cleung
Contributor
After spending several days scuba diving in warm tropical waters again in Cozumel, I took the ferry over to the mainland to stay in Playa del Carmen for a few days. My dive trip was still continuing but instead of the ocean, I wanted to try diving in the cenotes of the Mexican Riviera which I have never done before. One of my dive group members did an entire trip just diving the cenotes and recommended Ghost Divers which specializes in cenotes diving. So arranged with them for a day of cenotes back in fresh water. So after quite a few email and Whatsapp communications in advance of my trip, I booked with them for a day with an option to do a second day.
After taking the 7 am ferry from Cozumel, both the owner of Ghost Divers, Davide and the divemaster for the morning Mauro met me very close to the ferry dock at Playa del Carmen at 8 am. We drove to dive Tajma Ha which is one of the more popular cenotes. Tajma Ha technically has three different cenotes all connected together underground.
I was informed by Davide ahead of time that the water temp in the cenotes was 25 degrees C but decided that I'll just bring my 3 mm wetsuit used for ocean diving since carrying an additional drysuit would be too much luggage and I did not have a 5 mm nor 7 mm. When I got to the entry point at Tajma Ha, I wasn't even sure where the water was as the rocks below were so clear. After the excellent initial briefing by Mauro about the general rules of diving cenotes as well as our dive plan, he made sure that I was weighted properly. I had previously used 8 pounds of weight in fresh water pools wearing 3 mm and he suggested that I try only 4 pounds. I was skeptical because I have never dived with so little weight before but I tried it as a buoyancy check and to my surprise, I was able to get down no problem.
So off we went for our first dive and for much of it, I was okay in my 3 mm wetsuit until towards the last third of the dive when I started to get cold, even while wearing a 7 mm hood. Needless to say, I was cold for the 2nd dive at Tajma Ha which followed a different line underwater. I wish I had my drysuit with me but again that would have been too much to travel with.
Since all the water within cenotes are underground and not connected to the ocean, there were no currents and the water is crystal clear. In the shot below, the lighter colour steps on the left side is one of the entry points into the water which is where the darker colour area on the right side. The rocks underwater can be easily seen since the water is so clear.
There are some cenotes like Tajma Ha where there is a layer of salty water underneath the fresh water. This is called a halocline and as the different water mixes, the visibility becomes a bit blurry to the eye. The layer of salt water came in through the limestone rocks from the ocean but this is not present at all cenotes. The haloclines did not bother me as I was told in advance that things will get blury. All I had to do in order to get a more clear vision is to move a bit to the side or above the divemaster where the fresh water is not mixing in with the salty layer (it mixes when the divemaster is kicking with his fins). However, I was told that some divers who are inexperienced, can panic a bit in haloclines.
There were a few small fish at Tajma Ha including some black colour catfish but apparently this was the exception as most cenotes do not have any fish at all. The few that I did see were far and few though. So don't dive cenotes for the marine life.
I found that there were long passages that were very dark without any overhead openings in between the three cenotes at Tajma Ha. These areas became much like night dive conditions so dive lights were a must for this dive site. I was okay with this but was just a bit surprised since I thought that most cenotes the light from above would be visible throughout the dive. Mauro told me later that some cenotes are like that but not this one.
Also, some areas were fairly narrow both top-bottom and the sides so I personally feel that Tajma Ha is not suitable for relatively new divers. Although the divemaster go pretty slow, divers follow behind rather than beside since many passages are narrow. If divers do not have solid buoyancy skills, it would be pretty easy to hit the bottom, top or sides risking damage to any rock structures.
Divers also need to feel comfortable in the dark passages since I would estimate that 85% of both dives were in dark conditions. Only when we arrived at openings to the surface with light shining in could we see without our dive lights. Much of the dive was under night dive conditions so divers should have a few night dives under their belts or they will feel pretty uncomfortable at Tajma Ha. For such divers with limited night diving experience, it would be much better to dive at a better lit cenote before attempting this one.
The rock formations much like seen in caves, where spectacular and there were several fossils embedded in the rock along the route pointed out by Mauro. But due to the passageways in between the cenotes and air pockets, there was a lot of going up and down in depth resulting in a lot of ear equalization needed throughout the dive even though the maximum depth was only about 40 feet. The routes along both lines just had a lot of changing depth so divers need to prepare to equalize all the time during these dives.
My favourite parts of these cenotes dives was when I could see the sunlight shining through from the top and through the water like light beams. They were very beautiful to see.
Overall, I found diving cenotes to be a very different and almost out of world experience. It was like floating in space as often at times I didn't know if I was still in the water or not. The beauty of the light beams especially made these dives worthwhile for me even with the lack of marine life.
So next time I'm diving in Cozumel again, I would definitely spend at least a day in Playa del Carmen as a base to dive cenotes again but perhaps with a thicker wetsuit or even drysuit. I would also use Ghost Divers again as I found their service pretty awesome with pickup and transit service. After coming back to Playa del Carmen, I switched over to Davide's truck and he gave me a ride back to my Airbnb. Due to getting cold, I opted to do the bullshark dive the next day rather than another day of cenotes but again, I would return to dive more cenotes again with Ghost Divers in the future.
After taking the 7 am ferry from Cozumel, both the owner of Ghost Divers, Davide and the divemaster for the morning Mauro met me very close to the ferry dock at Playa del Carmen at 8 am. We drove to dive Tajma Ha which is one of the more popular cenotes. Tajma Ha technically has three different cenotes all connected together underground.
I was informed by Davide ahead of time that the water temp in the cenotes was 25 degrees C but decided that I'll just bring my 3 mm wetsuit used for ocean diving since carrying an additional drysuit would be too much luggage and I did not have a 5 mm nor 7 mm. When I got to the entry point at Tajma Ha, I wasn't even sure where the water was as the rocks below were so clear. After the excellent initial briefing by Mauro about the general rules of diving cenotes as well as our dive plan, he made sure that I was weighted properly. I had previously used 8 pounds of weight in fresh water pools wearing 3 mm and he suggested that I try only 4 pounds. I was skeptical because I have never dived with so little weight before but I tried it as a buoyancy check and to my surprise, I was able to get down no problem.
So off we went for our first dive and for much of it, I was okay in my 3 mm wetsuit until towards the last third of the dive when I started to get cold, even while wearing a 7 mm hood. Needless to say, I was cold for the 2nd dive at Tajma Ha which followed a different line underwater. I wish I had my drysuit with me but again that would have been too much to travel with.
Since all the water within cenotes are underground and not connected to the ocean, there were no currents and the water is crystal clear. In the shot below, the lighter colour steps on the left side is one of the entry points into the water which is where the darker colour area on the right side. The rocks underwater can be easily seen since the water is so clear.
There are some cenotes like Tajma Ha where there is a layer of salty water underneath the fresh water. This is called a halocline and as the different water mixes, the visibility becomes a bit blurry to the eye. The layer of salt water came in through the limestone rocks from the ocean but this is not present at all cenotes. The haloclines did not bother me as I was told in advance that things will get blury. All I had to do in order to get a more clear vision is to move a bit to the side or above the divemaster where the fresh water is not mixing in with the salty layer (it mixes when the divemaster is kicking with his fins). However, I was told that some divers who are inexperienced, can panic a bit in haloclines.
There were a few small fish at Tajma Ha including some black colour catfish but apparently this was the exception as most cenotes do not have any fish at all. The few that I did see were far and few though. So don't dive cenotes for the marine life.
I found that there were long passages that were very dark without any overhead openings in between the three cenotes at Tajma Ha. These areas became much like night dive conditions so dive lights were a must for this dive site. I was okay with this but was just a bit surprised since I thought that most cenotes the light from above would be visible throughout the dive. Mauro told me later that some cenotes are like that but not this one.
Also, some areas were fairly narrow both top-bottom and the sides so I personally feel that Tajma Ha is not suitable for relatively new divers. Although the divemaster go pretty slow, divers follow behind rather than beside since many passages are narrow. If divers do not have solid buoyancy skills, it would be pretty easy to hit the bottom, top or sides risking damage to any rock structures.
Divers also need to feel comfortable in the dark passages since I would estimate that 85% of both dives were in dark conditions. Only when we arrived at openings to the surface with light shining in could we see without our dive lights. Much of the dive was under night dive conditions so divers should have a few night dives under their belts or they will feel pretty uncomfortable at Tajma Ha. For such divers with limited night diving experience, it would be much better to dive at a better lit cenote before attempting this one.
The rock formations much like seen in caves, where spectacular and there were several fossils embedded in the rock along the route pointed out by Mauro. But due to the passageways in between the cenotes and air pockets, there was a lot of going up and down in depth resulting in a lot of ear equalization needed throughout the dive even though the maximum depth was only about 40 feet. The routes along both lines just had a lot of changing depth so divers need to prepare to equalize all the time during these dives.
My favourite parts of these cenotes dives was when I could see the sunlight shining through from the top and through the water like light beams. They were very beautiful to see.
Overall, I found diving cenotes to be a very different and almost out of world experience. It was like floating in space as often at times I didn't know if I was still in the water or not. The beauty of the light beams especially made these dives worthwhile for me even with the lack of marine life.
So next time I'm diving in Cozumel again, I would definitely spend at least a day in Playa del Carmen as a base to dive cenotes again but perhaps with a thicker wetsuit or even drysuit. I would also use Ghost Divers again as I found their service pretty awesome with pickup and transit service. After coming back to Playa del Carmen, I switched over to Davide's truck and he gave me a ride back to my Airbnb. Due to getting cold, I opted to do the bullshark dive the next day rather than another day of cenotes but again, I would return to dive more cenotes again with Ghost Divers in the future.
