The Cenotes of Yucatan, Mexico

The brightly colored sign at the entrance to Parque Dos Ojos where we were looking forwards to scuba diving.

The majority of us will only ever scuba dive in salty water but the sometimes its a good experience to try mixing things up and dive in freshwater, and that is just what we did a few months after our epic diving trip to the Galapagos. We’d booked a vacation to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico with the aim of getting to scuba dive in the world famous fresh water Centoes - a system of interconnected pits, caverns and caves that are famous for their visibility and the possibility of taking extremely dramatic pictures with light rays streaming down through the water. It was with this aim in mind that we flew down to Playa Del Carmen and booked up a couple of days diving with a local dive operator to go and experience this unique type of scuba diving for ourselves.

Having had a few months out of the water I was itching to get back scuba diving again but wanted to try something a little different from the usual open water, ocean diving I had mainly been used to. Scrolling through Instagram I had seen a number of posts with dramatic photographs of the Cenotes in Mexico with striking beams of light and contrasting shadows that were so different to the macro and wide angle photos I had been used to taking. Something about this really appealed to me and I wanted to test my skills as a photographer and see what I could achieve. It was also timely as we needed a break and had never been to Mexico so it seemed like a win win situation for us, speaking to some friends who had been before they had recommended a great dive shop, The Cenote Guy, and also to stay in Playa Del Carmen as it was nicer than Cancun and in good reach of the Cenotes we would be wanting to dive. With that in mind I set about finding suitable accommodation, flight and getting our dives booked up, thankfully this wasn’t too difficult and after a short while everything was booked up and we only had to wait a couple of months until we went!

The overhanging cavern entrance to Dos Ojos

As with all scuba diving trips, part of the fun is the anticipation and getting all your gear ready and checked before traveling and this time was no exception! I really wasn’t too sure what to take in terms of underwater photography gear so I decided to leave my strobes at home this time as I would be relying on natural light to try and get the famous shafts of light to show up on my photos - this would be a new challenge and one that I was looking forward to! I spent some time looking up articles on how to photograph in these challenging environments, what sort of settings I should be using and how to position myself for the best possible shot - there seemed to be a lot to try and remember but then this is always part of the fun. These articles were really useful and armed with this knowledge I set about packing, as I wasn’t taking my strobes I thought I’d take my small drone as well to try and get some nice arial pictures as well, while this seemed like a good idea at the time it would turn out to be a small mistake. I also took the time to book an airport transfer as we would be flying into Cancun airport and then staying in Playa Del Carmen, around 45 minutes away, thankfully the cost wasn’t too bad and was easy to book over the web. With everything sorted out it was easy to get ready - we’d decided to fly out of Boston as connections were easier than from Albany and we set off, having a short stop in Boston to explore before our flight early on the Monday. As it was an early morning flight we arrived in Cancun mid morning and proceeded to make our way through customs. Most of the time, when flying for a scuba diving trip I have no issues with customs, but this time I was taken aside by the customs offer who proceeded to look through my luggage, He went through my main bag and saw my camera housing and scuba gear which he want too worried about, it was when he went through my hand luggage that he came across my DJI mini 2 drone which appeared to be a problem. According to the information I had looked up in advance, drones under 250g, such as mine were OK to fly in Mexico - however he wasn't convinced and after some back and forth in broken English and very broken Spanish on my part he went to get a colleague who let me through without having to pay a tax or fine but the whole experience made me worry and I decided I would be flying my drone whilst there as a result - just as well as I would later find out that I’d have to pay a fee at the Centoe parks as well if I wanted to fly it! After this our journey was pretty smooth thankfully, we managed to find our transport from Cancun to Playa, it was so nice to be back somewhere warm - April in upstate New York isn’t warm - and was also pretty humid so I was glad that as part of the trip in the mini van I’d booked us a couple of cold beers each for the ride which went down really well and made the journey go nice and quickly! We arrived at our hotel without much incident and got checked in - we had a couple of free days until we were booked to dive so we headed up to the rooftop restaurant and bar for some lunch with views out across the ocean and Playa. There was a lovely cooling breeze that swept over us as we tucked into some hotel food - some tacos which were OK but I was pretty sure that we would be able to find better elsewhere. After that we decided to have a short wander around the center of Playa which was pretty touristy, I guess I couldn’t be too surprised as its prime location for people from the US to get away for a break however the center seemed full of tourist trap bars and themed restaurants which wasn’t really our thing. Anyway, it wasn't an issue as a friend of ours who works in the travel industry had given us some recommendations for great local food which we were fully intent on checking out! That evening my partner wasn’t feeling too well so I ventured out on my own to a little taco bar around the corner from our hotel. It was a great little spot and I sat at the bar and ordered some tacos and a couple of cold beers that went down a treat - after that I headed back to our room for a well earned rest. The next day we had time to chill out and relax as we weren’t due to dive for another day, we found a great spot for brunch, La Cueva Del Chango, and tucked into some lovely local cuisine for breakfast with a nice coffee and some juice to wash it down, perfect start tot he day. After that we decided to go for a little walk around the area to see find another coffee and then check out where we would need to meet the next morning before we headed off to dive in the Cenotes. It was actually pretty easy for us to find The Cenote Guy, which was actually only 5 minutes walk from our hotel and made things a lot easier for us. After having satisfied ourselves that it would be super easy for us to get there in the morning we decided to head to the pool and chill out for the day which was well needed! That evening we decided to head to a little taqueria that had been recommended to us, El Chulton, which was well off of the main tourist area. This turned out to be a master stroke as the food there was exceptional - taco and ice cold beer served with the minimum of fuss but delicious and great value too. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and got equipment and cameras ready so we would be able to pick it up and go after grabbing a quick bite for breakfast.

Scuba divers at the entrance to Dos Ojos cavern

Scuba divers exploring the Batcave at Dos Ojos

After a great nights rest we got ready and headed to The Cenote Guy, which was just a brief 5 minute walk. We checked in and met the other divers we would be with for the day before our divemaster and guide for the day came to greet us and help those who needed equipment get it fitted and all loaded into the truck. Our divemaster was a young frenchman for the day who had fallen in love with Mexico and diving in the Cenotes there. He explained to us that we would be going to Dos Ojos and The Pit today, some of the most famous Cenotes out there and it would be around 1 hours drive there in a slightly beaten up old pickup truck. He also explained that there would be an entrance fee that we needed to pay and unfortunately an additional fee for my camera as it was larger than a GoPro. While this sucked a bit it wasn’t a surprise as I had researched this beforehand and was prepared for this - still, it pretty annoying having to pay extra on top of the entrance fee but as each Cenote and associated park around it is privately owned there wasn't much I could do. On the way there our guide was explaining about the Cenotes to us, a little bit about how they were formed thousands of years ago by a meteor strike and that most are connected by an underground river that flows through them. He also explained with some sadness that new rail line was being constructed and that the construction work was causing a lot of debris to get into the Centoes and as a result some of them didn’t have such clear water anymore. In spite of this, I was still super excited to be able to have the chance to dive here and was glad when we pulled up at the entrance to Dos Ojos Park and were able to get out of the truck for little bit and stretch my legs - once we had all paid the entrance fee we drove a little further to be closer to the entrance to Dos Ojos and here we started to get ready while also undergoing a dive briefing, explaining the difference between what we would be doing, Cavern diving, and the more advanced (and a lot scarier) Cave diving. He explained that we would be following the Batline path through Dos Ojos and highlighted a few areas for us to keep an eye out for. Once we were all ready we walked slowly down to the entrance to the Cenote and put on our BCD’s and fins at the water edge and got in. The water was a little cold at first but I soon got used to it, the entrance was an overhanging cavern and my first impression was just how clear the water was - I have dived in what i had thought was crystal clear water in Southeast Asia and The Bahamas, but this was something else - absolutely clear with visibility for what seems like miles! Our guide had explained that we were to follow him closely and not to deviate from the line and especially pay attention to any signs that said not to go past them! As we finned through the water it got darker and darker and I was glad to have my underwater torch (my 2500 lumen Apeks torch - well worth the investment! ) It felt like I was in another world and eerily silent compared to the diving I had done previous - when you dive in the tropics, even on a night dive there is always a hum or buzz around, from the sound of the fish “clicking” or other life on the coral reef, there is a constant soundtrack, here as we went further and further into the cavern it was just us and the sound breathing through our regs, it was very different but at the same time really cool and great to be doing something so different to the type of diving I was used to. After a while we found ourselves in a large cavern with a beam of light coming through a skylight - it looked simply stunning, I managed to get a few good shots with my camera, although as I was diving without my strobes I had to turn up the ISO a fair bit to be able to get the shot - however, this wasn’t a problem as I washing to use the available natural light to get some striking compositions (Hopefully you’ll agree, I am fairly pleased with the results) After spending a bit of time in the main cavern  we started out on the journey back to the entrance - one of the striking features of the Dos Ojos caverns were the stalagmites and stalactites that grow from the top of the cavern roof and the bottom and sometimes even meet in the middle. These mineral structures are hundreds, if not thousands of year old and we had to be careful around them to ensure that we didn’t knock into them. After a little while I could tell we were starting to near the main entrance to the cavern system as there was a blue-ish shimmer that could be seen in the distance. I held back from the main group so that I would be able to get a few good photo’s silhouetting the divers swimming towards the light through the clear water. After we all surfaced in the cavern I was beaming from ear to ear, such a cool and different experience to what I had been used to it really was a treat. We all got out of the water and took our gear back to the truck where we had our surface interval and some snacks & drinks to get ready for the next dive at The Pit.

Explore the PIT

The Pit is in the same park as Dos Ojos but is a slightly different type of dive, as the name suggests it is a pit which goes down pretty deep, although we would only be going to a maximum of 30m on this dive, it also has a layer of Hydrogen Sulphide at around the 30m mark which is a result of leaves and other vegetation falling into the Pit and decomposing. To get to the pit we had to haul our kit down some slippery steps, around 20m down vertically trying not to slip over which we all managed. Here we sat at the edge and got our kit on, there was a group of free divers already in the Pit but other than that no other scuba divers which was a bonus. Once in to the water we were once again greeted by amazing visibility, being able to see all the way down to the hydrogen sulphide layer from the surface, visibility like this is kind of mind blowing when you think about it. I was also pretty excited as this was a dive site where it looking to be perfect conditions to get some shots of the famous light beams coming down into the water column - this would be my goal on this dive. Our dive guide signaled to us all and went descended beneath the surface and headed all the way down to the hydrogen sulphide layer at around 30 m. We had been told that there is a little “island” at this mark, but that on either side of it the centre continues down - I wasn’t looking to find out how far down! I had never seen anything like the hydrogen sulphide layer at the bottom of the Pit, this layer of gas that just hung at the bottom giving the place such an eerie, otherworldly feel, it is hard to describe but it was also stunning to see. After staying at 30m for a few minutes we started to ascend and went up via the walls of the Centoe, in one spot there was some Mayan pottery in an alcove - possibly indicating that the Cenote had not always been filled with water, or not quite as much as currently. As we approached the end of our dive I again hung back to get some nice shots of the light beams coming in from above - in The Pit they really were spectacular and very noticeable, shafts of lights penetrating the water and darkness. As we got closer to the end, the free divers we had seen earlier were still there and made an amazing subject to add a bit more interest to the pictures. After we got out of the water we had to lug our gear back up the steps and to the truck, we made sure to do this very carefully and slowly so not to slip or bring on any signs of DCS. Once we had disassembled everything and put it in the bed of the truck we all set off back towards Playa Del Carmen, everyone very happy with the days scuba diving that we had done. It truly was something so different to anything I had done before and made me look forward to the next day diving and to experience more of this. Once back we left gear at The Centoe Guy, apart from my camera, so we didn't t have to carry it back to the hotel the next morning and headed back to our hotel to shower off and get ready for a couple of cold beers and some evening food. We decided to find some more tacos that evening and excitedly discussed our favorite bits of the day, after that we crashed out early as we were tired from the day and had to be up early again in the morning the next dives we had in store!

The Hydrogen Sulphide layer in Angelita Cenote

The next morning we arrived at The Cenote Guy bright and early eager to pick up where we had left the day before, we’d both really enjoyed the diving as it was so different to what we had experienced previously. That day we were originally due to dive Casa Centoe & Angelita, but due to conditions Casa Cenote was cancelled and we were told we would be diving Carwash instead. Overall, I think this worked out well as Carwash was something quite special - it was out first stop of the day and our guide told us on the way there that it was named the Carwash as previously taxi drivers used to get their cars washed here before it became a popular diving Cenote! It took just over an hour to get to Carwash but it was worth the ride, we were the first people there and it was such a beautiful location - a crystal clear pool of water with lilies and overhanging trees surrounding it it really was quite stunning. We geared up and giant strode into the water which was beautifully clear and surprisingly warm. Once everyone was in and had signaled they were OK we all descended below the surface. Carwash is sort of two dives in one, a cavern dive at either end and in the middle an open expanse of water, lilies, freshwater fish and turtles. In the cavern parts of the dive there were some impressive stalagmites and stalactites to see - these structures were huge in some cases and must have been growing for thousands of years - I took great care not to bump into them! Transitioning from the cavern to the open water part of the dive leant itself to an interesting photo opportunity to be able to get the silhouette of a divers moving from the dark cavern into the light. The overall dive, though not quite as interesting as the dives we had done the day before was nice and chilled out, a great way to start the day and not physically exerting. I was quite aware that this was merely a warm up to the more spectacular Centoe Angelita, which we were off to next.

After a filling lunch we headed off to Cenote Angelita, possibly the most famous of all of the Cenotes due to its hydrogen sulphide layer at around 28-30m which you can descended beneath into a world of pitch black. Again, we were lucky, as we pulled up to the privately owned Cenote we were the only truck in the car park which again meant we had the whole place to ourselves. Our guide explained to us about Angelita, the hydrogen sulphide layer and also how due to a lot of construction work in the area with a rail line how it isn’t quite as clear, certainly at shallower depths as it used to be. I was very much looking forward to the photographic possibilities of the dive - I’d seen so many pictures on the internet, social media and in dive magazines that I was eager to take my own. We hauled equipment down to the side of the Cenote and got ready, a giant stride entry and all gathered at the surface. Once everyone had given the OK we all started to descend beneath with our torches and lights all on as well. The plan was to descend all the way down to the hydrogen sulphide layer and group together, once everyone was ready we would then descend further through the sulphide layer and then pop back up where we could play around by the little island that is visible. Once we had descended to around 28m we all grouped together , ensured that lights were all functioning and then started to move through the hydrogen sulphide layer - it was such a strange experience, people and even your own limbs seemed to disappear in the gas layer until all of a sudden you were through it into a completely pitch black environment - like nothing else I had ever seen. No light from above is able to penetrate and as a result it really is the closest you’ll ever be to a pitch black environment - it was like a sensory deprivation tank, except our light beams flashed around. After a minute or so we moved back up through the gas layer to where the little island poked through the hydrogen sulphide - this made for some excellent photo opportunities with people seemingly glided over the gas layer like something our of a science fiction movie! It really felt different and so light after having experienced the complete darkness below the hydrogen sulphide. After a little while of playing around here we started to ascend to make sure we stayed with decompression limits. We stayed close to the walls and moved upwards in a spiral fashion until we hit the surface. Having all safely made it back everyone was pretty physced at the experience - so unique and so different to anything else you’ll ever experience diving - while the water wasn’t as clear as at Dos Ojos, the atmosphere and gas layer were so different that it made for a one of a kind dive.

Once we had all made it out of the water we started to pack up and got back into the truck and headed back towards Playa Del Carmen around an hour away, as this was our last dive of the trip we gave our gear a quick rinse at the shop, mainly to remove dirt and silt as we’d been diving in fresh water as opposed to salt water, and then made our way back tot he hotel. It was a shame to only manage a couple of days of diving in these completely unique settings, but I was also looking forward to chilling out for a couple of days and getting in some serious rest ‘n relaxation. The next couple of days really seemed to fly by, chilling by the hotel pool, going out for brunch and finding the best tacos by night was just what the doctor had ordered and soon enough it was time for us to head back home to Albany, New York. As a diving experience this is one that I would recommend,, as its cavern diving you can always see the light to be able to get out so, for me, you don’t have to worry too much about getting trapped or claustrophobia although this sort of diving may not be for everyone. The clarity of the water, the other worldly feel and shear excitement makes it so different to an open water dive in the ocean, sure there isn’t much aquatic life to marvel over, but that isn’t the point. A couple of friends really got into cave diving as a result of this and while I’m not sure that is for me I can certainly see how people catch the bug. I’ll hopefully be back another day to explore some of the other Centoes that we didn’t make it so and also get some more photos now I know what to expect!

Freedivers playing around in the light beams, The Pit, Mexico