Mayan Riviera - Diving Cozumel & Cenotes

December 26th, 2005

I’ve been seriously slacking lately on the photo gallery, but my recent post on Cozumel prompted me to get off my duff and upload my photos from Mexico. This album is made up of photos mostly from Cozumel, but a few from diving the cenotes on the Yucatan peninsula.

Cozumel is a small island off the Eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is located opposite Playa Del Carmen on the mainland, a vibrant town full of party life and home to white sand beaches. Cozumel has long held the reputation of a diver’s paradise. Nearly every street in the small town of San Miguel has at least one dive shop on it. There are many dive operators there, ranging from those who run cattle boats to those specializing in taking experienced divers out for some challenging dives. The best thing about diving off of Cozumel are the dependably strong currents. This ‘aquatic wind’ makes for terrific drift diving from boats. The boat will simply drop you off at one side of the reef, the current carries you along effortlessly and the boat follows your bubbles to pick you up at the end of your dive. It takes a little getting used to, but drift dives are some of my favorite kinds of dives (so are night dives). Combine the currents with some terrific wall formations and you’ve got amazing dives that are akin to watching television (i.e., sitting back and taking it all in as the reef goes by, or rather as you go by the reef).

The town of San Miguel is a quiet one; not much party life to speak of. You can hear a pin drop most of the time, yet when a cruise ship comes in you’re suddenly inundated with tourists trying to bargain for t-shirts and trinkets on every corner, only to disappear as quickly as they arrived. For some night-action you can head over to the mainland on the 45 minute ferry to Playa Del Carmen and get your drink on. In the morning, if you can pull yourself out of bed, you can do some cenote diving along the peninsula. Most of the cenotes are within an hour drive from PDC.

What is a cenote? Good question. ‘Cenote’ is loosely translated to mean ’sink hole’ in english. The theory goes that millions of years ago an asteroid impact (yes, the same one that is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs) caused the entire Eastern region of Mexico to collapse into what we know today as the Yucatan peninsula. Before the impact there were many caves that existed in the area. These limestone caves formed over millions of years and structures such as stalactites, stalagmites and columns were common features of these caves (and many that form on land). As the whole region collapsed some of the caves were submerged and today are filled with freshwater. The water is so clean that the visibility is stunning. You can even take a drink if you like the taste of mineral water. One of my favorite things to do on dive trips to Mexico is to plan my last dives of the trip to be cenote dives and thus avoid the need to thoroughly clean my gear when I get home.

Map Of Cozumel Dive Sites

Entry Filed under: SCUBA, Travel