Hello everybody and welcome to my new blog! My last blog was about 5 young Egyptian guys with the shared dream of becoming dive professionals. Check it out if you haven’t read it yet!
This time I'll speak about diving in the cenotes of Mexico.
The Mayan word for cenote is "dzonot" and it means “cavernous sink hole”. The cenotes are mostly around 15m deep, but some can reach a depth of 100m.
Mexico has more than 10,000 cenotes and a lot have still not been explored. One of the most famous cenotes is Chac Mool, and I got the chance to dive there!
What did I expect?
A dark cave, stones no corals and no fish. I actually didn't expect a very special dive, but what I found was completely different! I was already in love with Mexico and its nature, and the first time I saw a cenote, I was surprised by its beautiful color. The water was crystal clear, and in some places you found small fish which looked like the guppies we had in our aquarium at home when I was a child.
To reach the cenotes, we passed beautiful Caribbean beaches and cacti. The cacti reminded me so much of a lot of movies, just as I had imagined Mexico, then we began driving through the jungle.
It's hard to imagine that millions of years ago the cenotes were coral reefs. After many Ice Ages, the sea level lowered and the reef died and became a huge limestone plate which fluted again after the Ice Age. It’s very interesting how such a beautiful, natural spot can emerge, but let’s get back to my dive in the cenotes...
We went early in the morning, there were maybe two snorklers there apart from us, it was fantastic!
Our guide Bernadette gave us a very interesting briefing on the way to the cenotes. I loved her Spanish dialect. The dive started in Little Brother.
In Chac Mool, Bernadette was diving infront of us with a double tank and had one very big torch with her. There were also lines to follow, so we couldn’t get lost. This dive was perfect for me since I was still a beginner at the time. The maximum depth was 13m and we had also a lot of light, giving us many beautiful views.
In one area we could see the jungle out of the water and at the same time the sunbeams entering the water like a flowing curtain. During the briefing, Bernadette explained that if you looked up to the cave ceiling, you would find many small air bubbles which looked like crystals or diamonds. She was right, it was amazing!
During the dive, we even went to the surface and saw the stalactites and stalagmites. Here, in a kind of cave, some light came through from small holes, it looked amazing! I was very fascinated to see the roots of the trees growing through the earth into the water. The roots ended in the shallow water.
I can’t describe the feeling I had while I was diving in the cenotes. I can just say that everybody should travel to Mexico at least once to dive there. It was one of the best dives I have ever done!
Unfortunately, I have hardly any photos to show you from my first cenote dive - though it's definitely best to see them for yourself.
If you have ever been diving in the cenotes before, write about your experience in the comments below!
Semra
19th November 2019
