Cenote Recommendations

[bc1954]

Just wondering about diving the cenotes. I tend to be a little claustrophobic I do not like to be in caves or tight enclosed dark spaces. I understand that the caves are different from the caverns with the caverns being more open. From all the posts I understand that they are dives a person should not miss. I Need a little bit of help deciding if I should do a couple of cenote dives or not. Any thoughts would be great.

 

[TSandM]

In most of the cenote dives, you will never be in a space smaller than a normal room in a house, but you will be beneath a rock overhead, and you will be in the dark (although light will be visible at a distance, it may be dim and seem quite far away). If this sounds unpleasant to you, I would advise skipping the cenote dives and perhaps just doing some swimming or snorkeling in the ones where you can see some of the decorations from the surface. The one thing nobody wants to have happen is to have some diver's anxiety level reach unmanageable levels while they are under the overhead.

 

[diverrex]

I really liked the cenote dives I made - Dos Ojos both sides, Chac Mol & Taj Mahal. I originally expected to be swimming around in an open cavern with lots of natural light above. But I was surprised how closed in they were at times. I'm quessing we traveled around 100' a few times with a hard overhead in a narrow tunnel. Most of the time we were swimming single file. Sometimes you went a distance before any natural light was visible. But it was great fun.

Here are a few pics.

 

[CenoteXperience]

Just wondering about diving the cenotes. I tend to be a little claustrophobic I do not like to be in caves or tight enclosed dark spaces. I understand that the caves are different from the caverns with the caverns being more open. From all the posts I understand that they are dives a person should not miss. I Need a little bit of help deciding if I should do a couple of cenote dives or not. Any thoughts would be great.

One of the main rules for cavern diving is never go in restrictions, which are narrow places where 2 divers can not side by side, so always there is enough room to swim without touching walls, ground, ceiling and formations.
Respect sunlight, we dive between daylight limits, it means you will always see a spot of day light around while diving in the cavern.
Diving the cenotes is an unique and very safe experience every diver should try in a lifetime.

 

[Cykomedic]

This is good website you have. We will be coming that way for a wedding and looking to dive Feb 27th. As many times as we can. Look forward to meeting with you.

 

[Robustbrad]

Very nice pictures you posted diverrex. It gives my wife and I and idea of what to expect if we dive the Cenotes in May.

Thank you.

 

[diverrex]

Very nice pictures you posted diverrex. It gives my wife and I and idea of what to expect if we dive the Cenotes in May.

Thank you.

Thanks. I included those pics to try to convey to the OP the sometimes closed in nature of the dive. I highly recommend the cenote dive experience, at least for one day of diving if you are in that area. It's truly world class for those types of dives and quite a wonderful experience. I hope to return. We dove with Diablo Divers and I highly recommend them.

Here are a few more pics, notice the line in several, you always follow the line.

Martin, our guide from Diablo Divers

The entrance/exit point, notice the jungle in backround

 

[Robustbrad]

Thanks for the additional pictures. I think its a must stop for us while we are down there. And thanks for the recommendation on guides, I will for sure check them out.

Any Cenote in general you think is a must see if we only have the time to do one?

Brad

 

[diverrex]

Thanks for the additional pictures. I think its a must stop for us while we are down there. And thanks for the recommendation on guides, I will for sure check them out.

Any Cenote in general you think is a must see if we only have the time to do one?

Brad

I wish I had more cenote experience to better answer your question. I am sure those with more experience all have different favorites. I've only made 4 cenote dives, Dos Ojos (both sides), Chac Mol and Taj Mahal. Of those I liked Chac Mol the most, I think because there were more places where large amounts of light came in. Not because the light alleviated any claustrophobia or anything, but simply because the light shining in from the green jungle above the cenote is a really cool image. Taj Mahal was my least favorite, but it did have the best halocline, which is also a really cool experience. When you are down in the salt water section you would swear where the fresh water meets it above is the water's surface. In fact our guide advised us "when you ascend up from the salt water into the fresh water don't get confused and take your regulator out thinking you are now in air above the surface". As crazy as that sounds I can sorta see how that could happen, the fresh water is so clear it's like being in air.

TSandM is a much better cenote advocate (and greatly more experienced in cavern and all aspects of diving) than I, but I do like to encourage people down in Cozumel or the Yucatan to try the cenotes, it's a really great experience. I'd like to do more cenote diving but while my wife also really liked the cenotes she does prefer seeing pretty tropical fish. So little time and money, so many dives sites to see.

 

[bdshort]

I was just down in the Riviera Maya and made 2 dives in Dos Ojos, and it really was an amazing experience. We did both sides, and for a lot of the dive, especially the 2nd one where we visited the Bat Cavern, it does feel like you're waaay back in the cave. I would highly recommend it to anyone though to try at least once. It's nudged me a bit closer to getting at least the beginnings of a cave certification.

Oh, we also went to Grand Cenote where I snorkeled but didn't dive (except for some really short freedives). It was really cool watching the lights from a couple of divers back in the cavern. Grand Cenote was nice because there was way less people traffic there compared to Dos Ojos, even though it's right on the highway between Tulum and Coba, vs. Dos Ojos which is 4km down a dirt road from the main highway.