What Scuba Diving Cenotes Is Like In Mexico
After spending several days scuba diving in warm tropical waters again in Cozumel, I took the ferry over to the mainland to stay in Playa del Carmen for a few days. My dive trip was still continuing but instead of the ocean, I wanted to try diving in the cenotes of the Mexican Riviera. Cenotes are underground fresh water caverns which have parts that have open areas to the surface with sunlight shining through. Caverns are not to be confused with caves which are fully closed overhead and require special cave diving training. Caverns will always have an opening to the outside surface somewhere along the dive area.
My friend Thomas had gone there just to dive only cenotes for an entire trip and recommended Ghost Divers which specializes in cenotes diving. So I arranged with them for a day of cenotes back in fresh water. Their divemaster met me very close to the ferry dock at Playa del Carmen and we drove to dive Tajma Ha which is one of the more popular cenotes. Tajma Ha technically has three different cenotes all connected together underground.
The Water Conditions In Cenotes
One of the big difference between cenotes and the ocean is that the water inside cenotes as with diving in the springs in Florida, is fresh rather than salty. And like the fresh springs in Florida, the Mexican cenotes water is colder than the ocean water nearby with these dive sites at around 25 degrees C. Most divers who do a lot of cenote diving wear 5 mm wetsuits and hoods. I wore just my 3 mm wetsuit used for ocean diving and towards the last third of my first dive, I started to get cold, even while wearing a 7 mm hood. Needless to say, I was cold for the 2nd dive at Tajma Ha which followed a different line underwater. I wish I had my drysuit with me but that would have been too much to travel with. Ghost Divers did offer me the use of 5 mm wetsuit which I should have taken.
Since all the water within cenotes are underground and not connected to the ocean, there are no currents and the water is crystal clear. In fact when I first arrived to see the entry point to Tajma Ha where I’m pointing to in the above photo as well as the other photos here, I couldn’t even tell where the water was. The rocks on the right half of each shot are underwater so that’s how clear the water is!
There are some cenotes like Tajma Ha where there is a layer of salty water underneath the fresh water. This is called a halocline and as the different water mixes, the visibility becomes a bit blurry to the eye. The layer of salt water came in through the limestone rocks from the ocean but this is not present at all cenotes.
There were a few small fish at Tajma Ha including some black colour catfish but apparently this was the exception as most cenotes do not have any fish at all. The few that I did see were far and few though. So don’t dive cenotes for the marine life.
My Dive Experience At Tajma Ha
I was told by my divemaster that there are other cenotes with pretty flat bottoms making the dives pretty easy. However, some of them can get silted up fairly easy if divers are too close to the bottom. Tajma Ha has pretty heavy sediment at the bottom so we kicking up silt is not a big problem. However, I found that there were long passages that were very dark without any overhead openings in between the three cenotes at Tajma Ha. These areas became much like night dive conditions so dive lights were a must for this dive site.
Also, some areas were fairly narrow both top-bottom and the sides so I personally feel that Tajma Ha is not suitable for relatively new divers. Although the divemaster goes pretty slow, divers follow behind rather than beside since many passages are narrow. If divers do not have solid buoyancy skills, it would be pretty easy to hit the bottom, top or sides risking damage to any rock structures.
Divers also need to feel comfortable in the dark passages since I would estimate that 85% of both dives were in dark conditions. Only when we arrived at openings to the surface with light shining in could we see without our dive lights. Much of the dive was under night dive conditions so divers should have a few night dives under their belts or they will feel pretty uncomfortable at Tajma Ha. For such divers with limited night diving experience, it would be much better to dive at a better lit cenote before attempting this one.
The haloclines did not bother me as I was told in advance that things will get blury. All I had to do in order to get a more clear vision is to move a bit to the side or above the divemaster where the fresh water is not mixing in with the salty layer (it mixes when the divemaster is kicking with his fins). However, I was told that some divers who are inexperienced, can panic a bit in haloclines.
The rock formations much like seen in caves, where spectacular and there were several fossils embedded in the rock along the route pointed out by my divemaster. But due to the passageways in between the cenotes and air pockets, there was a lot of going up and down in depth resulting in a lot of ear equalization needed throughout the dive even though the maximum depth was only about 40 feet. The routes along both lines just had a lot of changing depth so divers need to prepare to equalize all the time during these dives.
My favourite parts of these cenotes dives was when I could see the sunlight shining through from the top and through the water like light beams. They were very beautiful to see.
Here’s a compilation of video footage shot by others on YouTube that I found who were willing to share their clips. Even though I did not have any video from my own dives, this clip below will give you a great idea of what diving Tajma Ha is like.
Overall, I found diving cenotes to be a very different and almost out of world experience. It was like floating in space as often at times I didn’t know if I was still in the water or not. The beauty of the light beams especially made these dives worthwhile for me even with the lack of marine life.
So next time I’m diving in Cozumel again, I would definitely spend at least a day in Playa del Carmen as a base to dive cenotes again but perhaps with a thicker wetsuit or even drysuit. I would also use Ghost Divers again as I found their service pretty awesome with pickup and transit service. If I’m down there between November and March, I would also do the bull sharks dive again.
