raywong
New
My wife Lily and I just returned from Cancun, Mexico where we did our first cenote dives. The cenotes are fresh water wells that open into the massive underground river systems in Mexico. By comparison, these cavern dives are some of the best dives than we have ever done. I am a DM and my wife is very supportive to me with her OW. She was a bit apprehensive about going into dark caves. But after the cenote dives, she was just as thrilled as I was.
We booked a package with Manta Divers which included a two tank cenote dive, a two tank wreck/reef dive and a night dive. Manta is a small family business run by John and Mimi who are transplanted from TEXAS. We added a second cenote dive to the package. We had our own gear except for tanks and weights.
We were picked up from our timeshare. We met our guide/instructor Leif (pronounced life ie better than death) who is a German PADI/TDI instructor with a Mexican wife and new baby on the way. I would rate Leif a 9/10 ie excellent and I would certainly recommend him to anyone. We enjoyed his dive briefings. Our first cenote dive was to Chac Mool which was about an hour south of Cancun. There was another nice couple from the US (husband and supportive wife just like us).
From the highway, we drove down a dirt road to a parking site near the cenote. We geared up by the van and walked down the rock stairs to the fresh water cenote. Entry was much like a shore dive to a lake. The water was warm at about 77 deg. We went downstream on our first dive. Leif was in the lead and everyone followed in single file.
Some passages were narrow in some spots and absolutely massive openings in other spots. Visibility was 500 (wow). It was so clear you almost wanted to take your mask off. We were told not to venture out of line or die. Good advice as there were openings in all directions. My narrow beam HID light would shine into total darkness at times looking into some of the big caves we were not allowed to go into. At about 40 feet we encountered the distorted view a halocline where the salt water met the fresh water. Awesome dive. Next time in Cancun, I am thinking of getting cave certified. I hear it takes a whole week and is quite intense.
After a 45 min dive, we changed tanks and went upstream. There seemed to be more formations to see on this second dive or maybe we were more relaxed and looked around more than looking at the fins in front of you. On this dive, we surfaced in a cavern with bats hanging from the ceiling. At another point, we turned off our lights into total darkness. Another great dive. After the dive, Leif bought lunch in a nice Mexican restaurant/lounge in Playa de Carmen.
Next day we went to Chichen Itza. Nice ruins and worth seeing but its really hot there.
Our second cenote dive was to Dos Ojos (two eyes) which was a 90 min drive from Cancun but well worth it. They filmed a large part of the IMAX movie The Amazing Caves at Dos Ojos). Entry was easy from a wooden dock. There were three other divers with us making 5 divers and Leif. The caverns were not as deep here and some light was visible at most locations producing an interesting effect when you turn off your flashlights and let your eyes adjust.. The formations were incredible at Dos Ojos. We have been to a number of above water caves but these outshine any we have ever seen. We did one dive downstream to the Bat Cave and another dive upstream. Awesome dives. Dos Ojos was a busy cenote with 4 to 6 dive other groups in the cenote and snorklers above in open areas. There are something like 85 miles of explored caves in this area.
On our cavern dives, we had a second instructor Luis who was recording our dives. He was diving solo with his double tanks and would take short cuts through the caves and would get into good spots to film the divers. I was impressed by his ability to compose a complete video on the fly without video editing. On each dive, he would show the video at the lounge where we stopped for lunch on the way back. He asked $75 for each two tank dive and would discount a bit, especially if you went on two cenote dives and bought both. The videos were of good quality on a DVD about 45 min for the first cenote and 35 min on the second cenote. We have already showed the video to friends and relatives. They were really impressed. Luis is doing well shooting and selling videos instead of being an instructor. . I think every diver/couple bought the video. There are not a lot of cave certified video instructors in Cancun.
The cenote dives were awesome dives and well worth doing again. There are a lot of other cenotes, some easy to get to and other harder to find. Many are a long drive from Cancun. Both Chac Mool and Dos Ojos are commercialized and easy access.
As part of our package we also did a wreck dive, the Anaya which was a Navy vessel sunk about 5 years ago in 80 water. This dive is not for beginners, as for the dive, you must free descend quickly to 60-70 in 4-5 knot currents and then duck behind the wreck to get out of the current. If you miss the wreck, you cannot swim against the current and will be carried away. Once behind the wreck, the guide leads you along the outside and then inside the wreck where you see inside two levels of the naval vessel. There are giant barracudas and other large animals that hide around the ship. The ascent is an adventure as you are like a flag on the moaring line during your safety stop. You burn up a lot of air on the ascent with the current and surge. One of the other divers ran low on air and had to share with the DM during the safety stop. Dive was 28 min at 77 feet. The weather was pretty rough on this day. The second dive was a reef dive in about 50 water. There are better reefs in other parts of the Carribean although we did see a bull shark on this dive and a good size turtle.
The night dive was a shallow drift dive with some lobsters, some large crabs, etc. The weather was rough so Lily did not enjoy the entry and exit.
We definitely would go back to Cancun for the cenote diving. If you were planning a lot of cenote dives, then you would be better off staying in Playa de Carmen or the Akumal area. On the other hand if you like the fancy hotels, malls, flea markets, and night life, then the drive from Cancun is not that far. Cancun has lots of activities for non divers.
Manta is a smaller operation. I highly recommend Leif and Luis for the cenote diving. We kind of wish that Manta had a bigger boat (12 max, good for 6-8) as the oceans were rough all week. Their boat crews were not as good as their cavern crew but it may have just been the rough weather. They picked us up for every dive and were on time if we were the first to get picked up and were 25 min late on one dive due to a missing group at another hotel. Overall rating 7/10. They also offer day trips to Cozumel but we did not go as you can easily spend an entire week diving in Cozumel.
I hope the readers on the scuba board dont get upset at my long review but I was writing for our scuba club newletter.
Do any of the readers have recommendations on operators for Cavern/Cave certifications in the Cancun area. My DM is with Padi. My adv nitrox & deco with TDI.
We booked a package with Manta Divers which included a two tank cenote dive, a two tank wreck/reef dive and a night dive. Manta is a small family business run by John and Mimi who are transplanted from TEXAS. We added a second cenote dive to the package. We had our own gear except for tanks and weights.
We were picked up from our timeshare. We met our guide/instructor Leif (pronounced life ie better than death) who is a German PADI/TDI instructor with a Mexican wife and new baby on the way. I would rate Leif a 9/10 ie excellent and I would certainly recommend him to anyone. We enjoyed his dive briefings. Our first cenote dive was to Chac Mool which was about an hour south of Cancun. There was another nice couple from the US (husband and supportive wife just like us).
From the highway, we drove down a dirt road to a parking site near the cenote. We geared up by the van and walked down the rock stairs to the fresh water cenote. Entry was much like a shore dive to a lake. The water was warm at about 77 deg. We went downstream on our first dive. Leif was in the lead and everyone followed in single file.
Some passages were narrow in some spots and absolutely massive openings in other spots. Visibility was 500 (wow). It was so clear you almost wanted to take your mask off. We were told not to venture out of line or die. Good advice as there were openings in all directions. My narrow beam HID light would shine into total darkness at times looking into some of the big caves we were not allowed to go into. At about 40 feet we encountered the distorted view a halocline where the salt water met the fresh water. Awesome dive. Next time in Cancun, I am thinking of getting cave certified. I hear it takes a whole week and is quite intense.
After a 45 min dive, we changed tanks and went upstream. There seemed to be more formations to see on this second dive or maybe we were more relaxed and looked around more than looking at the fins in front of you. On this dive, we surfaced in a cavern with bats hanging from the ceiling. At another point, we turned off our lights into total darkness. Another great dive. After the dive, Leif bought lunch in a nice Mexican restaurant/lounge in Playa de Carmen.
Next day we went to Chichen Itza. Nice ruins and worth seeing but its really hot there.
Our second cenote dive was to Dos Ojos (two eyes) which was a 90 min drive from Cancun but well worth it. They filmed a large part of the IMAX movie The Amazing Caves at Dos Ojos). Entry was easy from a wooden dock. There were three other divers with us making 5 divers and Leif. The caverns were not as deep here and some light was visible at most locations producing an interesting effect when you turn off your flashlights and let your eyes adjust.. The formations were incredible at Dos Ojos. We have been to a number of above water caves but these outshine any we have ever seen. We did one dive downstream to the Bat Cave and another dive upstream. Awesome dives. Dos Ojos was a busy cenote with 4 to 6 dive other groups in the cenote and snorklers above in open areas. There are something like 85 miles of explored caves in this area.
On our cavern dives, we had a second instructor Luis who was recording our dives. He was diving solo with his double tanks and would take short cuts through the caves and would get into good spots to film the divers. I was impressed by his ability to compose a complete video on the fly without video editing. On each dive, he would show the video at the lounge where we stopped for lunch on the way back. He asked $75 for each two tank dive and would discount a bit, especially if you went on two cenote dives and bought both. The videos were of good quality on a DVD about 45 min for the first cenote and 35 min on the second cenote. We have already showed the video to friends and relatives. They were really impressed. Luis is doing well shooting and selling videos instead of being an instructor. . I think every diver/couple bought the video. There are not a lot of cave certified video instructors in Cancun.
The cenote dives were awesome dives and well worth doing again. There are a lot of other cenotes, some easy to get to and other harder to find. Many are a long drive from Cancun. Both Chac Mool and Dos Ojos are commercialized and easy access.
As part of our package we also did a wreck dive, the Anaya which was a Navy vessel sunk about 5 years ago in 80 water. This dive is not for beginners, as for the dive, you must free descend quickly to 60-70 in 4-5 knot currents and then duck behind the wreck to get out of the current. If you miss the wreck, you cannot swim against the current and will be carried away. Once behind the wreck, the guide leads you along the outside and then inside the wreck where you see inside two levels of the naval vessel. There are giant barracudas and other large animals that hide around the ship. The ascent is an adventure as you are like a flag on the moaring line during your safety stop. You burn up a lot of air on the ascent with the current and surge. One of the other divers ran low on air and had to share with the DM during the safety stop. Dive was 28 min at 77 feet. The weather was pretty rough on this day. The second dive was a reef dive in about 50 water. There are better reefs in other parts of the Carribean although we did see a bull shark on this dive and a good size turtle.
The night dive was a shallow drift dive with some lobsters, some large crabs, etc. The weather was rough so Lily did not enjoy the entry and exit.
We definitely would go back to Cancun for the cenote diving. If you were planning a lot of cenote dives, then you would be better off staying in Playa de Carmen or the Akumal area. On the other hand if you like the fancy hotels, malls, flea markets, and night life, then the drive from Cancun is not that far. Cancun has lots of activities for non divers.
Manta is a smaller operation. I highly recommend Leif and Luis for the cenote diving. We kind of wish that Manta had a bigger boat (12 max, good for 6-8) as the oceans were rough all week. Their boat crews were not as good as their cavern crew but it may have just been the rough weather. They picked us up for every dive and were on time if we were the first to get picked up and were 25 min late on one dive due to a missing group at another hotel. Overall rating 7/10. They also offer day trips to Cozumel but we did not go as you can easily spend an entire week diving in Cozumel.
I hope the readers on the scuba board dont get upset at my long review but I was writing for our scuba club newletter.
Do any of the readers have recommendations on operators for Cavern/Cave certifications in the Cancun area. My DM is with Padi. My adv nitrox & deco with TDI.
