Mexico diving

[catone]

Planning on a quick trip to Mexico in January, likely Cancun, with my nondiving spouse. I’m thinking on doing a day or two of cave diving while there, will likely get a guide and use an all inclusive approach (I’ll bring my dry suit, dive computers and mask, rent everything else needed).
Few questions:
1. Is there a better way of doing this? (bring more or less of my own equipment, rent a car and going alone VS guide)
2. Any recommended outfits? Best bang for the buck caves?
3. What is typically the difference between weighting for heavy steel and undergarments between Florida and Mexico caves? Would a wet suit be better than my trilam dry suit?

Many thanks and save diving!

 

[profmason]

I am happy diving wet, temperature is 72-74 and 5mm is comfortable for me. Many of the european / us instructors / guides dive dry and most of the mexican instructors dive wet. A dry suit takes up a bunch of space in luggage. Decide if you are doing backmount doubles or sidemount. If you are doing sidemount instead of backmount doubles, I would think you would want your sidemount harness. I am a newbie (roughly 50 dives in cenotes mexico) but for just a few days it is much easier to get a guide to arrange tanks and transport. Shops arrange transport from Playa del Carmen or Tulum.

Popular outfits are:
Xoc -Ha
Zero Gravity
Under the Jungle
Cenote Xperience.

Avoid (Giant groups of new dms)
Dressel Divers
Protec

 

[J-Vo]

I just got back from 10 days cave diving in MX. I was very happy I made the decision to take my dry suit. With the thin undergarments I used about the same amount of lead I do in the ocean with my 5 mil wetsuit. For me the drysuit is about more than thermal protection.

Any good guide will want to get you in the water at a "training site" before taking you anywhere special, so your options may be limited. Not that those sites don't have great diving.

Cenote Koi is a less known location that will knock your socks off if you can get them to take you.

Scootering through the heliocline at Maya Blue is quite the experience as well.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Greetings from Atlanta. In Mexico I use my trilam with REI fleece pants and a fleece shirt and am very comfortable. For a longer (2-hour+) dive I might add a thin wool baselayer shirt. That's all. Contrast that with Florida where I wear a 4th Element Arctic (I'm not very tolerant of cold).

In Florida I use no extra lead with my LP 104s. In Mexico, even with the thin undergarments I use a few pounds of v-weights with the Al80s.

Most of the dive outfits have plenty of rental gear, and your guide may be able to pick you up at your lodging.

I agree with @profmason 's list of dive outfits. That doesn't mean there aren't other good ones, but that list is a good start.

 

[catone]

Thank you all, very helpful!

 

[rddvet]

Borrowing gear such as regs and wing can be a very frustrating experience. If you’re diving two days you’re better off bringing your own gear or just making a proper dive trip plan for the future. A bp/w isn’t too awful to adjust. But do you really want that hassle or the hassle of diving suboptimal gear? In sm there’s no way I’d use a rental.
I only dive mx in a drysuit. Plenty do it in wetsuits but I hate wetsuits and dive times can be long in mx due to shallow depth.
If you’re solo and never been to Mexico hire a guide. If you’ve been to Mexico multiple times but don’t have a buddy hire a guide. If you’ve got friends down there to dive with you don’t need a guid, but the fact that you’re asking these questions lend me to believe you’d be alone.