Distance to reef

[booyajones]

I love to snorkel and I know there is a reef not too far from the resort. Is it a swimmable distance (less than a mile or so).

[worldtraveler]

There is no reef within a swimmable distance. We joined a snorkel trip at Desire. The boat picked us up from the beach. She traveled about 20+ minutes. We couldn't see any land from the boat.

[Burnt-enz]

The reef is a few hundred yards off shore. There are boat trips from Puerto Morales that get as close as they can to Desire before swinging out to the reef. A good swimmer can get out there, although I wouldn't. The motorboats pay rapt attention to the naked people on the beach and not a couple of swimmers outside the Desire swimming area.

[CokeMann]

The reef is a few hundred yards off shore.

FYI - the reef is actually more than a 1/2 mile(880 yards) off of the shoreline. That is more than the length of 16 Olympic swimming pools(164 ft each) both out and back from the reef and you will also have to fight the currents from the ocean tide each way.

Judging distances on water can be very deceiving and sometimes fatal.

booyajones
The entire reef is now a protected marine area and you are only legally permitted to snorkel on certain areas of the reef - ie one of these is the spot to the north of Desire where the daily snorkel boats from PM drop anchor.

There is a reasonable amount to see just snorkeling off of the beach without going all the way to the reef (which I highly discourage, as a single unaccompanied swimmer -no matter how strong you think you are).

If you want a decent snorkeling experience please feel free to contact a friend of mine in PM, Paul from WetSet diving www.wetset.com he can arrange a private snorkeling trip for you to the reef at a reasonable cost with one of the locals that will, safety wise, accompany you and also show you the great things to see on the reef.

If you are serious about doing this it is better to avoid the cattle car group snorkeling trips, be safe doing it and have one of the locals show you the best things to see when you are out there...