Diving

Mahahual is one of the best places in the Mexican Caribbean for scuba diving, thanks to its warm temperatures, the clarity of its waters (which allows you to have visibility of up to 60 meters deep), its different underwater scenery, and for being home to a wide variety of marine flora and fauna.

This activity can be performed throughout the year, however, the best season to do it is during the summer (June to September), due to the color of its waters and the warm sea temperatures, which range between 25º y 29ºC (77 y 84ºF).

Here you will find some incredible places to scuba dive, such as the Banco Chinchorro Biosphere Reserve and the Xcalak National Reef Park.

Banco Chinchorro is the largest coral atoll in Mexico, a protected area that features, besides coral reefs, a lagoon and three cays (Norte, Centro, and Lobos). Some of the marine life species that you will be able to admire while diving at this site include sea turtles, dolphins, eagle rays, manatees, tarpons, and crocodiles, specie with which you can interact up close (if you consider yourself brave enough) by diving with them.

As if that wasn't enough, the reserve is considered something of a submerged cemetery, since the seabed is home to more than 60 sunken ships, including Spanish and English galleons dating back to the 16th and 17th century, the most popular being the shipwreck known as "40 Cañones", a name given because it had 40 artillery pieces, which after years of looting were reduced to 36, which are scattered around the seabed. This Spanish ship is believed to be from the 18th century. The maximum depth is 8 meters, which makes the visibility fantastic.

60 kilometers away from Mahahual, Xcalak is a small fishing village, home to one of the most beautiful natural wonders of the Grand Costa Maya: the Xcalak National Reef Park, which, like Banco Chinchorro, is part of the Great Mesoamerican Reef, the second-longest reef barrier in the world.

This national park has several dive sites, standing out La Chimenea (recommended for advanced scuba divers), La Pozeta (for beginner divers) and La Poza, also known as Tarpon Hole, which is where you will find large tarpon schools. Diving with tarpons is an extraordinary experience, totally worth doing.

Diving is one of the most exciting sports one could ever indulge in, and doing it in Mahahual would make the experience even more memorable.