Sabalos reef dive site review

Day Two in Playa... Three Turtle Species!

Ramon ocean surfing on his fins… its what you do when you don’t have turtles.

Trip Report – July 6, 2025
Day Two…

This morning at 8:30 AM, we headed out into a much lumpier sea than the day before.

 It’s always amazing how quickly the ocean changes, yesterday was flat calm, today brought a bumpy ride. Still warm, just a bit rougher.

I’m still on the hunt for turtles, so the crew took us to Tortuga Reef, hoping for some solid turtle encounters. 

I was especially hoping for a hawksbill or a closer sighting of an Atlantic green.

As soon as we dropped in, we spotted a big male Atlantic green swimming overhead. 

I got excited, it felt like the start of a great dive. 

Shortly after, we saw the same turtle again gliding above the reef, but it didn’t stick around.

Green Moray Eel

That ended up being our only turtle sighting during the 45-minute dive.

I jokingly asked Ramon if the reef was named after that one turtle we saw.

I was reminded that years ago, Tortuga Reef earned its name because of the sheer number of turtles once seen here. 

Sadly, those days are gone. 

Pollution, food scarcity, and hunting, people used to eat them, (and some still secretly do), have made turtle sightings rare. 

Thankfully, a strong turtle rehabilitation program here in the Yucatán is helping the populations recover, but there’s still a long way to go.

Our second dive was at a reef called Sabalos (I think that’s how it’s spelled). 

It’s a beautiful spot full of small reef life.

We dropped in and immediately encountered a massive Atlantic green sea turtle grazing in the grassy field. 

This turtle was completely relaxed around our group, calmly munching on seagrass before surfacing for a breath.

While the rest of the group swam on, Ramon and I stayed behind to see what it would do next.

After surfacing, it returned to the seafloor and kept eating. 

We had an epic session with this big guy, photographing him from multiple angles. 

He was so much fun to work with. After several minutes, we let him be and rejoined the group.

Now, I was hoping to complete the trifecta with a hawksbill. 

If I could photograph one today, that would make all three turtle species seen in Playa in two days of diving.

Toward the end of the dive, I spotted Ramon in the distance, pointing into the reef. 

It was a juvenile hawksbill, a beautiful little turtle with a perfectly patterned shell. 

But it only had three legs. One of its back legs was missing, likely a shark took a bite at some point.

Despite the injury, this little hawksbill was happily feeding on the reef, totally unbothered by my presence. 

I fired off frame after frame, and she kept eating, unfazed.

After a few magical minutes, we left her to enjoy her breakfast and swam on, ending a fantastic morning photographing the sea turtles of Playa del Carmen.


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