Sas
Contributor
I got Cave certified in April last year and have been diving solely in Mt Gambier, South Australia. However, after reading lots of trip reports and seeing Youtube videos of Mexico cave diving I decided I had to go check it out. Given it’s quite a lot of travel effort to go to Mexico I decided to visit Florida as well though I didn’t know much about the cave diving there other than there was a lot of it. I was told it was far more challenging than either Mt Gambier or Mexico, and that there was flow, which is about all I knew when I decided to go there. Another purpose to the trip was to get experience diving different cave environments which is something instructors like to see when you do Advanced Cave in Australia, which I hope to do next year so I can do some more sites in Mt Gambier (everywhere else I had no restrictions on the diving, nice for a change after a year and a half of CDAA site diving).
Mexico
Travel
It’s a bit of a PITA to get to Mexico from Australia I found out. A direct flight to Cancun was $3300 (AUD is roughly the same as USD) with not a great deal of time saving compared to flying to LAX ($1100 return to Melbourne) then LAX to Cancun ($240 one way). Anyway it took 32 hours of travelling from Melbourne to Cancun, arriving at about 1am. I got a shared taxi from the airport (can’t remember how much, probably was ripped off but I was tired at this stage ) and crashed for the night at a cheap hostel. From Cancun I took the bus (ADO is the name of the bus) at about 10am the next day to Tulum (92 peso) which took around two hours, maybe a bit more.
Entrances were quite pretty as well as underneath!
Accommodation
I was originally going to stay in Playa Del Carmen but was recommended to stay in Tulum by a cave diver Jean who I have chatted a bit with via Flickr. His advice about getting around Mexico and things to do was invaluable so made things very easy for me (such as telling me what bus to catch, pros and cons of different places to stay as well as what caves were good). I ended up staying at Posada Yum Kin Hotel - pyktulum.com. It cost $65/night including breakfast, the cost was shared between me and two friends so very cheap! Also had good internet! Was a really great hotel, room was very nice and clean, the surrounds were lovely and it had a really awesome pool. The manager was very helpful telling us nice places to eat and things to check out, helped us hire a car, organise spa treatments and so forth, so highly recommend this place! The only downside people might find is that it is not in a picturesque area being six blocks out of town (10min walk) though I enjoyed the walk to and from town (was 30 peso taxi ride to town, 100 peso to beach front). I spent a week there before I moved to an apartment in Puerto Aventuras (as my two friends had to leave and I wanted a cheaper place). No idea about the details of that as it was organised by my cave guide.
Dive guide
Diving
I didn’t have a buddy on this trip so decided to hire a guide. I went with recommendation from a cave diver I know in Australia who recommended Dennis Weeks at Diablo Divers Diablo Divers. Anyway, he was an awesome guide and can’t speak highly of him enough! He went above and beyond what I expected, not only diving stuff but taking me to Playa Del Carmen two nights and other places (Puerto Aventuras and some other place I forget the name of) for dinner and/or sightseeing after the diving (as I had no transport), helping me organise things like a new place to stay after I finished in Tulum, fixing my drysuit for me (it got damaged in transport, three holes ), teaching me how to use stages in caves, answering all my random questions about Mexico, translating Spanish for me and just overall being very accommodating about what dive sites to do.
Blue Abyss
The first cave I did was Gran Cenote and we did two dives there on the first day. I was a bit worried how I would go diving AL80s as I have only ever dived steel twins, however trimmed out fine straight away and they were very comfortable. Anyway, I was just amazed at the difference between Mexico and home – the water was 25C/77F (can be down to 11C/52F in Mt Gambier but does warm up to 59F in some caves), also the caves I had dived before were very small and not highly decorated. On the first dive I swum 55 minutes into Gran Cenote before I hit thirds, which is just not possible at most of the caves I have been diving in Mt Gambier. Also they were far more complex navigationally; with most dives we were doing involving 2-4 jumps.
Spikey ceiling
I went on to dive Jailhouse, Chan Hol, Tajma-Ha, Minotauro, Nai Tucha, Tres Estrellas and Pet Cemetery over the rest of the trip. I loved the halocline in Minotauro (here is a video I got: Beautiful Halocline | Flickr - Photo Sharing! doesn’t really do it justice though) so that was one of my favourite dives but Pet Cemetery was my favourite over all as I loved just the appearance of the cave as well as the Blue Abyss. Though getting into the cave was quite uncomfortable as the place was SWARMING with mosquitos and I got bitten up quite badly. Bring bug spray!
I liked the crinkly types of tunnels
Dive guide ahead
The diving itself was so easy and nice as the water was very warm, the viz so good, the caves I was in didn’t have any real restrictions, and it was shallow so I didn’t have to do any deco. Deepest dive was 22m or 65ft, but mostly around 13m/43ft. As I was going to Florida I brought my drysuit and was diving a trilam suit with just tracksuit pants and one stripy thermal top on underneath. Most dives were 90mins+ and I did not get cold despite many dives ending up soaking due to the leaks in my suit (fixed one, next day still leaking, fixed another, next day still leaking, found three in the end). One day I got fed up with having a wet drysuit so hired a 2mm wetsuit and was quite comfortable in that for three hours in the water that day. If I go again, I would bring my 7mm wetsuit as I prefer to dive wet and it is easy to do in Mexico.
Gran Cenote cavern
Me
Besides cave diving I did heaps of non diving stuff as I spent most of the first week there with non diving friends. We went to the beach which was awesome – water was bath warm and there were beds on the beach so I could lie in bed all day on the beach whilst getting drinks delivered to me, my friends did a Mexican cooking class one day which they loved (too much seafood for me to consider), we all went to Gran Cenote to snorkel, went to Tulum ruins and also Coba (where you are able to climb one of the pyramids). Tulum was quite nice, not as busy as Playa though with not as much to do but the amazing beach would definitely mean I stay there again. Was very convenient for a lot of the cenotes as well. Anyway can’t wait to go back, probably next year at the same time as June is off season so things were not busy and also cheaper.
More pics: Mexico Diving - a set on Flickr
Mexico
Travel
It’s a bit of a PITA to get to Mexico from Australia I found out. A direct flight to Cancun was $3300 (AUD is roughly the same as USD) with not a great deal of time saving compared to flying to LAX ($1100 return to Melbourne) then LAX to Cancun ($240 one way). Anyway it took 32 hours of travelling from Melbourne to Cancun, arriving at about 1am. I got a shared taxi from the airport (can’t remember how much, probably was ripped off but I was tired at this stage ) and crashed for the night at a cheap hostel. From Cancun I took the bus (ADO is the name of the bus) at about 10am the next day to Tulum (92 peso) which took around two hours, maybe a bit more.
Entrances were quite pretty as well as underneath!
Accommodation
I was originally going to stay in Playa Del Carmen but was recommended to stay in Tulum by a cave diver Jean who I have chatted a bit with via Flickr. His advice about getting around Mexico and things to do was invaluable so made things very easy for me (such as telling me what bus to catch, pros and cons of different places to stay as well as what caves were good). I ended up staying at Posada Yum Kin Hotel - pyktulum.com. It cost $65/night including breakfast, the cost was shared between me and two friends so very cheap! Also had good internet! Was a really great hotel, room was very nice and clean, the surrounds were lovely and it had a really awesome pool. The manager was very helpful telling us nice places to eat and things to check out, helped us hire a car, organise spa treatments and so forth, so highly recommend this place! The only downside people might find is that it is not in a picturesque area being six blocks out of town (10min walk) though I enjoyed the walk to and from town (was 30 peso taxi ride to town, 100 peso to beach front). I spent a week there before I moved to an apartment in Puerto Aventuras (as my two friends had to leave and I wanted a cheaper place). No idea about the details of that as it was organised by my cave guide.
Dive guide
Diving
I didn’t have a buddy on this trip so decided to hire a guide. I went with recommendation from a cave diver I know in Australia who recommended Dennis Weeks at Diablo Divers Diablo Divers. Anyway, he was an awesome guide and can’t speak highly of him enough! He went above and beyond what I expected, not only diving stuff but taking me to Playa Del Carmen two nights and other places (Puerto Aventuras and some other place I forget the name of) for dinner and/or sightseeing after the diving (as I had no transport), helping me organise things like a new place to stay after I finished in Tulum, fixing my drysuit for me (it got damaged in transport, three holes ), teaching me how to use stages in caves, answering all my random questions about Mexico, translating Spanish for me and just overall being very accommodating about what dive sites to do.
Blue Abyss
The first cave I did was Gran Cenote and we did two dives there on the first day. I was a bit worried how I would go diving AL80s as I have only ever dived steel twins, however trimmed out fine straight away and they were very comfortable. Anyway, I was just amazed at the difference between Mexico and home – the water was 25C/77F (can be down to 11C/52F in Mt Gambier but does warm up to 59F in some caves), also the caves I had dived before were very small and not highly decorated. On the first dive I swum 55 minutes into Gran Cenote before I hit thirds, which is just not possible at most of the caves I have been diving in Mt Gambier. Also they were far more complex navigationally; with most dives we were doing involving 2-4 jumps.
Spikey ceiling
I went on to dive Jailhouse, Chan Hol, Tajma-Ha, Minotauro, Nai Tucha, Tres Estrellas and Pet Cemetery over the rest of the trip. I loved the halocline in Minotauro (here is a video I got: Beautiful Halocline | Flickr - Photo Sharing! doesn’t really do it justice though) so that was one of my favourite dives but Pet Cemetery was my favourite over all as I loved just the appearance of the cave as well as the Blue Abyss. Though getting into the cave was quite uncomfortable as the place was SWARMING with mosquitos and I got bitten up quite badly. Bring bug spray!
I liked the crinkly types of tunnels
Dive guide ahead
The diving itself was so easy and nice as the water was very warm, the viz so good, the caves I was in didn’t have any real restrictions, and it was shallow so I didn’t have to do any deco. Deepest dive was 22m or 65ft, but mostly around 13m/43ft. As I was going to Florida I brought my drysuit and was diving a trilam suit with just tracksuit pants and one stripy thermal top on underneath. Most dives were 90mins+ and I did not get cold despite many dives ending up soaking due to the leaks in my suit (fixed one, next day still leaking, fixed another, next day still leaking, found three in the end). One day I got fed up with having a wet drysuit so hired a 2mm wetsuit and was quite comfortable in that for three hours in the water that day. If I go again, I would bring my 7mm wetsuit as I prefer to dive wet and it is easy to do in Mexico.
Gran Cenote cavern
Me
Besides cave diving I did heaps of non diving stuff as I spent most of the first week there with non diving friends. We went to the beach which was awesome – water was bath warm and there were beds on the beach so I could lie in bed all day on the beach whilst getting drinks delivered to me, my friends did a Mexican cooking class one day which they loved (too much seafood for me to consider), we all went to Gran Cenote to snorkel, went to Tulum ruins and also Coba (where you are able to climb one of the pyramids). Tulum was quite nice, not as busy as Playa though with not as much to do but the amazing beach would definitely mean I stay there again. Was very convenient for a lot of the cenotes as well. Anyway can’t wait to go back, probably next year at the same time as June is off season so things were not busy and also cheaper.
More pics: Mexico Diving - a set on Flickr