cenote dive sites
AKTUN HA
...also called CARWASH is luckily not the place for washing cars anymore. The parking lot is right in front of the cenote which makes it an easy entrance for everyone.
Most of the time there is a reddish or yellowish looking cloud for the first couple metres/feet when you descent before you reach clear water. At a depth of 5 m you reach the bottom which is covered with natural dust like leaves, roots, etc. Because of the big cenote it is the perfect place to get your buoyancy to the peak before entering the cavern area. There are a bunch of roots and fallen trees right before we enter the overhead environment, giving the whole scenery an unreal touch due to the cloud above us and the crystal clear water around us. We come into a huge room where we fly along the walls enjoying the beautiful formations. The deepest point of this dive will be at 15m/45ft. It is a nice easy dive.
Cenote Carwash does not have a permanent guideline because it is often used for cavern and cave diving training drills. That’s why your guide will place and remove a guideline during the dive.
ANGELITA
...(engl. little angel) is the ultimate adventure for experienced divers. Angelita is a cenote without overhead environment but nevertheless a fascinating variation of the cenotes of Yucatan.
Situated 17 km south of Tulum you will have a 300m/100ft walk from the parking area through the jungle. At the end of this little path you find lake like looking Angelita. This cenote does nothing else but drop down to 60m/180ft.
The first few metres of that freshwater filled sinkhole are most of the times a bit cloudy but clears up fast and opens the view to a mystic scenery: Feeling like being in air you slowly dive down the crystal clear water and come closer to the hydrogen sulphate layer which is a big cloud covering the whole cenote between 28 – 30m/90ft. The scenery is supported by a big trunk and branches reaching out of the cloud. Descending through the cloud, divers above will just see the bubbles from the divers below coming out the cloud and travelling up to the surface. Below the cloud it’s quiet dark.
We usually go down to 40m/120ft (only advanced divers) and slowly work our way up alongside the wall,s admiring some huge stalactites hanging from the edge.
You can be sure that this dive will stick in your memory forever and will be one of the most fascinating dives you ever did!
CALAVERA
...(engl. Skull Cave) is also known as ‘Temple of Doom’. This cenote is just 3,5 km away from Tulum, on the road to Coba.
Already the entrance into this cenote is different to the others. After a short walk from the parking lot you arrive at a literally spoken ‘hole’ in the ground, which drops 3m/9ft down before you reach the water level. The first adventure will be the jump into this 3m deep cenote – to get out after the dive there is an iron ladder waiting for you.
The dive itself goes basically around this hole underneath the ground. This cavern dive is a bit deeper than the others, but still shallow tough with max. depth around 14m/42ft. The dive leads you through different halocline layers (halocline is the layer where salt and fresh water come together but don’t mix because of the difference in density). Also in this dive you will be fascinated by the formations of the cavern area.
Because of it’s special entrance and the halocline layers but also of the interesting formation it is a dive not to miss!
up^
CASA CENOTE
...(engl. Cenote House) is situated 9 km north of Tulum, and just 200m/600ft away from the Caribbean ocean. This cenote is part of the longest underwater cave system in the world ‘Sac Actun’ and, as this would be not enough, also connects with a 200m tunnel straight to the ocean. Also the deepest depth is just around 7m/20ft it is a beautiful dive. You will see blue crabs waving from the bottom, mangrove roots growing on both sides of this riverlike cenote, fresh and saltwater fish meeting up to give a curious look to the divers and also haloclines (where salt and fresh water meet) give the whole dive a mystic, spooky but nevertheless a absolute stunning scenery.
That dive is perfect for everyone, beginners, experienced, up to date and also bit rusted divers. Bring your familiy along, because it’s also a beautiful spot for snorkelling without waves!
up^
CHAC-MOOL
...(the mayan name for their jaguar-god) is a bit further away from Tulum than the other cenotes, around 30 km. Even though it takes a bit longer to get there it’s one of our favourite and more than worth spending time there.
We can choose from two entries to start the dive. We take the entrance closer to Kukulkan since that is usually the dive before this dive in Chac-Mool. Just after 5 min. into the dive we already reach the first halocline (where salt and fresh water come together but don’t mix for the difference in density). Following along the line it is fascinating watching the visual effect of the halocline. Soon we come to the opening of the main entrance where the outside environment is reflecting on the surface and sunrays beam down the trunks and branches reaching into the water. Now we enter the most fascinating room you can imagine: Again, passing a halocline we are in the room where a portion of the ceiling has collapsed. Seeing the collapsed part on the bottom, you will be still speechless, seeing the rest of the roof above you, with millions of stalactites hanging down. We pass the huge formation and come into an air dome where we can surface; from here we have around another 8 min. to come back to our entrance point.
This is truly a dive where you can see all beauty of a cavern dive: light games, spectacular sun rays, smallest and biggest stalagmites and stalactites, huge columns, air doom and last but not least haloclines. Get the taste, you will never regret it!
up^
DOS OJOS
...(engl. Two Eyes) is one of the most famous and popular cenote in this area. 10 km south of Tulum there is a 4 km long dirt road leading from the highway to the parking lot of this cavern and cave area.
There are two circular shaped cenotes. One of them is the perfect spot for snorkeling, the other one is the entrance to two stunning cavern dives.
The first dive goes mainly along the ‘snorkler cenote’. Because of the large opening along one side of the cavern area you will see sun rays beaming into the crystal clear fresh water and offering fascinating views to the open area and into the cavern area with it’s beautiful decorations.
The second dive goes into the Bat Cave. This dive is darker than the first and leads through several rooms and passages underneath the air filled Bat Cave, where we ascend and observe the bats hiding between thousands of stalactites. Good buoyancy is necessary to protect the incredibly beautiful speleotherms.
Also this dives will be logged in your ‘most fascinating dives ever’ part of your logbook!
up^
Gran Cenote
...situated just 4 km away from our shop Halocline Diving in downtown Tulum, on the road to Coba, is not only a very nice spot for snorkelling, it is also a perfect start for certified divers to get into the amazing world of cavern diving.
In the open entrance of Gran Cenote we check for proper weighting and you have the chance to bring your buoyancy to the peak before we enter the cavern zone which leads along the edge of the circular shaped cenote. White walls, crystal clear waters and spectacular formations and sunray-games in the water wait for you on that cavern dive.
If not everyone is diving in your family, you can still stay together, because the people snorkelling will see the divers below diving in and out the cavern zone.
You’ll love it! Come and check it out!
up^
KUKULKAN
...is part of the Chac-Mool system. Usually we do the first dive in Kukulkan and the second dive in Chac-Mool. The entrance to Kukulkan is just a 2 min. walk away from the entrance to Chac-Mool. It is a beautiful pond with crystal clear water and surrounded by the jungle.
When the sun is shining you will have a spectacular sun ray game right at the beginning of your dive. The sun rays are breaking on the surface, giving an amazing effect to look at it. Around 10 min. into the dive we pass a large tunnel with a halocline (where salt and fresh water come together but don’t mix because of the difference in density). If you point your light where the salt and freshwater meet you will see the reflections of it on the walls, looking at the freshwater part you will feel like being in air, looking at the saltwater part everything is blurred.
Coming out of the large tunnel you see the games of the sun light and rays again which is especially beautiful because you come out of the darker area and the halocline into the brighter area filled with sunrays in colours of the rainbow.
The combination of the two dives Kukulkan and Chac-Mool is perfect. You get to see all aspects of cavern diving in the most beautiful way you can imagine. This is one reason why it’s one of our favourites.
up^