Which Cenote diving for beginners around Riviera Maya?

[freedc]

Thank you to everyone who posted here and I'd love to see more info as I'm headed to Akumal next month and want to try my first cavern/cenote experience.

When I got into this hobby I assured my wife that "will never do cave-diving" as it seemed like the scariest thing on earth and not worth it. She does not like me taking any risks. But I'm looking at cenotes and starting to use the word "cavern"

I am still under 30 dives, but I try to take it very seriously, doing training dives in the quarry just to work on buoyancy, trim, and navigation. I've done a night dive and have done several dives in low viz/zero viz conditions (including my AOW course).

This is only my second time in this part of Mexico, so I'll dive in the ocean with the diveop first -- that sounds like a good suggestion. Is there anything else I can do to raise my wife's comfort level? Is there a diveop that is considered "the best" in terms of safety (conservative, been around a long time, most experienced guides)?

 

[enhydralutris]

When I was looking for dive operators before my trip, I scoured ScubaBoard and saw a lot of recs for Nicholas at Cenote Xperience (like this one: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/5583392-post1.html). I ended up going with Geofish since I wanted to do ocean and cenote, and they were great too.

 

[MRadke]

I dove Chac Mool on dives 24 and 25 this year with Jaime Martinez from Solo Buceo and had a great time. The formations of stalactites make it almost like diving in a cathedral.

I had been diving 3 tanks a day with him for most of the week and he was satisfied that I had bouyancy and trim well sorted out. My only real concern was being able to clear my ears quickly enought to not hold the group up. The The Cenote was certainly interesting, I'm glad that I experienced it, but I like the reefs and wrecks better because of the sea life. Of course, as my dive buddy said, it's a great way to soak the salt water out of the gear on the last dive day.

 

[orm]

Sent you a PM.

Yes definitely recommend Chac Mool.

 

[orm]

This is a short video I shot of some of the cenotes around the area.


It's not extensive but gives you an idea of what's down there.

[vimeo]18730840[/vimeo]

Best played in HD if you have the bandwidth.

 

[alwaysdiving]

Hi guys, my name ia Alvaro Gonzalez and I´ve been diving in this area (Cancun, Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel and Cenotes) for more than thirty two years, so I do have many options and experience to give you great dives, if you are looking for a really personal dives, contact me, I never take more than six divers at the time for ocean dives and four people maximum for Cenotes.
Imagine a dive where there is no waves, no current and the visibility is FIVE HUNDRED YARDS!!! (This is for real) Well, this is the best way to define a Cenote dive, certainly, it exist some other Cenotes where the people can make extreme dives, I like to do it in an EASY, FUN AND SAFE WAY.
In cenotes there is, basically, two types of dives “Cave Dive” and “Cavern Dive” there is a substantial difference between one each other , SUN LIGHT, as long as you can see it , you are in a cavern, which is safe and fun, the maximum depth in this dives is 45 feet, but we do not stay at this depth all the dive time, so the average depth is about 20 feet, in case we have to surface, it won´t take us more than 35 seconds, swimming in a straight line to the exit, to do it, WE DO NOT DO CAVE DIVE PENETRATION , an open water diver can do this dive easily.
Contact me in case you need some more information
alvaro@alwaysdiving.com
Always Diving - the best diving xperencies.

 

[Fionab]

Visibility of 500 yards that sounds like a boring cavern to me.

 

[lmichaels22]

If you are doing well diving you could pick a cenote tour that stays at the edge of the rim at all times. Dos Ojos has one. The natural light is always to your side, you may have a small "tunnel" to go through, but these have been bang and broken long before us. They are fun and much different kind of dive. Diving in the fresh water also requires a different amount of weight then the salt so trim can be a factor. So snorkel some or at least one and then if you feel comfortable take an easy edge tour.