Cenote Diving near Playa Del Camen

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Cenotexperience also does this.
Buddy and I recently did our cave course with Nico. He picked us up every morning, promptly at 8am. After each full day of diving he dropped us off and took our gear to his shop to dry out.
He drove 30 minutes each way just to get us, a little bit south of Akumal at TAO.


That's currently who I am talking to, and almost ready to "pull the trigger" on a One Day dive at Dos Ojos, with a possible option for a second day diving. :)
 
My only anxiety in all this is, There's SO many of them, (Cenotes) that look like a WONDERFUL experience, but we only have one, possibly 2 days to dive. And a few of them are a LONG ways from where we will be staying. :( I'm guessing that Dos Ojos will be very nice, beautiful and exciting, and so far arranging transportation from our hotel looks "do-able"

TC

Yes, the number of cenotes is an issue and you can :banghead: when trying to decide where to dive. I would say go for the second day although I understand your wife will be with you (but she may be as excited as you seem)!

There is some ocean diving right across the road from Casa Cenote. I made one dive there when my daughter did a discovery dive course - one at Casa Cenote and then in the ocean. The ocean dive was nice but nothing compared to Cozumel. The boats were on the beach and you were at the dive site in 5 minutes. Casa Cenote is on a side road about 10 minutes southeast of Dos Ojos and a 30 second walk to the ocean. I think it is nice for a discovery dive but not for a cenote tour - at least from what I saw.
 
My wife and I are relative "newbies" to this wonderful pastime. (PADI Open Water Certified last summer by an AWESOME Instructor!)

We will HOPEFULLY be in Cancun / Playa Del Carmen at the end of August. (assuming this current hysteria dies down...:confused:) doing some Cenotes diving in that area. (I've heard SO much about this!)

What does anybody know of "Happy Manta Cenotes Diving", as far as Cenotes diving? I've been responding via email to a person there, trying to set some dives up. Anybody have any experience, (good, or bad) with them? If not therm, do you recommend anyone between PDC and Cancun?

AND...on a different, but related subject. Our hotel is about 30 minutes North of Playa Del Carmen. Their pickup is in PDC. What's your experience in renting and car, and driving in Mexico? I'd rather not, but a taxi ride that far might be more expensive than renting a car. What about parking IN PDC?

Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks!
Hi Angel Fish, I'm responsable of Happy Manta Cenote Diving. We've been doing this, cenote diving, since 2010. We are a small operation focused on offering a personal and customized service. You can find us on TripAdvisor and see our clients reviews, 100% excellent. Don't hesitate to contact me if there's anything I can help you with at info@happymanta.com Best regards. Luis.
 
I am bumping this thread to give a brief report on diving last week with Luis of Happy Manta Cenote Diving. I looked him up as a result of his posting here and contacted him and 3 other shops ahead of my trip to PDC last week. Luis and one other shop, mentioned here often, were the only two to respond. I went with Happy Manta and was happy that I did.

Originally from Argentina, Luis is an experienced cave diver and cenote guide who knows the cenotes and Mexico very well having come there a long time ago to be a dive guide and instructor. We dove Chac Mool/Kukulkan on the first day and Dos Ojos the second day. Wow! What an experience for someone who has never dove a cenote before. I was glad to do the second day and would have done more had time permitted. Cenote diving is very relaxing without the hassle associated with boat diving and saltwater.

Happy Manta is a small shop as Luis mentioned and he does offer personal and customized service. Chac Mool was so much fun with the halocline and smoky H2S layer not to mention that we were the only 2 people there that day. We had the whole cenote to ourselves, well, except for the turtles and snake that we saw. Coming up through the halocline felt like floating in air above the water's surface. Surreal.

Dos Ojos was a bit busier with quite a few other divers and snorkelers but the formations there were amazing and different from Chac Mool. Dove the Barbie line and bat cave.

If you are in the Yucatan look up Happy Manta and try cenote diving if you haven't done it before.
 
My wife and I are relative "newbies" to this wonderful pastime. (PADI Open Water Certified last summer by an AWESOME Instructor!)

We will HOPEFULLY be in Cancun / Playa Del Carmen at the end of August. (assuming this current hysteria dies down...:confused:) doing some Cenotes diving in that area. (I've heard SO much about this!)

What does anybody know of "Happy Manta Cenotes Diving", as far as Cenotes diving? I've been responding via email to a person there, trying to set some dives up. Anybody have any experience, (good, or bad) with them? If not therm, do you recommend anyone between PDC and Cancun?

AND...on a different, but related subject. Our hotel is about 30 minutes North of Playa Del Carmen. Their pickup is in PDC. What's your experience in renting and car, and driving in Mexico? I'd rather not, but a taxi ride that far might be more expensive than renting a car. What about parking IN PDC?

Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks!
I rented a car in Cancun and drove it down to PDC and Tulum. I booked online in advance at a good rate but the rental agency wanted either a surprisingly large deposit or expensive insurance, so expect that sort of thing. The only other noteworthy item is that on the main highway (302?) south to PDC there is no center lane for left turns, and it is a busy through highway so slowing down in the left lane will cause panic braking and mayhem, which I did witness once. The proper approach there is to pull off to the right and wait for an opening to make your left turn across the highway. One more item: I wish I had known about Coba. I visited Tulum but I would have gone to Coba as well if I'd been aware of that large archaeological site 30 minutes from PDC.
 
I rented a car in Cancun and drove it down to PDC and Tulum. I booked online in advance at a good rate but the rental agency wanted either a surprisingly large deposit or expensive insurance, so expect that sort of thing. The only other noteworthy item is that on the main highway (302?) south to PDC there is no center lane for left turns, and it is a busy through highway so slowing down in the left lane will cause panic braking and mayhem, which I did witness once. The proper approach there is to pull off to the right and wait for an opening to make your left turn across the highway. One more item: I wish I had known about Coba. I visited Tulum but I would have gone to Coba as well if I'd been aware of that large archaeological site 30 minutes from PDC.

Almost all of 302 from Cancun to south of Tulum is a divided highway, and if you want to turn to something on the opposite side of the highway you need to use a returno (U turn area), that is similar to the dedicated left turn areas on US divided highways.
 
I rented a car in Cancun and drove it down to PDC and Tulum. I booked online in advance at a good rate but the rental agency wanted either a surprisingly large deposit or expensive insurance, so expect that sort of thing. The only other noteworthy item is that on the main highway (302?) south to PDC there is no center lane for left turns, and it is a busy through highway so slowing down in the left lane will cause panic braking and mayhem, which I did witness once. The proper approach there is to pull off to the right and wait for an opening to make your left turn across the highway. One more item: I wish I had known about Coba. I visited Tulum but I would have gone to Coba as well if I'd been aware of that large archaeological site 30 minutes from PDC.
Coba is worth the trip. If you can work around the ADO schedule you can get there by bus pretty cheap, at least pre covid. You can rent bikes ones you get there to cover more ground.
 
If your doing this by yourself. The best recommendation I can provide is make sure you pack a 5mm wetsuit. Cenotes are considerably coooolder then whatever the warm temperature in the ocean is that day.

Personally, I would just book the trip with a dive shop, that way if you need a 5mm wetsuit they will have one to rent you. You don't have to worry about filling and returning tanks, driving directions, etc, etc.. Just really not worth it for what a dive shop is going to charge you
 
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