July 20, 2021 - I am in Banco Chinchorro right now, and we just finished up our first day of crocodile diving, and what a freaking day it was. We had six crocodiles show up, including Gambit and Negro, a couple of the big stars of this amazing place. The water visibility was not the best. Sadly it was nothing like the water we experienced last season. But we had six crocodiles today and a bunch of thrilled, happy divers.
Yesterday I picked up our guests from Cancun, and we headed to Xcalak, Mexico, which is about 5 1/2 hours away. It is a fun afternoon of driving. After we arrived, we said hello to the staff. I was excited, saying hi to my buddy Mathias who is our croc safety diver on the trip. It is always a good time when we get together. After we checked into our hotel and the dive shop, we filled out all the legal paperwork for the dive shop, which basically says we will not sue if a croc misbehaves. The typical stuff we have to do before we go diving with big toothy predators.
We overnighted at the hotel, woke up at 7 AM for a quick breakfast, loaded up our gear on a panga, and made a very wet and bumpy crossing to Banco Chinchorro. Those wet rides are never fun, but it's the price of admission sometimes to find magic, and it has always been worth it.
This is day one of a three-day adventure. When we arrived in Banco Chinchorro, we did a quick dive to try and find some lionfish to use as bait for the crocs. Lionfish are the only bait we are allowed to feed the crocs. Banco is a protected marine reserve, and they try to protect the wildlife here. Unfortunately, lionfish are an invasive species, and they are voracious eaters. They decimate local fish populations, so we do what we can to try and remove them when we see them.
After the dive, we motored over to our cabana on the water. Casa Matraca (named after the old fisherman who owns this cabin) is where we will be staying for the next few days. It is rustic and old, but it is fantastic, and the view is impressive.
After a quick lunch, the first croc showed up. Then a second one, then a third. By the end of the day, we had six different crocodiles visit us, including the star of Banco Chinchorro, Gambit. He is a big 3-meter croc and super tolerant of us divers, but very territorial towards other crocs. He is so mellow and a dream crocodile to encounter. He seems to love the attention and will chase off any other croc that comes into his area. He does not like to share.
We spent the rest of the day swimming with them, all of us excited to be there. It makes me happy knowing that the guests we bring here enjoy being around these animals. These positive interactions do a lot towards helping change how people see and feel about these predators.
Ok, passing out, the ocean crossing, and a full day in the water kicked my ass. It is draining, but I am so damn happy. Tomorrow I will write more.
July 21, 2021 - There is something so satisfying about waking up super early to climb on a boat and go diving. I love that so much. So we woke up, had a quick cup of coffee, and then motored over to a dive site to look for lionfish and see what was swimming around at this beautiful reef. While Mathias was hunting for lionfish, I looked around for turtles and whatever else was swimming around. We were greeted by a friendly nurse shark that loves to follow spearfishermen around, hoping to steal a free meal off of a speargun.
While swimming around, I happened upon a big barracuda at a cleaning station. It was pretty neat seeing that. The cuda was all black, and when it left the cleaning station, it turned silver again. I wonder if that is something they do to show the cleaner fish it means them no harm? Not sure.
After the dive, we returned to our hut and ate breakfast. We tried to chum in some crocs, but Mathias said it was too early for the crocs to show up. So we jumped on the boat and went to the Island to look at the local wildlife there. They have a healthy iguana population there; blacks and red iguanas are all over the Island. They are one of the staple meals for crocodiles on the Island. A healthy iguana population is why there are more than 500 crocodiles on Banco Chinchorro. Pretty wild.
The big question is how the crocodiles got to Banco Chinchorro. One theory is they swam over from mainland Mexico many years ago. Another is researchers brought a pair to the island to help control the iguana population. The iguanas were eating all the bird eggs and to help the bird populations, they felt this could be a solution.
After the brief visit on the Island, we returned to our hut and began chumming for crocs. We did not have to wait long. Negro returned. He was with us all day yesterday. We spent all day with him, and he put on a hell of a show. We also had three other crocs come in. One came in for about a minute, did not like what it saw, and then went back to the Island. Cut tail came in for a little while. It is another local superstar. She has a crooked jaw; my guess is from a fight with a bigger croc. She is always great to have around, and she is a solid player.
A new croc that showed up was this little croc, Mathias named Matraca because most of it’s teeth are missing. Like the owner of our hut. Lol. I have been calling her Baby M. Anyway, Baby M was a little shy, but still came in and stayed the rest of the day. It kept coming up to Negro, not sure why? Usually the little crocs want nothing to do with the big crocs, but this one was pretty brave.
Baby M and Negro.
Overall it was a fantastic day with many opportunities for our guests to capture a lot of images. We still have one more day out here, and I am hoping that Gambit will return. Usually, when Gambit shows up on day one, she will not return the following day if she eats. Hoping she comes in tomorrow. We will see?
July 22, 2021 - We are back in Mainland Mexico. We left Chinchorro around 2 PM after a fun day with some crocodiles. It was not as exciting as the previous two days, but it was still good. Crocodiles are just amazing animals. They are so misunderstood, and we have so much to learn from them. I genuinely hope that dives like these are just the beginning of what is possible.
We woke this morning and went off for a morning dive to try and find lionfish. Thankfully it is getting more difficult to find them, which means we are doing some good. There are still many of these animals down deep, but here on the reefs that we can reach, there are very few. At least these reefs are safer for the local fish populations.
After the dive, we went back to our cabin, ate a quick breakfast, and then started chumming for the crocs. It took a couple of hours, but finally, a croc swam out of the mangroves and right towards us. It turned out to be Matraca, or Baby M as I called her, of course, she is still very shy, so we kept chumming, hoping for a bigger, more confident croc to arrive. About twenty minutes into the dive, a second one came. Then a third. We finished the day with four crocs around us. The dive was so much fun and a great way to finish up the trip.
I want to thank our friends who joined us out there, I truly appreciate it, you guys mean the world to me. Tomorrow we finish up our trip here in Xcalak for a quick look around to see if we can find manatees.
We will see?
Thank you all for reading.