Whale Shark Festival - July 2009 at Isla Mujeres, Mexico

The second annual Whale Shark Festival at Isla Mujeres, Mexico is scheduled to take place from July 15–19, 2009. Located off the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Isla Mujeres may be extremely hot during the summer, but guests will have plenty of opportunities to cool off by immersing themselves in the cool, blue Caribbean waters.

Lasting five days, the Whale Shark Festival celebrates island culture, drawing thousands of visitors to the island to learn about the largest fish in the world Currently listed as an endangered species, whale sharks can reach up to 40 feet in length and weigh up to 15 tons.

Highlighting the festival is the unforgettable experience of swimming with whale sharks, which are considered to be filter eaters and pose no immediate threat to humans. Daily excursions take guests to an area where whale sharks congregate, providing swimmers with a rare opportunity to spend time with these large and powerful animals. Accompanying swimmers are fully licensed guides that are also expert divers...[Link]

Mexico: Swim with whale sharks in the Yucatan

Whale sharks, the largest of the ocean’s fish, are spending time in the warm waters off the Yucatan Peninsula during these summer days. Can you blame them? Probably not. Wanna join them?

These flat-headed, gargantuan creatures (up to 40 feet long, according to National Geographic) snack on plankton and small fish — and not humans — so swimming with them, though they move around open-mouthed, may not be as preposterous as you might think.

With Rosewood Mayakobá, on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, you can embark on a half-day guided tour by private yacht to seek out whale sharks. Once they’ve been found, you get to swim and snorkel with the fish...[Link]

Mexico's drug war, battered economy mean low air fares to La Paz and Cabo San Lucas

Travelers interested in booking an inexpensive journey to La Paz, the beautiful capital of Baja California Sur, just missed out on a fantastic deal: $66 round trip.

In a promotion that ended Sunday night, thousands of seats were sold for travel throughout 2009 on Volaris Airlines.

Travel is via Tijuana's international airport but passengers using the airline, which is owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, can catch an airline shuttle from the train station in San Diego directly to the terminal.

"They sold 100,000 seats in 12 hours and their server crashed," Jonathan Roldan, owner of the outdoors outfitter Tailhunter International, said of the promotion. "It was a mad rush. I've been dealing with it all weekend."

Meanwhile, good deals remain throughout the busy spring season on Volaris and other airlines to La Paz and the Los Cabos region at Baja California's tip...[LATimesBlog]

Island of Cozumel real mecca for scuba drift diving

Isla de Cozumel — the island of Cozumel — nestles off the eastern coast of Mexico, separated from Playa del Carmen and Cancun by a channel teeming with reefs, cruise ships and scuba divers.

Some of the top reefs in the Western hemisphere and air and water temperatures warm even in the middle of winter attract divers eager to sample the pleasures of the ocean.

The diving off the western shore of Cozumel is referred to as drift diving — divers descend in a group and simply catch the current. One hardly has to swim at all, moving one’s fins only to stay off the bottom and stay close to the group.

The bottom offers a colorful variety of coral reefs, sand and walls, the latter a near-cliff where the bottom drops away from the 50 to 100 feet of the areas fairly close to shore to untold depths.

Most of the diving is done on the west side of the island; the waves and currents on the east side are too harsh, and the locals use that area mostly for fishing.

Most mornings start off with several cruise ships maneuvering into dock spaces to disgorge a human cargo, most of the passengers intent on shopping for local souvenirs and tequila, hitting the bars and restaurants or squeezing in some golf or another shore excursion.

Some hit the beaches, some snorkel and a hardy few book dive trips...[TheFortMorganTimes]