Cavern Diving in Mexico's Cenotes

[adimi24]

I am Advanced Open Water and am l leaving a reef monitoring project in Belize for Mexico in a few days. I was doing reef surveys and have good buoyancy control - my ow and aow instructor is a cave and tec diver.

As of now I only have one day for diving in Mexico - I was going to stay in Tulum and my instructor recommended ProTec - do you have any other recommendations for dive shops?

I am planning on just doing 2 cavern dives on that one day - it is $160 usd for me to dive two cenotes with a private guide. Is this reasonable?

They offer two dives at Dos Ojos or a Gran Cenote - Temple of Doom combo. My instructor recommeded doing Gran Cenote and Chac Mool - I haven't yet asked him about these other options but thought I would ask for your opinions as well on the best cenotes for cavern dives.

I'm also a little confused as to where to go to next now that I have my AOW, I can probably move my flight back a couple days if anyone convinces me to stay longer and dive more cenotes, do a cavern/cave course, or any other courses (i'm interested in training in deep diving, nitrox soon, rescue diver, etc). I am also interested in learning sidemount. It probably makes sense to take advantage of the fact I'll be in Tulum or I can go anywhere else in th Yucatan where there are great cenotes, other diving, and instructors, I am just unsure of what to do next and what makes the most sense to do here and what I can do at home in NY or on future vacations

Thanks in advanc

 

[rongoodman]

I've done all my cave training with Protec, they're great guys. If you have a few extra days, it's hard to imagine a better location to continue your training, maybe with a cavern or sidemount course. Protec is a Stealth dealer and all their instructors are diving it for sidemount--I really like the system. You can pick up Nitrox in an evening at home, no need to waste time in Tulum on it(TDI's program is a good foundation for further training).

Where in NY do you live? I'm in Albany, going for the season's first dive in Lake George on Sunday. Dry suit territory for sure.

 

[Wah]

I just got back from PDC and dove Chac Mool/Kul Kul Kan and Dos Ojos/Bat Cave with Klaus at Playa Scuba. His prices are almost 1/2 of what you are paying, and since there are only 4 divers per guide allowed in the caverns, its still a small group. If I had only one day, I'd probably do Dos Ojos/Bat Cave, although all 4 dives were pretty awesome.

 

[Coconut Divers]

If you are in Tulum you have to understand that PDC is over 1h drive north of you so is the cenote Chac Mool. Grand Cenote, Temple of Doom, Angelita and Car wash are cenotes close to Tulum and you can probably get a good price on those with a local dive shop.
They are all amazing and very different !
So enjoy man and have FUN !

Coconut Divers Cancun - Scuba Diving in Cancun

Leif Meinert
Coconut Divers Cancun

 

[Dhboner]

I just finished a week with "Beyond Diving". My guide was the owner (Erik Rosenstein). Personal service and I had a blast. I won't use anyone else now.

Bob

 

[TSandM]

ProTec has a shop in Tulum, and I have met the manager and thought he was extremely nice. I've gotten good reports from the quality of service from the shop, as well.

If they can't help you, I can give you some names of other guides -- and if you are specifically interested in sidemount, either Natalie Gibb of Diablo Divers, or Jason Renoux of Essential Scuba Training would be good choices. The price you name is pretty much going to be standard for a private guide. Group tours are cheaper, but might not be the experience you want.

As far as cavern dives go, there aren't any BAD ones. Dos Ojos, for me, was the one that set the cave diving hook, but I did not do Grand as a cavern tour, and I love the cavern line there so much that I often swim it for fun at the end of my cave dives. Grand also has the advantage of not often having hordes of cavern tour divers.

If you are interested in learning sidemount, and you can extend your stay, Mexico is a great place to learn it. In fact, if the cavern tours give you the bug, going on to Intro is a very reasonable step, and gives you a LOT of cave there to enjoy.

 

[adimi24]

Thanks for the replies. Ron, I live in Westchester county, north of Manhattan. What is TDI and a Stealth dealer? I agree about the nitrox - maybe a cavern course - my OW/AOW instructor says the cavern course is bs and a waste of money, is this true? Could I just start with Intro to Cave? or maybe sidemount is worth doing now). I'm very unsure of how to progress, especially considering I don't have my own gear. For example, if I were to dive sidemount, I think it would make sense to learn to dive it now and get fitted by some good instructors instead of going home buying some OW jacket and then later wanting to get into sidemount and having to buy another expensive harness after that BCD. Most people do some cave training and then continue to sidemount, right?

Thanks for the other recommendations. I'll probably just go with protec because that's who my instructor dove with and recommends, as well do some of you.

My instructor recommended Gran Cenote and Chac Mool, but i guess that's not possible because of the distance? Dos Ojos is supposed to be great but very crowded, right?

Is it worth paying for a private guide? I thought so - more focused on me and more educational, much safe as well, I assume?

 

[rongoodman]

The Stealth 2 is a sidmount harness/wing system, becoming very popular. TDI is a training agency, Technical Diving International, which among many other things, does a nice basic Nitrox class, a little more in depth than some of the recreational agencies like PADI or SDI. The traditional progression of cave training is Cavern, Intro, Apprentice, and Full Cave, although there are minor variations among agencies. You will be taking Cavern to start if you train with Protec, since they're an IANTD shop(actually, they would want you to take Essentials first, which is sort of a bridge into overhead training.) They will take you all the way in sidemount if that's what you want. If you're just going to spend a day in the cenotes, any of the shops or guides Lynn mentioned will be fine. If you're interested in doing some further training, doing the guided dives with the instructor you will be working with makes sense. The guides run back and forth between Tulum and Playa every day--you should be able to visit any of the cenotes you like.

(Years ago I spent a couple of days at FDNY's Rescue 4 station in Queens for some USAR training, and actually heard an FDNY chief refer to Westchester County as "upstate". Being from Albany, that gave me a chuckle, especially since a couple of years previous I had run into some of those guys at a disaster scene up past Plattsburgh. Now, that was upstate!)

 

[TSandM]

Why does your instructor think the cavern class is useless? Cavern contains all of the core components of cave diving -- pinpoint buoyancy, non-silting propulsion, tolerance of task-loading (reel work), tolerance of zero viz (lost line exercises). A good cavern class, taught well and conscientiously, will do a great deal to bring up the skills of someone with only ordinary recreational training.

Admittedly, cavern doesn't give you entry to very much overhead, but the great thing about MX is that there are a LOT of beautiful caverns to dive. Going on to Intro gives you access to much more cave, and a few more systems that don't have much cavern space. But Intro is a class for people who want to cave dive. Cavern is a class for people who want to develop cave skills, but may not really want to go on, or aren't sure.

As far as sidemount goes, what is your motivation to do this? Is this part of a plan to move into a more serious commitment to cave diving? If not, I'm not sure what the value is. Yes, you can put together a sidemount setup as a way to dive doubles in places where you can't rent doubles, but why do you want to dive doubles?

Don't worry about the "buying another BC" thing. If you decide to get into technical or cave diving in a big way, you will buy LOTS of additional gear

 

[adimi24]

Protec just made this offer. Still have to find out price and details but this is very enticing

"
Give us 4-5 days and you will leave as a

- Nitrox diver
- Essentials
- Open water sidemount
- With a few cavern dives under your belt..."

Also not sure if he's talking about the cave essentials program or technical essentials, waiting for reply.

Sand, as to why I want to learn sidemount, there isn't too great of a reason. Mainly because my instructor LOVES sidemount and is very excited abuot it, which is passing on to me. I watched a Steve Bogearts interview with my instructor and it seems like a great way to dive, even if I just use it in openwater but would also be very useful if and when I continue on to tec and/or cave training, although that's very far away obviously.