I’m planning a trip to Playa del Carmen over the Christmas holiday and would like to do some scuba diving in the Cenotes. Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, do you have a particular cenote that you’d recommend?
I’ve also considered going on a dive with bull sharks, is it worth it?
Thanks
I love, love, love the diving in Cozumel, but have not yet gotten to experience diving the cenotes. I have heard that it is tons of fun and quite different from open water diving…it’s on my list of things to do! (Except for the cold part…I don’t do well in cold water, but I will suck it up for the experience.)
FYI on the bull sharks - a couple of weeks ago, there were several Mexican newspaper articles claiming that the Playa bull sharks had all been killed (according to a thread on Scubaboard). Apparently there is a small group of bulls that return each year, and the owner of a restaurant followed a dive boat and then caught the sharks. This was all reported secondhand, but the sharks haven’t been spotted since (at least as of the last time I read about it)and there was a picture of sharks hanging outside the owner’s restaurant. So, unfortunately, the bull sharks might be gone for good. 
I wrote to a dive centre to ask about the bull sharks and got this response:
“Yes you right , but is more back we have seen on every dive more then 8 bull Sharks !!”
While I haven’t been cenote diving myself, there are a few places along the road from Cancun to Tulum that advertise. Just make sure you stop at one that looks fairly large and well populated, less chance of shoddy equipment or unsafe conditions. Be sure and check everything yourself and at all cost avoid going to some out of the way cenote that someone at the hotel points you at.
Enjoy and have a good time!
unfortunately i’ve never dived cenotes, altho they look like wicked fun, don’t they?
you don’t mention it, but are you a certified diver either open water or advanced open water or better? cenotes can be really damn deep. if not certed, i’d not recommend it.
as previously-mentioned, do your homework and research the dive shops before you go if you’re not lugging down at least some of your own equipment. call PADI and get the skinny just so you know you’re using reliable stuff. the airlines and TSA have made it such a bitch to travel with dive equipment it’s all but not worth the hassle any more. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
and do you have DAN coverage? always, always, always a good idea to have it current no matter where you’re diving.
for the most part, sharks have an undeserved reputation for people-munching (99 percent of them want nothing to do with you), but bulls have more than their fair share of testosterone, which can make them cranky and unpredictable.
i’ve swum with reef sharks on more than one occasion. nothing to it: don’t bother them, they won’t bother you, but nothing on the par of a bull. something else i’d research first. please post back here because i’d love to know what you find out!
I dove Dos Ojos cenote years ago, and it was fantastic ! I would highly recommend it. I was only OW certified at the time, and that was fine. It is technically a “cavern” (and not a “cave”), so you didn’t need a cave diving certification to do the dive. I was lucky enough to be the only tourist - so it was just me and the guide.
I was staying in Cozumel at the time, so I made arrangements to be picked up at the ferry terminal at Playa Del Carmen. From there, it was about a 40 minute (if memory serves - may have been longer) drive down toward Tulum. Before Tulum, we stopped and then got into a truck (actually just a skeleton of a truck due to deterioration) which took us to the cenote entrance.
The opening to the cenote was just a hole in the ground with a ladder sticking out of it. We went down the ladder, and then the dive gear and tanks were lowered down (the opening was too small to descend with all your gear. At the bottom of the ladder was a wood platform in the middle of this huge cave (most above water). So we geared up on the platform, and then into the water.
It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life - swimming among the cave formations (stalactites and stalagmites) in crystal clear, fresh water. Occasionally the cave would have air pockets at the surface, so the stalactites (?) would poke down from the ceiling into the water. From underwater, when you looked up at this, you saw both the stalactite and its reflection in the (underside) of the surface of the water. Unreal.
If I had any complaints it was the absence of much life - we did see some small fresh water fish, and one fresh water eel.
Wow, cenotes, I’m jealous! I have heard Dos Ojos is good, also Carwash, Gran Cenote, Chacmool, and plenty more to choose from. Make sure your guide is cave-trained, and has full cave gear (double tanks, major light, backup lights). There are lots of good people down there so it shouldn’t be hard to find someone safe and reliable.
Yes, I have my advanced open water. And the few dive shops I’ve considered are all PADI approved. I think we’re flying carry-on so we’ll probably just take our mask and snorkel.
No bull sharks so we got our dive comped. we’re diving two cenotes on Sunday
Cenotes rock! Most amazing experience I’ve had diving.
more! MORE!!
Sorry I didn’t see this thread when you were looking for recommendations, although I don’t think mine would have been any help anyway - I don’t remember the name of the cenote we dived in and we did our dive in Tulum, which was probably too far away to make sense for you when there are so many closer cenotes. But they really are awesome. I’d never done a scuba dive before and the cenote was beautiful. I especially loved looking up at the mangrove roots and seeing this brownish moss that hung over everything.