Cave diving Playa del Carmen
January 2, 2010, I dove Tajma Hal. The first dive was about 90 minutes. We followed the cavern line then I ran a reel to the cave line. We then dove the Chinese Garden line. The jump to get there was about 100'. At that point we were in a small passage that was in the halocline. The Chinese Garden was very cool. There were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. I turned the dive after about 45 minutes because the cave was amazingly decorated and getting too tight for back mount and I didn’t want to break any stalactites and stalagmites. On the way back through the small passage with the halocline you could hardly see anything because of the mixing of the fresh and saltwater even though the water was clear. It was awesome!
During the surface interval we discussed the previous and upcoming dive while eating lunch with Etienne provided.
The second dive was about 120 minutes. I had to run a reel to the gold line then jumped onto the City of Agra line. Then on the exit we jumped off of the gold line on to an offshoot line and jumped again to another offshoot line in an even smaller passage in another halocline. Etienne said he has recently discovered this line. Rocks were falling from the ceiling from the percolation. That opened up into a white room with brown formations...again very cool. At that point we turned the dive and went back through the small passage where the visibility had been reduced to 5' because of the mixing and percolation. What a great day of diving!
January 3, 2010, I dove Minatouro. The first dive was upstream and lasted about 90 minutes. Here the line had been run all the way out to open water. Some formations started as soon as we got underwater with the better formations further in the system. We dove a section of the cave where the passage is known as the halocline passage. It was awesome! Then we came to the jump for cenote Wentz and I dropped a cookie and turned the dive.
During the surface interval we discussed the previous and upcoming dive while eating lunch with Etienne provided.
The second dive I had to run a reel to get to the line. This section of the cave was tighter and had several restrictions. We started downstream then jumped onto a shortcut line and then onto a line known as the alternate upstream line. We then jumped onto the cenote Wentz line. This line had millions of stalactites and stalagmites and we turned the dive at a restriction just before the cenote that I could not pass. This dive was about 105 minutes long. Two more great cave dives today and unfortunately, this brings an end to my Mexican cave diving adventures for now.
After diving the caves of Playa del Carmen I have no idea why people think these caves are not beautiful caves? I thoroughly enjoyed the dives we made. I led all of the dives after being breifed by Etienne. If you are looking for a great guide contact Etienne (Attchoum) and you are sure to be happy.
Thanks Etienne for four great dives!
