One word: Waaau. It is out of this world!
The primary reason I chose to come to Playa Del Carmen was because of the cenotes… Caves. The area has the largest cave systems in the world, and the diving in the caves are widely spoken about. And for good reason…
First a definition: Cavern diving is the “light” version of cave diving. Cavern diving can in principle be done by any certified diver and is recreational diving. Cave diving requires many days of special training and is considered technical diving. The difference? How deep you penetrate the cave, and that there always is daylight in a cavern dive. More than 300 people have died in cave diving.
Imagine you walked into a cave with stalactites and stalagmites (like this one):
Now imagine, that you are not walking in thre, because it is full of water. Fresh water steming from filtered rain and therefore is crystal clear. So imagine instead that you dive into the small cracks, the tunnels – and because you are diving, you float weightless between the floor and ceiling. As close to the floor or ceiling as you want…
But that’s not all. Beside this amazing feeling you also have access to parts of the cave, where noone else can come. And you swim through narrow passages and “feel” beeing one with the cave. And then there is the daylight comming into the cave: The way the crystal clear and completely still fresh water breaks the light is astounding and mindblowing. Do you think I like cavern diving? Oh Yeah.
But there is absolut no life in the caves, so you go for the structures, swim-throughs, the atmosphere, the light and the feeling of adventure. These photos give you an idea:
I have now dived with Pluto Dive and can highly recommend them for the professionalism and the fact that they are a “boutique” dive shop, i.e. few customers per trip and a very experienced dive master / instructor.
I dived the following caves (caverns):
Dos Ojos
2 dives: Outstanding caves with great structures, beautiful colors, crystal clear 25 degree Celcius water temperature. In one of the parts, there is a nice cave !
See pics
Chac Mool
2 dives: Not so much structure as Dos Ojos, but instead this cave actually have the halocline, the specific place, where fresh and salt water meet – phenomenal to see the mixing, reflections in the water, how light is dispersed different and not least: The visibility becomes much changed in the halocline and the salt water.
See video or pics
Angelita
1 dive: Out of this world. This is actualy not a cavern, but a sinkhole, i.e. a hole in the ground. App. 30m in diameter, and 65m deep. The interesting part is, that at app. 30m a layer of hydrogen sulfate is trapped and this is what makes this dive out of this world – is seems like a cloud and through the cloud trees stick their branches – it’s like a forest… And you actually SEE the gas trapped there. Awesome.
Below the loud you see more trees and roots, and it feels like diving in a forest by night?! – it is a deep dive though, so only for experienced divers. Two words: Do it!
See pics and info
Gran Cenote
1 dive: Guess why this cenote has this name? Because it is BIG. And with many many many structures under water… Even more beautiful than Dos Ojos in my opinion. And even more opportunities to streach the Cavern part of the dive to almost cave. The light is fantastic, the stalactites and stalagmites awesome and plentiful and lots of swim throughs, canyons … and snorkellers!
See pics
