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The signature building in Puerto Morelos is this lighthouse, tipped by a past huricane.
| The back of our delightful condo.
| The front of our delightful condo, showing the "infinity" pool!
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You are here!
| A beachfront resturant in town.
| Good friends, good food!
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Puerto Morelos is still pretty much a sleepy little fishing town.
| It looks like the local Yamaha dealer is a great salesman!
| To get to some of the beachfront resturants, you have to squeeze down the side alley.
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We did our first bunch of dives with the dive shop of the local resort.
| No crowds here. Lot's of personal service. :-)
| Ahhh, underwater again!
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The first to greet us was the ever present blue striped grunt.
| These little ... and ... are always on the move.
| More blue stripped grunts.
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Blue chromis, the torpedo fish!
| A crinoid! (aka sea lily or feather-star) It's really an animal!
| A school of pork fish.
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There were lots of big schools of pork fish.
| Our divemaster.
| A beautiful school of atlantic spade fish.
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A sting ray glides by...
| ...and stops for a picture.
| Our dives were drift dives, and the current was steady and strong. All the big barrel sponges seemed to be bent by the prevailing current.
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Watch out for the fire coral...
| Say hi to Mr. Moray...
| and admire the soft corals.
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Scorpion fish #1...
| Scorpion fish #2...
| ...and a beautiful school of pork fish.
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The underwater topography was excellent.
| School of ???
| Soft coral seascape.
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Banded butterfly fish
| Another sting ray flees his hideout.
| Anenome
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Time for a surface interval...
| ...but soon we're back underwater.
| Silversides
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The porkfish is so colorful.
| Yellow with black stripes!
| Who can resist taking another picture of a school of porkfish?
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Porcupine fish
| Black durgeon
| ???
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Soft coral with polyps extended
| Long spine squirrel fish
| Seascape
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Beautiful underwater colors
| Awesome texture
| A colorful bouquet
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A tiny little box fish. :-)
| We drove down the coast to Playa del Carmen and dove with Phantom Divers (www.phantomdivers.com)
| More blue stripped grunts
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High hats! A fish we don't see very often.
| Two spotfin butterfly fish and two high hats.
| And another porkfish.
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Phantom Divers boat. Nice, fast, no crowds!
| We dove a site called "Tortuga" and counted 15 turtles!
| This guy was having lunch...
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Notice the anglefish waiting for a freebe.
| Joan follows him to his next meal...
| ...but he heads to the surface for a breath.
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French anglefish
| Anenome
| School of ???
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Beachfront at Playa del Carmen
| Two ???
| Cowfish
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Drum fish ?
Another fish you don't see very often.
| On this dive we dropped down near a huge school of tarpon. I bet there were 500 of them! The current was rippin' and I had to hold on to a rock to keep from being blown away! This was the only pic I could get, after using 500 psi to move up-current a little, but it was no use, the current was too strong.
| "Wow! Did you see that huge school of tarpon!"
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One of the divers in our group...
| ...decides to make an adjustment to his gear!
| Our divemaster, holding the reel to our marker bouy.
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| The last dive of the day.
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And don't forget to visit the Mayan ruins down near Tulum.
| It's well worth the trip.
| And stop for a swim in one of the nearby freshwater cenote pools.
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email John and Joan