First Mexico cave dives

[Jaaron82]

So I just returned from my first Mexico cave diving trip. I dove with Protec tulum and it was a great experience. I had my family and some friends with me that are not cave divers so we did a cavern tour day and then I did a day of guided cave diving the next day. The cavern day we did casa cenote which was more of an open water dive but still really enjoyable. We then headed to car wash cenote and followed the gold cavern line which I liked better than casa cenote . All in all a great experience! Our guide was amazing and stayed within the limits of cavern , gave thorough briefings and site knowledge. The next day was my day of guided cave diving. I arrived at Protec tulum and got tanks and loaded up , we went to Nahoch na chich which was down a dirt road and north of tulum. My guide went over the dive plan and showed me the route we would be taking on Dive 1 going upstream on the mainline. I’m intro level so we would be diving intro level. We got in and did our checks and an s drill and headed up the mainline … what an amazing dive very beautiful cave ! The dive was shallow 18ft max depth and we had an hour dive time. We came back up and recalculated and went back upstream to Alberto’s line which was also amazing! We then took a lunch break and had tacos we had gotten earlier and switched to new tanks and discussed the two dives and I proceeded to tell the guide that it was awesome and I was hooked ! We discussed the next dive and we went down stream it was great dive we had a 99 minute run time on the final dive ( longest and best cave dive of my life) . Overall I really enjoyed Nahoch na chich and I’m officially hooked …. Already looking at flights back down without family to do more cave dives! Great experience

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Excellent. I dive out of Protec also. Super glad you enjoyed your diving.

 

[rddvet]

Na Hoch is the one that always gets first timers to Mexico hooked

 

[SandyRobinson]

Glad to hear you had a good time. ProTec does a really good job. Dove with them last month and will dive with them next month too.

 

[inquis]

Na Hoch is the one that always gets first timers to Mexico hooked

Shoot, that's what made me decide to start my trek down the technical diving path. Make a goal and start stepping, right?

 

[jlcnuke]

Na Hoch is the one that always gets first timers to Mexico hooked

Chikin Ha got me bit by the cave diving bug when I did it as a guided cenote dive.

 

[Jaaron82]

Well I made it back for a quick trip with my fiancé and was able to squeeze in a day of guided diving with Protec tulum again. I drove my rental car to Tulum from Akumal where we were staying and arrived at the shop at 8:15 am to meet my guide and load tanks etc. Everyone was super friendly and there was fresh coffee to have ! I meet Kim and he said he was going to be my guide for the day. We loaded up and stopped to grab tacos that he got for us. He said we would go to Mayan Blue and do two dives. But we stopped first to show another diver a different cenote. Kim explained the history of the site and we discussed the initial dive plan for the first dive. The plan was to go the B tunnel then jump to the D tunnel till we hit turn pressure. Kim lead the dive in I was #2 we turned after the jump to the a little way down D tunnel. When we turned I was in the largest room I had ever been in to date that was so blue and super spectacular. I lead on the way out and we surfaced after doing a few minutes of back gas deco. At the surface I was telling Kim how amazing the dive was and he said if I thought that room was big wait until we do the second dive. We changed tanks and hung out for an hour discussing the second dive which would be two jumps and a T . We jumped from A tunnel this time heading towards mayas two cenote, then T’d right then another jump later we descended into Hostage Hall and follow till the line ended. This room was even bigger brilliant blue with white walls. We turned the dive and headed out. When we arrived back to the A line we re calculated and went down A tunnel till we hit turn and headed out ( A tunnel was super dark and ate the light , quite different from hostage hall) I can’t say enough about good things about Protec and Kim He really made me feel like a friend and not just a customer. Top notch and I’ll definitely be back again hopefully soon.

 

[grantctobin]

Well I made it back for a quick trip with my fiancé and was able to squeeze in a day of guided diving with Protec tulum again. I drove my rental car to Tulum from Akumal where we were staying and arrived at the shop at 8:15 am to meet my guide and load tanks etc. Everyone was super friendly and there was fresh coffee to have ! I meet Kim and he said he was going to be my guide for the day. We loaded up and stopped to grab tacos that he got for us. He said we would go to Mayan Blue and do two dives. But we stopped first to show another diver a different cenote. Kim explained the history of the site and we discussed the initial dive plan for the first dive. The plan was to go the B tunnel then jump to the D tunnel till we hit turn pressure. Kim lead the dive in I was #2 we turned after the jump to the a little way down D tunnel. When we turned I was in the largest room I had ever been in to date that was so blue and super spectacular. I lead on the way out and we surfaced after doing a few minutes of back gas deco. At the surface I was telling Kim how amazing the dive was and he said if I thought that room was big wait until we do the second dive. We changed tanks and hung out for an hour discussing the second dive which would be two jumps and a T . We jumped from A tunnel this time heading towards mayas two cenote, then T’d right then another jump later we descended into Hostage Hall and follow till the line ended. This room was even bigger brilliant blue with white walls. We turned the dive and headed out. When we arrived back to the A line we re calculated and went down A tunnel till we hit turn and headed out ( A tunnel was super dark and ate the light , quite different from hostage hall) I can’t say enough about good things about Protec and Kim He really made me feel like a friend and not just a customer. Top notch and I’ll definitely be back again hopefully soon.

Kim’s a great dude. Glad you enjoyed

 

[rddvet]

If you ever dive with Kim again have him take you to Chan Hol. It's not one you really need a guide for, but he was one of the original explorers and can talk about the history of the cave which always makes for a better dive

 

[Manatee Diver]

I love Chan Hol. That is a major problem with Mexico, so many great caves. I often want to hit sites I've already done to see them again, leaving only a day or two for new sites.