A day in a Cenote changes up the dive program

Tired of stumbling out of bed a half hour before your morning dives, gulping down some coffee and huevos, then wandering onto a dive boat that minutes later drops you onto a stunning reef studded with coral formations and teeming with sea life?

Only the seriously jaded diver ever really tires of that scenario, but if you’re looking to change up the program there’s something completely different on your Cozumel doorstep. The downside is that stepping out of the Cozumel groove requires packing up your gear and turning in early, setting the alarm for the crack of dawn and catching the 7 a.m. ferry to the mainland for a cenote dive or two.

Just across the channel, there’s a vibrant community of cave and tech-oriented divers that get their thrills from exploring the myriad cenotes – surface connections to subterranean water bodies – that dot the Yucatan Peninsula.

Before packing your gear bag, a little orientation is in order. Don’t even think about scoping out a cenote on your own and attempting to do a self-guided trip and dive. Cavern and cave diving require proper certification, equipment and experience, and are beyond the scope of an open-water certified diver. The well-known and mapped cenotes are controlled environments, and the lesser-known sites require gaining approval and access privileges through connections you don’t have.

What’s the difference between cavern and cave diving? Effectively, a cavern is generally classified as being within the light zone of a cave system. That means if light from the surface is still visible you’re in a cavern; no light visible you’re in a cave. Open water and advanced open water level divers are not certified nor qualified for either cavern or cave dives. PADI offers a Cavern certification, and SSI offers both Cavern and Cave certification, but the de facto standard for cavern and cave diving certification is NACD (the National Association for Cave Diving). Fortunately, for divers looking to get a taste of the cenote experience, numerous dive operators on the mainland offer day trips to cenotes with surface access to caverns that allow guided exploration by NACD certified cave divers. While open water certification is generally all that’s required to participate in a guided cavern tour, good buoyancy control is a must. (More info on the PADI cavern specialty here; full descriptions of the NACD and its training programs here.)

Numerous dive shops in and around Playa del Carmen have cave-certified staff that will organize a day trip to the cenotes. Each shop seems to have its own favorite sites, and while safety is generally taken seriously, some operations take it more seriously than others. Most operations follow some variation of the following “rules” when leading guided cavern tours:

• Divers must remain within visible range of direct sunlight
• Remain less than 140′ (combined linear distance) from the open water area
• Dive depth of less than 100’
• Cavern must be large for two divers to pass side by side
• Visibility of more than 40’ at start of dive
• Maintain access to a continuous diveline to surface

When shopping for a two-tank cenote excursion, be prepared to pay significantly higher prices than for a two-tank boat dive. Depending on the location of the cenote, the trip can take an hour or more, and drinks and snacks are often included in the price. Also included is the per diver entrance fee collected by the local landowner who is fortunate enough to have a popular cenote on his property.

Some of the favorite cenotes within easy driving distance of Playa del Carmen include Chac Mool, Ponderosa and Taj Mahal. Further south on the road towards Tulum you’ll find Alhambra, Dos Palmas and Dos Ojos. If the normally frequented sites are too mainstream for you, the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey (QRSS) maintains an extensive archive of cave survey data for more than 167 underwater caves and cave systems.