Costa Maya, Mahahual and Xcalak MX

[RayMan]

This January we went south of our usual Playa del Carmen/Akumal haunts to check out the Costa Maya. Costa Maya is the region south of Tulum (and the Riviera Maya). The main coastal diving towns are Mahahual (Majahual) and Xcalak, which are just north of Belize. South of Tulum, most of the drive on MX 307 is interior but the road is good (wide and newly resurfaced)  and can cruise along at 100kph. Plan on 4.5 hrs from Cancun or 3 hrs from Akumal.

Mahahual has been developed in the past 10 years as a cruise ship stop (Costa Maya); the pier can handle several cruise ships at a time and generally ships come in Tues through Friday. They have built a board walk with shops reminiscent of 5th Ave in Playa, but this has a beach. Town is probably like Playa was in the mid 90s.  There are a fair number of places to stay and three or 4 big dive operations and a number of smaller ones. We stayed at an ecological (off grid, wind, solar, grey water, composting toilet) hotel Balamku about 6km south of town. The road south of central Mahahual has more potholes than we have here today - it is a slow 6km. There are places to snorkel, nice ruins an hour inland and plenty to do in addition to diving.  LocoGringo is good source of information. I posted some dive information on Mahahual in the "Any one been diving in Costa Maya Mexico" thread.

An hour south of Mahahual is Xcalak. It is probably what Playa was like 25 years ago. A number of places do not have electricity (north of the channel bridge) and rely on generators and bit of solar and wind (none developed as well as Balamku).There are a few hotels and a few places to eat. However, I think diving, snorkelling and sitting on the beach are the main activities. Not a lot for non-divers other than water, peace and quiet. And, not very many divers either (2 operators?). I just did a day trip from Mahahual and did not stay in Xcalak but I will if we go back to Costa Maya . We dove with XTC, a good and very professional shop.

Diving was outstanding. It might have helped that we had great weather but I would rate these as two of my top 10 dives. The first was at  Hab-Nah (Hob Na). This is spur and groove site at massive scale. We followed the sand along the ridge to 130' and back up the canyon and over giant spur and groove. Vis was 140+. The coral is almost pristine and fish were diverse and abundant.

The second dive was the La Poza Trench. The trench runs parallel to shore and starts out about 100' wide and 50' deep and extends to 400' wide and 120' deep. On the shore side is a coral wall that often extends over the trench. Fish are abundant  - tarpon, porgies, hogfish, eagle rays, tarpon, jacks, grouper, tarpon. See

At the end of the dive is a 150' diameter coral pinnacle that extends from about 80'  to 15' from the surface. One can spiral up to the top for the safety stop. Another outstanding dive. We did this as our second shallow dive but it could also easily been done as a deep dive. XTC describes these at:

I definitely would like to get back to Xcalak and do these dives again along with other coastal dives. We were trying to get to Chinchorro Banks, the largest atoll in the Mesoamerican Reef, but were not able to make it. Weather is an issue along with finding working equipment and reliable operator to make the 2hr boat ride to the banks.

All in all it is worth the trip to Costa Maya, particularly if you make it to Xcalak. The scenery is almost as impressive as Cozumel and there are way fewer divers.

[Shooter]

Thanks for the detailed report. Looks like a good place to dive.

[RayMan]

More info in May 2010 Sport Diver.