Wow! Where has this year gone? We’re already near the end of June and I still haven’t posted any pictures of trip to Playa del Carmen y Tulum, Mexico earlier this year.
I had the opportunity to join a number of local divers who where traveling to the area with our friends at YSS Dive to dive in the Caribbean and in some of the Cenotes. For those of you that don’t know what the Cenotes are a type of pit, sinkhole, cave/cavern created by the collapse of limestone bedrock, exposing groundwater underneath. They are typically, and most commonly, found in Mexico. but there are also known cenotes in Australia, Belize, Canada, Dominican Republic, the USA and Zimbabwe. The cenotes that we were at were, obviously, large enough and deep enough to dive in.
First up were a couple of dives in the Caribbean. The seas were kind of rough (the weather on those days wasn’t great) and we were in small boats but still managed to get a few dives in including one to the wreck of the Mama Vina where we encountered a rather large Bull Shark (it was not a threat at all).
After those, we went inland and dove at Dos Ojos and Dreamgate Cenote. While I have had a number of dives in the open salt waters around the western hemisphere, I have never dove in pitch black, dark, freshwater cenotes before. What a unique experience that was. In some of the pictures you will see some of the rock formations that we came across and perhaps even a couple of the small, freshwater fish that were present.
I definitely plan to return and dive some more of these Cenotes in the near future. The open water around Playa del Carmen I don’t need to dive again (that doesn’t include nearby Cozumel), not sure why but I wasn’t impressed with what I saw (visibility wasn’t great, current was strong, boats were uncomfortable, and there just wasn’t new or unique sea life that can’t be found in better locales).
I hope that you enjoy the photographs. I’ll post a few non-diving pictures after this post.
Blessings,
Chris.
