Punta Negra

The reef here runs as an edge rather than a scatter, and it happens to lie along the current, so the dive is one long uninterrupted line. You drop in, get level with the coral, and the water does the rest.

What distinguishes it from the neighbouring stretches of the same reef line is the undercutting. Long overhangs run along the edge, with natural swim-throughs cut into the coral in places, so the profile keeps changing without you having to work for it. Sea fans stand out from the wall into the flow. Barracuda hold in the current above. Through the winter, spotted eagle rays pass along the edge, which is the same seasonal pattern the two navy wrecks a few kilometres away report.

Depth sits in the mid teens for most of it, dropping toward twenty at the outer end.

Several stretches of this reef line dive alike, so it is worth being precise about what is different here. Punta Negra is the one with sustained overhangs and the cleanest alignment with the current. If you want a drift where you barely touch a rock for forty minutes, this is the stretch to ask for.

The name refers to the rock reading darker than its neighbours, which is visible enough underwater to be worth knowing rather than a piece of trivia.

The current is the variable. Descriptions of this site range from tranquil to advanced, which almost certainly reflects different days rather than disagreement, so the answer you want comes from the guide on the morning, not from a page.

It is about forty minutes from the Cancun dock, and it is usually run as the second dive after a wreck, so plan your gas around having already been to twenty-five metres.