Dive Review of Robertas Scuba Shack/Village Tan Kah in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

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Robertas Scuba Shack/Village Tan Kah: "Charming, Comfortable, and Practically Full-Service Diving", Apr, 2024, by Lynette Jennifer Green, AZ, US ( 2 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 12955.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Village Tan Kah is a peaceful, laid-back property just south of San Miguel. Despite being relatively close to the cruise ship port, it’s very quiet, and the cabanas are tucked away from the street. The property is lush with native foliage and the overall vibe of the place feels like a yoga retreat. Any of life’s stressors that were still lingering, melted away as soon as we set foot on the property. Our cabana, the Jungle Room, had a comfortable king size bed, plenty of storage and hangers, and a cozy sitting area. It was equipped with a small refrigerator, coffee pot with coffee, a microwave, dishes/utensils, and plenty of purified water. Breakfast is served every morning, and it is a continental breakfast with yogurt, fruit, cereals, homemade bread, jam varieties, and peanut butter. We purchased a few groceries for our room like eggs, avocados, nuts, and sandwich stuff to supplement our nutritional needs. We cooked the eggs in the microwave and easily made lunch in our room on the days we did afternoon dives. Food options within walking distance exist, however they are limited and just mediocre. The kitchen and room staff are super friendly and accommodating, always greeting us with smiles and asking if we need anything. Directly across the street is Roberta’s Scuba Shack. Upon arrival we were given a lock and key for the gear storage room and if you are a photographer, a key for the camera room (which is located at VTK). Everyone picks a gear box for storing fins, mask, regs, weights, etc. which can be locked up. There is plenty of space inside and outside for hanging wetsuits, bcd’s and boots. Every morning, we would gather our equipment, analyze our tanks, and set everything near the boat. The crew loads the equipment. After the dives, each diver breaks down their own gear, the crew unloads it, the diver rinses it and hangs it up to dry. Every evening, the crew locks up the bcd’s and wetsuits but also brings them back out every morning making it an easy dive-eat-sleep-repeat process, practically full service. The staging area, rinse tanks, boat dock, gear storage room are all within mere feet of each other. During the trip we completed 14+ dives. The dives consisted of shore, boat, wreck, and blackwater. The water temperature averaged 80-82 degrees and the visibility was 50-80 ft. Roberta’s has 3 boats and ran a minimum of 3 trips simultaneously. When there are more than 3 trips, Roberta outsources boats and Capitan’s. One trip is typically the check out dives of the newly arrived guests. We were not impressed with the dive guide’s ability to point out creatures; most of the dive guides were merely navigators. One guide named Gil, was good at finding nudibranchs, sea slugs and pointing out the juvenile spotted drum and slender filefish. Luckily, we are knowledgeable and experienced enough to locate even the tiniest of sea life on our own. On one dive, the guide said a sea horse lives somewhere around here, and within minutes, Jen found the sea horse! Throughout the course of the week we saw 1 turtle, 1 nurse shark, and the typical Cozumel subjects such as Ocean Triggers, Stoplight Parrotfish, Grunts, Chubs, School Master, Great Barracuda, French Angel and other common reef fish. At the end of the wreck dive we watched a massive Black Grouper and Green Moray Eel hunt together on a solitary reef surrounded by white sand. Both the grouper and the eel were hanging out in the wreck and travelled together to the reef. The eel would penetrate the holes and move under rocks while the grouper would chase away any fish trying to prevent the eel from entering. It was quite a spectacle! One day we were invited to do the Devil’s Throat at Punta Sur. This is basically a cave dive, entering at 80 feet deep and exiting the narrow passage, 3-4 minutes later at 120 feet deep. We were not impressed with this dive because immediately upon exiting the boat we descended to 80 feet, swam around looking for the opening, entered the cave, squeezed our way through the fully enclosed passage, exited at 120 feet and then we were in deco. The rest of the dive was an ascent, floating in the water column for the rest of the 40+ minutes of the dive. During the ascent we saw a massive eagle ray a two Caribbean Reef sharks however they were all deep and not close enough to take a picture. Over all the currents were quite manageable and Cozumel does not disappoint. The most impressive dives of all were the blackwater dives with Blackwater Cozumel and Rob Stanfield. Originally, we were only scheduled to dive with him once, however it was such an ethereal experience that we booked with him again! Blackwater diving takes place at night, well after the sun goes down. We met at the marina at 6:30 pm, headed out to a drop zone approximately 2 miles off from the reef in open ocean, had an extensive educational dive briefing by Robert, and entered the water around 8:30pm. For 90 minutes we drifted at about 40-50 deep over 6 miles, above depths of 700-800 feet of water and observed the largest synchronous migration on the planet. All sizes of deep-sea creatures come to the surface to feed. It was incredible! The scariest thing was a box jellyfish the size of a man! We saw tunicates, Venus Girdle, Club Hydromedusa, Acorn Worm Larvae and so much more. This is a dive I want to do again and again during a full moon, new moon, etc. as the moon phase determines what you might see. This dive requires experience with night diving and good buoyancy as well as good air consumption. It is not for the faint hearted. Let’s go blackwater diving!!
Websites	Robertas Scuba Shack Village Tan Kah
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Fiji, Mexico, Bonaire, Belize, Honduras
Closest Airport	Cozumel	Getting There	We opted for cheaper flights to Cancun, took the bus to Playa Del Carmen, and the ferry to Cozumel. The bus and ferry run about every 30-60 minutes. They both cost approximately $15/per person each way.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	81-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	The boats do not have freshwater rinses for cameras nor tables for the cameras however they are small boats so it's understandable.

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Dive Review of Robertas Scuba Shack/Village Tan Kah in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Robertas Scuba Shack/Village Tan Kah: "Charming, Comfortable, and Practically Full-Service Diving", Apr, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Robertas Scuba Shack/Village Tan Kah in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan