Cenotes

[jake11]

I was reading the reports about the armed robbery at a cenote in Mexico. We were planning on diving the cenotes and coming from Cozumel in June. Is there any operation that you would recommend that is safer than others? Is it a bad idea to go over? Also, we were going to let our own gear dry in Cozumel and use rental gear for the cenote dives. Any experiences with rental gear there? Thanks in advance!

 

[scubamarketing]

Your dive operator doesn’t really have an impact on the safety of a cenote. You go past the entrance and park in a lot filled with other dive vehicles from all of the other area guides. The robbers were caught within a few days. This was an isolated incident, most criminals in the area know to stay away from the main drivers of tourist dollars (including SCUBA), so these guys were exceptionally stupid. Rental gear depends on the dive operator. I’ve been out with a couple whose dive gear worked fine, but was questionable looking (if you care about how it looks). My friends own [URL="http://planetscubamexico.com”]Planet Scuba Mexico[/URL] and all of their gear is less than a year old and properly cleaned, stored, and maintained, so it looks and works like new.

 

[TSandM]

I've been diving in the Riviera Maya since 2007, and this robbery is the first time I've heard of a confrontational theft event. Theft from unattended cars, yes, but not assaults. I'm headed down there to cave dive at the end of this month, and I'm not worried about it at all. And most of the tourist cavern dive sites are well enough attended to make them unattractive to thieves.

 

[kr2y5]

I heard of 2 robberies, one in 2007 in Angelita discussed in this thread, where "helper, on his way back to the trucks, he was asaulted by 2 robbers armed with pistals. They fired at him twice, but the bullets didn't work . They tied him up and dumped him in some kind of shed on the site", and then again in 2014 in Taj Maha discussed in this thread, where "group were held at gunpoint and robbed by people who emerged from the jungle and shot out the car window" (more discussed in this article, where we also find that property owners were asked to "not discuss the event with the news media"). During my trip to Yucatan, I inquired about this incident, and it appeared to be something that nobody had heard of...

As for the operator, I highly recommend Cenote Xperience.

 

[TSandM]

Angelita is a particularly remote site, and not one I'd really recommend to most people wanting cenote tours. There is no true overhead there, and the dive is quite deep. There are lots of other places where you get (for my money) a much better sense of the caves and a longer dive.

 

[jake11]

Thanks so much for the input!!!! I have always wanted to do the cenotes and never got over there any of the times we went to Cozumel. We added on an extra day for our upcoming trip to dive there. I will check out the suggested operators!! Thanks again!

 

[lionfish-eater]

If you are comfortable traveling on your own, you can take the collectivo to dos ojos and get a guide there. check their web site.

 

[Dan G]

We just dove Dos Ojos last week with Blue Life and had a great experience. Excellent briefing. Our guide made sure we understood that we were responsible for our safety, not him. Dos Ojos makes a great first experience with the cenotes, too.

After the dives he drove us to Tulum and we checked out the ruins for about 1.5 hours. Then he brought us back up to PDC for the ferry. This was prearranged with Blue Life.

We brought our gear over on the ferry, so I can't speak to rental gear. The dives do make for an excellent gear rinse, though. Long story, but we had to leave the truck unlocked during our first dive b/c our guide misplaced the key. No problems and the key was found between dives. But, the light our guide lent to my wife was stolen off of her BC while we were away from the truck and our guide's sunglasses were stolen from off of the dash. So, I feel fortunate that nothing else was taken and I must recommend that you lock up everything while it is unattended.

 

[Candiru]

Super tip. Stay at Dos Ojos lodge. It super affordable and cozy and inside the property that has access to Dos Ojos and the others. Pretty much guaranteed to be the first group at any of the sites if that is important to you.