Cenote Escondido (Mayan Blue)
*note: I have a crappy canon camera at this point, forgive me on image quality
Several weeks before a planned trip to Tulum, Mexico with the wife, I contacted Adam and Ela from Cave Heaven.
I told them that I wanted to dive a "less traveled" cave that would still have some nice formations and kind of show me what is in Mexico caves that people love. They responded that for the one day I could go, that Ela would be diving with me at "Mayan Blue". She would bring AL80 tanks, and I would bring my gear. So I agreed.
My wife and I made it to our resort of choice for relaxation (Dreams Tulum - Great resort). I notice on the map of the resort that there is a "natural cenote" right on the grounds... hmmm (I will not incriminate myself by stating whether or not that centoe was "checked out", but let's just say it reminded me of the cave at Royal Spring)
The plan was to get a taxi from the hotel to downtown Tulum. (The taxi drivers got a law passed that only taxis can pick up and drop off from the hotels in mexico) I get to the only supermarket in Tulum and promptly at 9am Ela shows up in her white ranger. She tells me to get some food at the supermarket for lunch and she throws it in the cooler and off we go. We go south of downtown Tulum and pull off the road to a gate on the east side of the road. A man crosses the road and we pay our "dive fee". He unlocks the gate and lets us in and locks it behind us.
We drive down the dirt road a bit and come to a small "parking area". We get out and she gives me two AL80s. I move the attachment points down to the level that I think will fit my rig and we take a tank down to the water and get a look.
Path to Mayan Blue
Mayan Blue Cenote
We head back to the truck and Ela pulls out a map of the cave system. We run down the possible dives and decide on diving the "Death Arrow" passage off of the A-Tunnel. This is a part of the cave where it gets "deep" at about 75ft or so and the passage is all salt water. This is also where a fair amount of formations are in this area of the cave.
We head down and gear up.
Ela gearing up
I get weighted and we start into the basin. The basin is greenish in color because of a current algae bloom, she says it is clear blue in the winter.
I decided that I wanted to be first in, and set the reel, so I did. We then swam down the freshwater portion of the A-Tunnel towards the "Death Arrow" jump. It is not as decorated in this area, and kind of felt like a Florida cave. Still, water was clear and flow was nil, which is better then most of the caves I dive at home.
We get into a halocline as we near the jump. Not as pronounced as I have seen in other places like School Sink, but still very obvious. She signals that this is the jump and I set the spool. We go down to about 72ft and into the salt water. The cave immediately turns white and the water gets a blue hue. I immediately thought of Jackson Blue at this point... minus the flow add the formations...
Some formations in the "Death Arrow" tunnel
We get to the end of the "Death Arrow" passage and I put in a spool back to the mainline. We head further into the cave swimming through the halocline. I hit thirds and we turn coming back out the same we we went in.
We get to the basin and my tanks are "floaty". You can tell I dive steel all the time and Ela snaps my pic of the poorly positioned tanks.
We discussed this tank issue at the surface and I adjusted where I clipped the back of the tanks to the harness on the second dive. Problem solved, the rode perfectly.
We get out, eat lunch, take a surface break.... and plan to go back in and dive "B-Tunnel". This is accessed by a second entrance in the cenote.
Again, salt water and "deeper" in the 70ft range. More formations in this area.
Overall, I really loved the cave and would love to go back and spend some "real" time diving it (one day is not enough).
Ela was a great guide and with Adam, they run a nice operation. They don't have a shop, then again, that may be a good thing... all they do is guide and dive...
BTW, if you are in the Tulum area and have some snorkeling gear, make sure to hit Akumal Beach. The wife and I went there and saw 8 turtles in 15mins of swimming around... it was crazy how many sea turtles feed there.
Welcome to the Cave Diver's Forum.
Originally Posted by Richard Pyle
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Semper Fi, Cameron David Smith, my son, my hero. 11/9/1989 - 11/13/2010 
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