Palancar Bricks
The Palancar section that isn't a wall. Here the reef breaks into separate coral pinnacles standing on white sand, so you navigate between towers instead of following a drop-off, with stingrays buried in the sand between them. The name comes from a load of red bricks a barge spilled in the 1950s. Divers still play with them, spelling words out on the sand. It's the furthest stop on a south trip.
Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel park fee max 8 per guide closes Aug-Sep
the route
dive profile
Where Bricks sits on Palancar Reef
Palancar is one reef dived as four separate sites, and Bricks is the southernmost. If you’re still choosing between the four, start here. The rest of this page is about diving Bricks.
The name comes from a barge that capsized here in the 1950s and spilled a load of red bricks. They’re still down there, and divers play with them, spelling words out on the sand. Guides know where they are, but they aren’t necessarily on the route your boat runs that day.
What sets the site apart is structural: it’s the one section of Palancar that isn’t a continuous wall. The coral breaks into separate pinnacles with sand running between them, so there’s no drop-off to read yourself against, only gaps to choose between.
Who it suits
The difficulty rating undersells how different two dives here can be. The same reef offers an easy cruise through the pinnacle field, or a tighter detour into the swim-throughs at about 80 ft (24 m) that comes close to an overhead dive. Which one a group gets is decided on the boat that morning, not fixed in advance. The default dive skips the swim-throughs.
The current won’t overpower anyone, but it will carry you past a gap you hesitated over, and getting back to a missed gap means swimming against that current. So the real filter for this site isn’t fitness or a logged-dive count. It’s whether you’re comfortable making a quick call on where to go, and living with it.
What the pinnacle field looks like
The reef stands up here in separate pinnacles, with open sand showing on both sides of each one rather than solid coral crowding in. So you navigate between landmarks instead of following one wall.
Color follows the same split. Sponges and sea fans grow thick on the pinnacles, while the sand channels between them stay open and bright. The channels are wide enough that you see each pinnacle whole, instead of up close and looming.
The dive doesn’t end on that sand, though. The last stretch flattens onto reef rather than open water, so the stop happens with coral still in view.
Which fish, and where on the dive
The animals here don’t stack up in one place the way schooling fish would elsewhere. They spread out, each kind holding to its own part of the structure, so knowing which part you’re over tells you roughly what to expect.
| Where on the dive | What holds there |
|---|---|
| The shallow crest, about 40 ft (12 m) | Large groupers, hawksbill turtles, and, less often, a juvenile Spanish hogfish |
| The open sand between the pinnacles | Southern stingrays, typically buried rather than swimming |
| Under the ledges and in the crevices of the pinnacles | Spiny lobster, nurse sharks |
| Over and around the pinnacles themselves | Midnight parrotfish, great barracuda |
Formations rate a 5 out of 5 here against a 3 for marine life. The layout explains the gap: pinnacles and open sand spread the animals out, so you meet them one at a time instead of in a school.
Why the dive is shaped this way
Entry and exit sit at opposite ends of the site because the current does the moving: the group drifts the distance north rather than swimming it.
Without a wall to check yourself against, the sand slopes become the depth reference instead, and that’s where the trap sits. They run at a gentle, ordinary grade, the kind of ground that invites you to follow it down, then end without warning in a sheer drop. If the guide waves you back up off a slope, the drop is close.
Your no-decompression limit ends this dive, not your tank. The deep stretch comes early and eats most of that limit while you still have plenty of air, so the ascent gets called by your computer, not your gauge.
Bricks sits at the southern tip of the reef, so it’s the furthest stop on a south trip. Shops ask for Advanced Open Water here rather than Open Water. Most operators pair it with a shallower reef off the south-coast list. It isn’t a Discover Scuba site; if you’re not certified yet, start here. The dive-site map shows where it sits against Santa Rosa further north.
When it’s closed
This section of the reef closes every August and September. CONANP takes groups of reefs out of service two months at a time, six windows a year, so the coral gets a season without divers on it. Bricks shares the August-September window with Caves; Gardens and Horseshoe close in April and May.
Closed August and September
- Jan, open
- Feb, open
- Mar, open
- Apr, open
- May, open
- Jun, open
- Jul, open
- Aug, closed
- Sep, closed
- Oct, open
- Nov, open
- Dec, open
It is a real closure, enforced with the navy and the federal environmental prosecutor, not an operator convention. If you are booking a late-summer trip and Palancar Bricks is the reason, book around it. The marine park page carries the full rotation, the fee, the in-water rules and the divers-per-guide limits that apply here.
Common questions about Palancar Bricks
- How deep is Palancar Bricks?
- The dived range runs from about 40 to 90 ft (12 to 27 m). You drop onto a sandy plateau at about 40 ft (12 m), then work past a mini wall and a second sandy patch before reaching the main pinnacle structure. Advanced divers can add a detour into swim-throughs at around 80 ft (24 m), but that's an optional add-on, not part of the standard charted dive. The drop beyond the sand chutes keeps falling well past 120 ft (37 m), so the number that matters is the one you agree with your guide before you get in.
- Do you need Advanced certification to dive Palancar Bricks?
- Yes, normally. Most Cozumel shops ask for an Advanced Open Water card here, since the standard profile runs to about 90 ft (27 m) and the site is built from separate coral pinnacles rather than one wall, so there's no drop-off to navigate by and orientation takes more active attention. If your card or your recent experience doesn't cover that depth comfortably, ask your shop directly rather than assuming either way.
- What is the difference between Palancar Bricks and Palancar Caves?
- They're different dives on the same reef, next door to each other. Caves is one dense, continuous coral mass cut through with tunnels and archways, a true overhead maze with stronger current. Bricks is the opposite structure: separate coral pinnacles with open sand between them, calmer water, and only an optional detour into swim-throughs rather than a route that runs through them. Both usually ask for an Advanced card, but the demand at Bricks is navigation and depth discipline rather than current and overhead.
- Are the bricks that give Palancar Bricks its name still there?
- Yes. The name comes from a load of red bricks a barge dumped in the area in the 1950s, and they're still on the sand. Divers play with them, arranging them into words, and guides know where to point you. Whether they sit on the route your boat runs that day is up to the guide.
- Is Palancar Bricks a good dive for beginners?
- Not really; it's built for divers with an Advanced card and some buoyancy experience already banked. The site's formations rating is among the highest on Palancar, which is the draw, but getting the most from it means navigating between coral pinnacles without a wall to reference, and the site doesn't get sold as a first dive the way Gardens does further north. If you're newly certified, a gentler Palancar section is the better start.