Cenote Diving In Mexico, Where And With Whom?

[pilot fish]

As an AOW diver am I able to do cenotes without cave diver cert? I read that I need a cave diver DM. Would that be enough? How long do these type dives last and at what depth? Is nitrox recommended?

I have no idea where to stay, hotel, or with whom I would dive in Mexico, so I would appreciate any recommendations you guys could offer? Best time of year to do cenote diving, worst, does it matter etc?

 

[TSandM]

The decision in Mexico was that OW divers can do tours of the cavern zone, if accompanied by a guide who is cave certified, a scuba instructor, and is diving in full cave gear. The quality of the guiding apparently varies, though. Friends have seen groups going in with a guide who is not running line, and who does not have a primary light. So getting the right guide is important.

There are many recommendations, on this board and elsewhere, for Dennis of Diablo Divers.

I did my cenote tours with Zero Gravity, but they only guide people who've done Fundies. We also did a day with Mateo of Aldora Divers, but that was coming from Cozumel. If you are staying on the mainland, that probably wouldn't be a good option for you.

 

[olmic]

I dived Chac-Mool off Playa del Carmen, with Marco from DiveMike.com as the guide in November 2006. Went fine. 2 dives of each 40 minutes, max depth 15 meters. Temperature around 22 DEG C, so you probably need a full suit and hood (especially if you have been diving a lot the previous days). I was not diving nitrox.

 

[pilot fish]

Dennis of Diablo Divers is one I will look up. Thanks. I would stay on the mainland some place, but not sure where? Not even sure what town is best for cenote? I saw Playa Del Carmine online but not sure that is the right place?

Would it be a good idea for the divers, like me, to also carry a 150ft reel of line? I would take a light and have a back up but not sure what gear *I* would need to do cenote?

The decision in Mexico was that OW divers can do tours of the cavern zone, if accompanied by a guide who is cave certified, a scuba instructor, and is diving in full cave gear. The quality of the guiding apparently varies, though. Friends have seen groups going in with a guide who is not running line, and who does not have a primary light. So getting the right guide is important.

There are many recommendations, on this board and elsewhere, for Dennis of Diablo Divers.

I did my cenote tours with Zero Gravity, but they only guide people who've done Fundies. We also did a day with Mateo of Aldora Divers, but that was coming from Cozumel. If you are staying on the mainland, that probably wouldn't be a good option for you.

 

[TSandM]

If you are primarily interested in diving the cenotes, you might want to look into staying in Puerto Aventuras. Rental condos are available there.

Forgot to mention that we did five cenotes, and of the five, I loved Dos Ojos the most. Grand Cenote is also a good one, and the halocline effects at Taj Mahal were fun.

 

[lamont]

I dived Chac-Mool off Playa del Carmen, with Marco from DiveMike.com as the guide in November 2006. Went fine. 2 dives of each 40 minutes, max depth 15 meters. Temperature around 22 DEG C, so you probably need a full suit and hood (especially if you have been diving a lot the previous days). I was not diving nitrox.

a 5mm full suit alone was good enough for me, no hood, no gloves. we spent an hour sitting in the water before diving too and it was fine... i'm used to 7C diving though...

 

[scubadobadoo]

I third Dennis at Diablo. Very good experience.

I would be careful when picking the op to go with if you are going to do a full week of only Cenote diving. You will spend a lot of time with your guide and dif. ops have dif. degrees of what "safety" means. Most are great, some or just OK, and a few are simply horrible. Diving in the Cenotes is all about comfort level and if you feel at all uncmofortable with your guide or anything at all then that tension can easily sneak up on you before you even realize it has happened. Caves have a way of doing that to divers. The Cenotes are pretty safe, but I will admit that some guides have taken me furthur back in them than I felt comfy with on a few trips and 4-5 minutes away from light is NOT the place you want to have a panic attack. Luckily I kept my cool but some divers don't and bolt for the light, if they can even see it or find it. Just a little warning from a diver who has experienced this first hand.

As for gear needed, one strong primary light and a smaller secondary light will be needed and can be rented from most ops if you don't feel like bringing larger lights all the way to Mexico. I believe Dennis supplied me with a larger primary light than I had brought and I don't believe I was charged for it. Also minimally a 3mil full and I add a hood to that but I get cold easily. You shouldn't need a reel as most of the main Cenotes already have line installed in them.

Locations...Playa is decent...I have done a day of Cenote diving from Cozumel on the last few trips I have taken there and have found one or two days of Cenote per trip diving to be more than enough for my personal taste. They are lovely but they remind me of card tricks in that they all tend to look alike after a few, lol. YMMV.

No need for Nitrox as most of the Cenotes range from 5-30 feet deep and the dives last about 45 minutes or so. Very shallow. Cool and very clear 70ish degree water.

Have fun!!!

 

[GreenDiverDown]

They are lovely but they remind me of card tricks in that they all tend to look alike after a few, lol. YMMV.

Argh! Blasphemy!

 

[lamont]

Diving in the Cenotes is all about comfort level and if you feel at all uncmofortable with your guide or anything at all then that tension can easily sneak up on you before you even realize it has happened. Caves have a way of doing that to divers. The Cenotes are pretty safe, but I will admit that some guides have taken me furthur back in them than I felt comfy with on a few trips and 4-5 minutes away from light is NOT the place you want to have a panic attack. Luckily I kept my cool but some divers don't and bolt for the light, if they can even see it or find it. Just a little warning from a diver who has experienced this first hand.

Our first 2 dives were in Taj Mahal and right when we descended from the bat cave we lost two primary lights right away so we only had one The sun was falling so it was turning into a cave dive, and the team in front of us had messed up the halocline so it was difficult to reference the cavern line. And Taj gets 50-60 feet deep and its very difficult to see the exit, I think Taj has a liberal interpretation of what a Cavern zone is...

Things can definitely start to go wrong, and you do need to not panic and try to run.... You can lean on the heavier experience of having a full-cave cavern guide, but fundamentally you need to have the confidence to get yourself out...

 

[GFiLA]

we used a 3/2mm full suit and were more than warm enough. We dove Dos Ojos and Choc Moal with Yucketec Divers. Stefan was a great guide made my dive buddy very comfortable and for that matter me too. Highly recommend that shop. Stefen only dives cenotes.