Barracuda Reef in Playa Del Carmen

The Barracuda Reef

A little further south, towards Punta Venado, we encounter more reefs. One of them is Barracuda.

From Playa del Carmen, the Barracuda Reef can be reached in about 15 minutes. With a depth of 11.5 meters (38 ft) and its proximity to the Tortugas dive site, Barracuda is suitable as a second dive, after the deeper dive at Tortugas or the ‘Mama Vina‘ wreck has been completed first.

Dive from Bay to Bay

The shape of the reef can be imagined like a hand with fingers. You dive from bay to bay around the respective “fingers”. However, the sometimes moderate current can play a decisive role. If the current is too strong to dive around the “fingers”, you simply let yourself drift over the coral garden until you reach the next bay.

These bays are protected from the current, and we can take our time to look around the caves and reef overhangs within them. Here we usually find lobsters, crabs, and giant moray eels. As the name suggests, we often encounter larger barracudas at this reef, which hunt for prey here, as there is also a large number of smaller fish.