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It had been a few weeks since our time at Utila Dive Centre, so our Cozumel trip had acted as a bit of a refresher before our next dive excursion.... Cenote diving in Tulum! Cenotes are dry formed caves which were flooded thousands of years ago. The result is a dive through beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, which only form in dry circumstances. Diving through caves is a more difficult dive than most open water diving; you must be able to control your buoyancy more accurately as there are formations protruding in every direction. You need to be extra careful not to bash into the cave roof with your tank which can cause significant damage to the stalactites which take thousands of years to form. It's also pretty dark at some points when the natural light isn't present. Oh the pressure!!
We had been recommended Mot Mot Diving by a friend who had done the Cenotes before us, who said they were an incredibly professional dive outfit with top quality equipment. We went to check them out and immediately felt at ease with them while they took us through the different options for dives. There are many different Cenotes to dive, some very easy all the way to technically difficult. We picked three intermediate dives and arranged to go the following day. That evening, completely by chance, the Irish turned up at the hostel... so (being vaguely sensible) we got in touch with Mot Mot and delayed it by a day, then retired to the hostel for beers & a bbq. One hungover day later, we arrived at Mot Mot in the morning to a complementary coffee & croissant to get our day going. Score!
The first dive of the day was called The Pit, the entrance to which requires a 6 meter jump into the water while your equipment is lowered down for you to put on in the water. After quite an early start it definitely wakes you up! Once we were all in the water and kitted up, we started the decent. This dive is quite unique, as you jump into fresh water which flooded from the rivers nearby and then descend into salt water, which seeped up through one part of the cave system which extends out to the coast and lets in salt water. The result of this is a hydrocline, which is where the two mix and create a cloud which distorts the natural light from above. For a few minutes, you can barely see your hand if you hold it in front of you. FREAKY! What gets spookier, is in among the mist there is a huge tree branch which has fallen into the bottom of the pit. You don't see until you are right next to it and it looks like something out of a horror movie! Definitely not something you're used to seeing during an Ocean dive! Once you get past the cloudy layer, an entrance to the dark cave system appears. Through here is a beautiful circuit you swim through and admire all the formations. Our dive instructor also stopped to show us remains of human bones which date back from before the flooding when Mayan people used to use the caves. Making our way back towards the main chamber, you can see the light shining down from the surface and from this perspective; you can't see the cloudy layer. The route up to the entrance to the cave and the creepy tree are perfectly visible and the light shining down takes your breath away. It was absolutely stunning.
After a brief stop for lunch of sandwiches made by the bakery next door to the dive centre (awesome!) we were ready to tackle the next part of the day, a cave system called 'Dos Ojos' which means Two Eyes, named because the layout of the circuits which look like two eyes. These two dives were fantastic, much shallower than the previous which took us down to 40 meters which is the deepest that advanced divers (or any recreational divers) are certified to go. They are similar dives, both shallow and at times quite dark with pretty tight areas to maneuver though, but each had something pretty special. The first cave has beautiful areas of natural light shining in, and something quite unexpected... it has incredible fossils! The second dive was called the 'bat caves', as half way through the dive you enter a chamber where you can surface, which (you guessed it...!) has hundreds of bats hanging upside down! We floated in the water and watched them for a few minutes (they are pretty cute!), and then headed back along the cave system towards the entrance. It was definitely the coolest dive experience I've encountered... so different from open water dives along reef!
We had a few more days until we needed to be in Cancun, and the Irish had rented a house for a few days as they had friends & family travelling with them for a while. You know what that means… house party!! While we were diving they had organised a massive bbq with more food and beer than we'd seen in a long time! Needless to say, the party was pretty immense, and didn't end until the wee hours in the morning. We enjoyed our hangover/ chill out day with constant rotating movies and left over bbq! Awesome!
Finally it was time to move on… this time to the airport! Our next part of the trip was imminent.. right after a mid-travel holiday. Bring on Miami!
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