Already behind us 2,5 thousand kilometers, which we drove by car from Mexico City to Tulum – the last major town on the Riviera Maya on the Yucatan. In our heads we have mix of Mayan pyramids, the Aztecs and Olmecs, the colonial cities with incredibly colorful toy houses, , The Mexican churches, more like bizarre works of cooks, belts of beautiful roads which runs up at the altitude of 2 – 2,5 thousand meters, surrounded by lush greenery.
After inspecting by the road about of dozen national museums and climbed to at least for two dozen pyramids, we were dreaming to get to Tulum and had there 3 days of rest – to lie on the beach and swim in the ocean.
Nothing happened.
I must say that in Kiev, I read about diving in Cenotes. Cenote is a karst caves, which pitted almost the entire Yucatan peninsula.
Even in Maya times major settlements like Chichen Itza were built near the Cenote. In those days Cenote served as original containers with fresh rain water. With fresh water were constant problems, and a cult of the god of rain had a place all over Yucatan. That Sacred Cenote become the place where blood-thirsty priests throwing drugged, richly dressed women, prisoners, soldiers and even children. Since the early 20 th century from the bottom of Cenote at Chichen Itse raised a lot of statues, jade masks, jewelry, pottery and, of course, human bones (most of the findings remains in American museums and in private collections).
The dream of the possibility to dive into this kind of place do not leave me the entire journey. I just could not believe my eyes when at the entrance to Tulum, just beside the road saw the flag PADI. Ten meters from the road could be seen round dark puddle with the inscription: DIVING IN CENOTE CAR WASH. Near the pond was a jeep. I must admit at first I thought that you can wash your car. Then the situation is cleared up – two men and a woman was loaded into a jeep gear.
We quickly agreed that we will fill ankets, make a prepayment and start diving tomorrow.
Now – a brief. Diving in Cenotes is divided into diving in caverns, and scuba diving in caves. People who do not have a certificate of cave diving can not even dream of it. Any discussion on this topic is useless. If you wish you can pass the appropriate rate on the spot. Instructor – a Polish and a German – speack 5 or 6 languages.
Prices – International.
My husband and I both have a certificate of Advance. Thus, we could only dive in caverns. With this kind of diving you should see all the time somewhere, even far enough daylight or to know that from time to time over your head is an air dome.
The briefing before the dive was very thorough. Equipment was in good condition. Issued two lights – the main and reserve. Main lights, by the way, much better than those issued in Egypt.
The first dive was in the Grand Cenote Sac Actun. We reached him by jeep, dressed in suits. Almost all Cenote near Tulum private or state. For payment. For divers – about 10 U.S. dollars for snorklings – 8 USD. On the territory of the Cenote, and this is just a piece of the jungle, fenced with self Cenote, no smoking, eating and drinking. Usually, the car can not drive up directly to the place of diving. In some places you need to wear gear and go from 50 to 200 meters. If we take into account that the air temperature is 35 C, and humidity – 98%, it becomes understandable impatience to plunge into the water. All Cenote water is approximately the same temperature – 24 °. Fresh.
Clear and the visibility is endless.
Cavern was huge, with lots of branches, stretching out into the unknown depths. Near many of them are warning signs, like the automobile STOP. But the divers – people with a sense of humor, and we found a few more characters in the form of Death with a scythe and a small sculpture composition in the darkest corner of the cave – a crocodile eat up doll Barbie.
Diving takes place all the time by the rope laid along the route. The entire cavern is filled with stalactites and stalagmites of different shapes. Periodically, the fish swim, but water is so transparent that it seems that you are floating through the air and crazy fish also swim in the air. Here and there, hanging above the roots of trees, sometimes swirling around them turtles. The feeling of complete unreality does not leave all the time. This – the underground palace, and for some reason you do not walk on it, and swim. Our first dive (48min) was held at a shallow depth – aprox 11 meters. At the end of diving, dressed in a suit of 3mm, I even froze.
Emerging, we could not even find the words to convey his enthusiasm. It was great!
But we still do not know that Cenotes could be quite different. The next day, our instructor, Richard took us to his favorite Cenote Angelita – little Angel. The briefing, as usual, took 30-40 minutes.
Somewhere in the city, Richard took the key from the fence into the jungle. In 20 minutes we were on the spot. The fence was right on the highway. We drove the car into the jungle, put on equipment and moved to Angelite. This Cenote was completely different. Roughly speaking, this is a hole in the Karst, a diameter of about 25 meters on the surface with a much larger diameter at the bottom. Cenot depth was about 60 meters. In the process of development underwater water washed away part of the karst and the upper cap dropped to the bottom at a depth of 60 meters. To get something like a mountain peak is located at a depth of 35 meters, and the bottom – up to 60 meters. The top of the mountain is still decorate the trunks of trees, under water.
The first couple of meters, we are not imbued with the beauty of the Cenot. Visibility was not very good. Somewhere at a depth of 5 meters, water mist suddenly parted, and we saw under us an island covered with trees. The island was surrounded by dense brown cloud of hydrogen sulfide, and the trees were buried in a white mist. We were airborne forces. Spirit simply captivated! Landed on the island, we decided to play with the clouds. Going down leg in the cloud – it disappears, dropped by half – half not, as in the cartoon. Then we climb to the trees – strange as it looks in the complete set of equipment. After playing, we began slow climb up along the walls of Cenot. There, too, was something to see. We saw from the walls huge elephans trunk. Here and there came across a small circular cave. In general, we have never seen such a beauty. We forget all travel to Mexico, all 3 thousand km, which we drove by car from Mexico City to Tulum, all the pyramids, known and unknown, we studied carefully along the route. Diego Riveras paintings were in a past life.
On the surface, we met with two divers, who were goingdescent on the very bottom, and look for something interesting. They were bedecked huge amount of necessary and very useful things. Richard politely asked to raise from the bottom two coils, blue fins and a mask. The men kindly agreed.
All three days allocated to the beach and the ocean, we stay in the Cenotes. It was wonderful, unforgettable! Number of Cenotes on Yucatan no one has yet counted. Study – also not enough for one trip. Diving centers even make travel through the jungle to Cenotes with overnights in hammocks.
For information: Russian tehnodivers from Petrograd and Moscow in the Yucatan appeared and dived in caves. In the early summer the team from Octopus dived, but none of them were taken to the Cenot Angelita.
We traveled a lot and have always felt that to return to the same place is not worth – in the world too much fun. But Mexican Cenotes seems quite different to our Tourist beliefs.