Cenotes near Playa Del Carmen?

[Diver-K]

Anyone familiar with a good beginner cenote to dive near Playa del Carmen? We have never done cave diving so we are looking for something not far from an ascent to the surface, but a large cavern with nice stalagtites.

We were looking to spend a day on this in route to Cancun from Cozumel. Any dive tour groups to recommend? Are any based near the cenotes themselves. We'll have our luggage with us so if places don't have safe storage we could use, we will probably rent a car - so we could also drive to the cenote ourselves (if that is done). If we rent a car we'll probably drive down to Tulum.

Any suggestions?

 

[teamheatwave]

Whatever location you pick, get there as early as possible. The later you go, the more poeple and more stirred up things get.

 

[kbrookings]

Dos Ojos is a great Cenote dive near PdC down toward Tulum.
HOWEVER - unless you are really experienced, particularly in cave diving do not go cenote diving unless its with a qualified dive operator. Most all of them have a cenote dive package. Abyss is a good choice. It can be difficult to find the cenotes on your own, most are accessed from poorly maintained roads off in the jungle.

BTW, IMHO there is little need to go to Cozumel for diving, fun, partying, dining, beaches or whatever. Unless you really, really like tourists and t-shirt shops consider Playa del Carmen as a place to hang over Cozumel.

You can find more info about diving, cenotes and PdC at www.playdelcarmeninfo.com. A friendly, very useful discussion board.

Hope this info is helpful. Have a great time.
Ken

 

[Pez de Diablo]

Dos Ojos is great.

Find a dive operator in the area: Playa Del Carmen or Pt. Adventuros and see where they are going. My cenote diving has always been great.


Ocean?? What ocean? I thought there is only jungle and Cenotes.

 

[Diver-K]

Has anyone dove cenotes with a guy named Andreas out of Playa Del Carmen. I've been in email contact with him trying to make plans for an uopcoming trip. He is apparently from a group of independent certified divers (no dive shop) called Cavern Divers. He offers 2 dives in cenotes about 20 minutes from PCD for $85/ person. Is it better to go through a dive shop even though it may cost more?

 

[scubawife]

We did Dos Ojos and Bat Cave in December with Hidden Worlds. This was our first cenote/cavern dive and it was a great experience. Some might not like the big set up of Hidden Worlds, but I found it great for a first timer. Very organized, nice set up, easy entrance, and the ride out on the back of the jungle truck was unique. It was just the two of us with the guide on the first dive and four with the guide on the 2nd dive. I was a bit apprehensive when we got to the dive site and I saw the ladder into a hole. I thought it was going to be a nice open cenote. Jeff, our guide, was really good and I was totally comfortable once I got in the water and started the dive.

 

[j-valve]

I've been to the Chak Mool (something like that anyways) cenote. It was great with 2 tanks and 2 seperate dive routes. They hauled all our gear for us and provided lunch. They were late getting started, a typical Mecxican hazard. At the end they had a CD for sale with a video of the caver system, pics of all of us underwater ( sneaky camera guy somewhere down there) and about 150 more pics of stuff from past dives- for $25 Us!! We followed a line the whole way and the DMs knew their stuff and I felt really safe.

Jody

 

[mexman]

Similar experience to a couple of the other replies!

I've had great dives in both Dos Ojos and Chak Mool. Great DM's out of Puerto Adventuras with great handlines to follow from cenote to cenote, technically not cavern dives but never very far from daylight.

I'm heading back down in two weeks for some more diving!

 

[babs226]

I would recommend Chak Mool, through Phantom Divers in Playa del Carmen. They are a great dive operation, really nice, and we have a private dive with their cenote guide, who is named Mario. I have never done any cave diving before and it was easy. Mario is great. You see plenty of stagalmites and stalagtites, thermoclines, rays of sunlight in the water, an air dome, tree roots, and it's not far from Playa del Carmen. It was a fantastic experience.

 

[Otter]

We did 2 dives each at Chac Mool and Dos Ojos with Dive Aventuras out of Pt Aventuras. They picked us up and droped us of at our hotel in PDC at no extra charge. Their DMs were quite good and dove doubles.

Chac Mool has lots of stalagtites and fewer openings to the surface than Dos Ojos. Here is a short video sequence out of about 10 mins of finished video I took at Dos Ojos. I didn't shoot any at Chac Mool