Mexico cave diving

[Germie]

A friend and me wants to go to Mexico for cavediving next year. We are experienced cavedivers (oc, cc, sm, scooters, trimix, etc).
We know there are several options: Hire a car and cylinders and go on your own. That sounds ok for us, but others said it is same price if you go with a guide and don't need to drive yourself. We don't speak any Spanish, so maybe a guide is an option. Normally we want to dive bm oc. So we don't take a rebreather with us.

So who knows some good adresses? Or private guides you can hire.
And what are costs? We hear about 140-150 dollar a day including transport, twinsets, air/ean as gas, and entrance for the caves. So no hidden extra costs.

 

[decompression]

Adam k, owner of Cave Heaven in Tulum. Full service dive shop, guiding and accommodations on site. Excellent outfit.

Cave Heaven - Quality cave diving instruction and guided cave diving


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[JohnnyC]

Protec Playa or Protec Tulum are great. Matt, one of the owners has his name on about every cave map down there. Patrick, one of the owners, developed the xDeep Stealth 2.0 for xDeep. All of them are explorers.

ProTec Dive Center Playa del Carmen, Mexico

ProTec Dive Center Tulum, Mexico

 

[mselenaous]

Alessandra & Peter of Cavetrainingmexico.com
Fun & friendly, have been in the area 15+ yrs & 24+yrs respectively. Both are multi lingual, english, spanish, italian, & more.

Natalie Gibb, American expat, of UndertheJungle.com
Nat is UndertheJungle here on SB and she is columnist for About Scuba .com.

No worries on backmount or sidemount
I dove back, Netdoc dove side. Both ops have plenty of both. All tanks are AL80s.




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[Blue Life]

We will be more than glad to help you plan for your diving trip. Check us out at Cave Archives - Blue Life - Blue Life. Blue Life's owner Frank is an amazing cave and technical diving instructor and active cave explorer who can show you some really amazing places you may not be able to find on your own, there is nothing like local knowledge! For more information please email Frank at frank@bluelife.com. Hope to dive with you soon!

 

[JohnnyC]

I'll add that I made my choice based on pedigree. As I mentioned, Matt's name is on all the cave maps, Andreas Matthias. He's lived in those caves for years, all over the Yucatan, unlike quite a few guys that never get out of Tulum. He's been on countless number of exploration projects and is a member of Explorers Club, International.

Patrick Widmann, along with Phillip Lehman, has done incredible exploratory work in the Dominican Republic, as well as Madagascar caves, the ones where the found the giant lemurs. He's an IANTD Instructor Trainer. He's also a super nice guy.

They own the IANTD License for Central America, that in itself is a big deal. Matt is an IANTD Instructor Trainer Trainer, and the local training officer for NSS-CDS.

Matt is one of two ISC Megalodon instructors in the Yucatan (among a laundry list of other rebreathers), and keeps the shop well-stocked with rebreather supplies.

I chose Protec for those reasons (and many other). The Yucatan, especially the Playa to Tulum area has such a high density of cave divers it's incredible. Because of this, I found that there was a big disparity between quality, which is why I based my choice on the pedigree of those involved. There are some great shops down there, as mentioned above. I'm just laying out the reasons why I made my choice. I wouldn't hesitate to go with any of the shops mentioned, and I'll add Zero Gravity as well. If I were GUE I would have gone with them, and their shop is the best stocked dive shop around.

 

[Peter Guy]

I've been diving in Mexico a couple of times a year for the past 6 or 7 years. My wife and I almost never hired a guide and when we did, it seemed that it was about $150 PER PERSON including entry fees, tanks, etc. I think when we had a group, it was a little less PER PERSON.

But we only hired a guide to go to a specific cave -- generally one that could only be accessed with permission and a guide.

Most of the caves are such that you don't need a guide. The maps are pretty clear and just about every shop has been quite helpful in describing entries, lines, etc.

As you are new to these caves, I'd just plan on doing the "simple" ones and taking it slow and easy -- enjoy and learn one cave. So maybe hire a guide for a day to do Car Wash and Gran Cenote -- then come back and dive them to explore the numerous lines.

While most places you can squeak by without Spanish, the fact that my wife was fluent did help.

BTW, if you are on speaking terms with Anne Marie or J.P. Bresser, I'd reach out to them for information on diving the Mexican caves. But if you aren't, oh well.