Cavern Dive: Taj Maha

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Pez de Diablo

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Puerto Aventuras, MX
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I am going to do my best to post a description of a different cavern dive from the Mayan Riviera each month until I have covered them all.

What I would like others to contribute to this thread is your experience of your visit to the cenote and any photos you may want to share of the cenote.

Cenote Taj Maha - Located near Xpu Ha

Cenote Taj Maha (aka Taj Mahal) is one of my favorite dives. The dive starts with a short walk down cement formed stairs to the waters edge at cenote Taj Maha. After our predive checks we descend and make our way into a large formation filled chamber known as Points of light. The chambers gets it's name from the sunlight penetrating through small holes in the ceiling like laser beams of light dancing through the water. From here we continue our descent to 43' encountering a Halocline. Swimming along we approach Cenote Sugar Bowl where we need to ascend to 8'. By now we are only 9 - 10 minutes into the dive so with a nice and slow ascent we arrive in the Sugar Bowl safely. Fining across the Sugar Bowl admiring the amazing light show a diver has an incredible sense of being weightless in an alien environment. We descend back down through the Halocline this time reaching a maximum depth of 45' we make our way to the furthest point of penetration and the skull and cross bones sign reminding us that to penetrate further would be to break the rules of a safe cavern dive. Looking at the many fossils in the floor and ceiling in the area of the skull and cross bones sign we turn towards Cenote Bill's Hole (part of Cenote Mangrove) slowly ascending to 25' as we make our way to Bill's hole we have another visual burst of light as the vivid greens and yellows are reflected off the sunlight from the surrounding plants above the water. Checking the light show and looking for a few more fossils we continue back towards the Sugar Bowl and back down through the Halocline. Arriving at the Sugar bowl around 30 minutes into the dive we ascend to 15' to complete a mid dive safety stop. After the safety stop we continue following the guideline around the Sugar Bowl and up to a depth of 5'. Because of this shallow depth I choose to complete a safety stop part way through our dive.


After leaving the Sugar Bowl we start our descent for the last time in Taj Maha passing by a gorgeous formation known as the Devils Tower named because of it's similar appearance to the Devils Tower NM in Wyoming. Working our way back into the Halocline we follow the line taking a hard right turn and while gradually ascending we make our way around the Points of Light chamber.With many formations above our heads it is very important to maintain good buoyancy control in order to protect this fragile environment specifically if we become distracted as we gaze in amazement at the beauty around us. A good point is made of the importance to maintaining proper buoyancy control and trim as we gently fin over a large stack of formations that were collected and assembled in an organized mound - a sad tribute to formations that took thousands of years to grow but had their life ended in one careless move or lapse in judgement of a diver.


Spending the last 8 minutes of our dive between 20 and 15' we approach the end of our dive having completed our safety stop while still enjoying the sights around us. With a final thumbs up followed by an Okay from each diver, we ascend the last 15' to the surface to reflect on the dive, the beauty, the environment and the safety.


Dive Safely


Dennis
 
Dennis,

Thank You. This should be a great project -- I'm looking forward to reading the reports.
 
Great idea Dennis, and great report. You're not going to help me fight the draw down there! We'll be popping you a note sometime in the future to work out a visit.
 
Yep, it was a great dive. Hope to do it again in the near future. :)
 
This was the dive that started the addiction for me. After seeing the beauty of this cenote, the reefs with all their pretty fish and colors just weren't living up to the beauty I saw here. The points of light are truly breath taking, and the sign is just a teaser, reminding you that as much as this cavern is blowing your mind, this is just a taste of what's to come.

Awesome description of the dive--I'll be looking forward to reading the future installments--but not as much as I'm looking forward to getting back down there. 37 days and counting :)
 
Dennis, Jenn and I haven't done that dive yet, but my sister and her fiancee couldn't stop talking about it after diving it in April. It's definitely on our list of places to go.
 
thanks pez de diablo!

i just mentally did the dive again..... before heading off to work.

great write-up.
 
Wonderful project, Dennis!

Taj Maha was my first cavern dive. Seeing the points of light come down and refract abruptly as they hit the halocline was amazing. We also hovered just below it and shone our lights up at it, seeing what looked like the surface of the water, but was just the surface of the salt water. Swimming out of the dark and seeing the turquoise light streaming down from the open water is still something that makes my heart leap.

I think my addiction to cave diving started right there, in the cavern at Taj Maha.
 
Taj was the first cenote where I experienced a halocline that hadn't already been stirred up by the divers ahead of me. We spread out across the gap and marveled at the false ceiling, poking our heads up over it and back under. Way cool.
 
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