If you make it all the way to Holbox, be ready for some serious quiet time. If you are not there in the high season, few restaurants will be open. But the tranquility is also welcome for those trying to get away from the bustle of Cancún and the Riviera Maya.
WIND POWER!
THE HISTORY OF KITEBOARDING , THE EXTREME SPORT THAT’S MAKING WAVES ALL OVER THE WORLD.
400 BC
The Chinese are the first to fly kites.
13TH CENTURY AD
Kites are used for propulsion (also in China).
1903
Samuel Cody crosses the English Channel in a small, kite-powered boat.
1978
With the advent of Kevlar and Spectra materials, the “Tornado” kite-powered catamaran reaches high speeds of more than 40 mph.
1994
The “KiteSki” system—kite-powered waterskiing— is patented. It quickly evolves into a single board operation.
1997
The “Wikipa” kite is invented. Framed with inflatable supports, the kite was much easier to launch from water.
2001
There are an estimated 200,000 kite surfers worldwide.