Tulum, Mexico
Brilliant bluish low-cal from the cave opening slow faded away. Switching on our dive lights nosotros swam deep into the darkness beyond. H5N1 mysterious alien public revealed itself.
Unlike wandering to a greater extent than or less the famous Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, cave diving inwards United Mexican States has risks. Swimming through nighttime underwater passages inwards the Earth tin live on claustrophobic in addition to confusing.
With a roof of stone over your head, floating upwards to the surface inwards an emergency is non an option. You must teach dorsum out the way you lot came in.
In the past, this type of diving was exclusively accessible to advanced divers amongst rattling specialized training.
But the dominion was changed when the diving community made a distinction betwixt Cave Diving & Cavern Diving.
Difference Between Cave & Cavern Diving
To teach to a greater extent than SCUBA divers interested inwards exploring caves, the sport was split upwards into 2 dissimilar categories.
Cave Diving is when divers maneuver their way deep into underwater passageways amongst no piece of cake access to the surface due to a ceiling of stone inwards a higher house their heads. There is cipher natural low-cal visible to the diver nether the proper Definition of cave diving. Individuals volition oft swim for many hundreds (even thousands) of meters from the cave opening, using multiple air tanks in addition to a spool of penetration line to detect their way dorsum out.
Cavern Diving is similar to cave diving, the departure is that some natural low-cal is visible to you lot at all times. So cavern divers don’t teach as deep into the passages as cave divers do. The cave opening doesn’t postulate to live on visible, only some form of natural low-cal emanating from that opening. The penetration trammel for cavern diving is 200 feet (60 m) from the cave opening. Cavern divers also role a guideline to forestall getting lost, but it’s already attached to the cave flooring or wall.
Both cave & cavern diving requires the role of underwater flashlights, as the surroundings tin teach quite nighttime within a cave. Even if you lot tin come across some daylight off inwards the distance behind you, it may live on pitch dark inwards the direction you’re swimming!
Cave divers require a particular laid of additional certifications that the average recreational diver volition non pass the fourth dimension or coin to get.
But cavern diving amongst a guide is available to anyone amongst a basic Open Water SCUBA certification, similar me!
What Is H5N1 Cenote?
To teach diving inwards these caves, you lot offset convey to piece of job into the H2O through a cenote. Cenotes are freshwater sinkholes inwards the ground.
Sometimes the roof of these passageways volition collapse, creating an entrance into the cloak-and-dagger river hidden below.
Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is littered amongst cenotes that are fed past times the largest cloak-and-dagger river systems inwards the world.
The beginning of this crystal-clear H2O is rainfall that filters through the earth.
These subterranean passages brand upwards extensive underwater cave systems, similar the Sac Actun organisation which is over 133 miles (232 km) long.
Cenotes are unique natural features to the Yucatan & Caribbean Area — it’s estimated that at that topographic point are over 6000 of them inwards the area. This makes it the best house on the planet to sense cavern diving.
Dos Ojos SCUBA Shop
For my rattling offset cavern diving experience, I decided to enlist the services of Dos Ojos Dive Shop. They had a keen reputation online in addition to amongst other local divers.
From the town of Playa del Carmen, it’s a inexpensive 40-minute colectivo ride to the Dos Ojos Cenote located betwixt Akumal & Tulum.
The expanse to a greater extent than or less the dive store is genuinely abode to many dissimilar cenotes, but the most famous is Dos Ojos, which way “two eyes” inwards Spanish. These caverns were featured inwards the IMAX cinema “Journey into Amazing Caves” as good as a horror flick called “The Cave“.
I met amongst my professional person dive guide Salvador Moon at the Dos Ojos store to teach fitted for gear. We in addition to then proceeded to displace 2 kilometers to the Dos Ojos cenote itself as he shared some interesting historical facts most the area.
Cenotes were 1 time used past times the Mayans for ritual human sacrifice — they believed them to live on entrances into the underworld.
The remains of ancient human skeletons are yet occasionally flora inwards these underwater caves. Some of them are over 10,000 years old!
Welcome To The Underworld
If you lot recollect SCUBA diving an body of body of water reef surroundings is incredible, hold off until you lot dive through a freshwater cave! It’s as as alien in addition to mesmerizing.
After a pre-dive banking company check in addition to security talk, nosotros traversed 2 dissimilar underwater routes that day, each most 45 minutes long. The offset took us downward thirty feet (10m) deep, in addition to made its way from 1 cenote opening to some other (hence the “two eyes” inwards Dos Ojos).
Light from the cenote opening slow fades away as you lot force forwards into the veins of the earth.
Snaking our way to a greater extent than or less columns of rock, I followed Salvador amongst my dive low-cal scanning the surroundings for foreign fish, cave fossils, in addition to other oddities.
Proper buoyancy command is rattling of import when cavern diving inwards a cenote — you lot must maneuver through the cave formations without damaging them.
Unique SCUBA Adventure
One interesting characteristic you’ll come across on a cavern dive are the pools of air that collect on the cave ceiling inwards a higher house you. They expect only similar puddles of mercury!
Some crystal stalactite & stalagmite formations tin live on lit upwards similar candles amongst your light.
Our 2nd dive atomic number 82 into The Bat Cave. This road floats through tight passageways total of cathedral-like pillars of limestone. It’s almost pitch dark swimming inwards this department in addition to felt similar a truthful cave diving experience.
You in addition to then surface into a nighttime cavern amongst a modest skylight over your head.
The whole bedroom is absolutely filled amongst bats!
Scuba diving Dos Ojos Cenote was a foreign (but cool) move experience. ★
Watch Video: Dos Ojos Cenote Dive
(Click to sentry Dos Ojos Cenote – Scuba Diving Mexico on YouTube)
Location: Dos Ojos Cenote, Mexico
Company: Dos Ojos SCUBA Shop
Cost: $100 USD (2 tanks plus entrance fee)
Book H5N1 Flight: Learn how I detect the cheapest airline flights
Rent H5N1 Car: Discover Car Hire is a keen site for comparison machine prices
Find H5N1 Hotel: My tips for booking affordable accommodation
Protect Your Stuff: WorldNomads.com tin insure your trip & gear
Recommended Guidebook: Lonely Planet Yucatan
Suggested Reading: The Maya: Ancient Peoples & Places
READ MORE FROM MEXICO
Visiting The Ruins Of Chichen Itza
My Ultimate United Mexican States Travel Guide
The Ancient Ruins Of Calakmul
Fun Things To Do In Playa Del Carmen
Have you lot e'er heard of cenotes before? Would you lot swim inwards caves? Share your thoughts inwards the comments below!
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