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Dive Review of Scorpio Diving in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cancun

Scorpio Diving, May, 2012,

by Rick Tavan, CA, US (Reviewer Reviewer 5 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 6561.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations N/A Food N/A
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving 4 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments The bad - it's difficult to find reviews of Cancun-based diving. Even Undercurrent itself automatically re-categorizes all Mexican Caribbean diving as "Cozumel." Diving in Cozumel is, indeed, better than in Cancun, but if you find yourself, as we did, on a general vacation in Cancun and want to include some diving among other activities, it's ample.

The good - The reefs just off Cancun were less spectacular than those we remembered off Coz but they were colorful, healthy, uncrowded and perfectly adequate for a dive break. We did a two-tank day there on a decent panga, six customers with two DMs. These were drift dives in moderate current, very similar to Coz. Later that week they picked us up at the hotel and took us South to Puerto Morelos where we did a nice wreck in calm water and a rather unspectacular reef. Finally, the next week, they took us to Tulum for two delightful cenotes dives, fresh water caverns in which you are never more than 40 meters from an exit. The rock piles, stalactites, thermoclines and haloclines were fascinating. We are considering a future vacation stay there, diving different caverns every day. Many operators, including ours, will take Cancun-based divers on the ferry trip to Cozumel, but we didn't make the time for that on our generally non-diving vacation. We've seen Coz and expect to return, but this trip was only peripherally about diving.

Wished I had known - more about the characteristics of the various operators. We spent an afternoon driving around Cancun looking for some of the dive shops we had found online. Some were hard to find as their addresses were off from published by as much as 2 km. (Addresses on the Cancun hotel strip are just distances from town on the main road - no building numbers.) It appears that a "dive operator" in Cancun may be as informal as an individual with a cell phone and English skills who fronts a collection of independent drivers, boats, instructors and dive masters. We settled on Scorpio Diving after interviewing someone in an un-labeled office in Sunset Marina and then, unsure which operator we had been talking to, again on the phone. They definitely had their own van but, when busy, hired others. On our first day, they hired one who broke down and failed to inform them or us. An hour later, we ended up taking a cab which Scorpio eagerly and apologetically paid for. On the other days, the Scorpio van picked us up. (We had a rental car, rather unnecessary in Cancun, but left it with our non-divers.)

More good - Scorpio's claim to fame is maximum flexibility at an unpublished price that seemed a bit higher than others we interviewed. Jorge seems to be available any time by cell phone and email. We reserved each of our three days separately as the desires of our group clarified and they were always able to accommodate us. We ended up with the same DM for the three of us on Wednesday and Friday and for only two of us the next Monday. He was a friendly Columbian, competent and reasonably communicative, although he did not exactly overwhelm us with pointers to spectacular wildlife. He was safety-oriented but did not restrict our diving in any undesirable way. In particular, he set no artificial maximum dive time. They rushed surface intervals a bit but we never had to push our no-deco limits. They ran a tab for us - except for tips to the panga operators, we only had to pay once at the end of our visit. I would happily use Scorpio Diving on a future trip to Cancun.

Cancun may not be a popular dive destination because of its incredible neighbor Isla Cozumel, but it's definitely a destination from which you can do a lot of nice Mayan Riveria diving.
Websites Scorpio Diving   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Monterey, CA Channel Islands, Hawaii, many places in the Caribbean.
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry Seas calm, surge
Water Temp 77-82°F / 25-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-75 Ft/ 15-23 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions DM-guided tours
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas 1 or 2
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 3 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 2 stars Boat Facilities 1 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 2 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Boat dives were from simple pangas, no photo facilities. DM shot a video but didn't offer it to us. We didn't take cameras.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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