Cenotes of Mexico

Hunter and I just returned from a week scuba diving with good friends in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We went on 8 dives during the week including Tortuga Bay with giant turtles and the underwater "walls" along Cozamel Island. The ocean was calm and warm with 60-80 foot visibility-quite ideal for diving. But my favorite 2 dives were not even in the ocean. They were in fresh, cool water under the ground, in what the Mexicans call cenotes. Cenotes are fresh water pools connecting to submerged caverns and other cenotes. The standard formation is a round hole in the ground where you begin your dive. From there you switch on your underwater light and follow a guide into caverns filled with stalactites and stalagmites. It was a "stretching" diving experience for me since each diver was on his own-no buddy system-simply maintaining your own buoyancy control and carefully following a line and the guide. At times we were in total darkness, except for our lights. Other moments sunlight filtered down through various openings creating a shimmering effect on the rock formations. It was indeed exhilarating! The following video will give you a taste of the experience. It was filmed as we exited the "batcave" cenote. ( Yes, it contained real bats hanging from the ceiling. Ha!)