Cave Diving in Mexico

WHAT IS CAVE DIVING?

Cave Diving is a form of Technical Diving and is open only to certified cave divers. This certification requires an extensive training and specialized equipment. This experience will allow the divers to penetrate the overhead environment beyond the “daylight zone” to explore the extended complex navigation of the flooded underwater cave systems and explore what only a few privileged divers have been.

The Yucatan Peninsula is home to the largest underwater cave networks in the World, with Sac Actun (the White Cave in Maya) being number one in length with 347 Kms / 216 Miles of underwater passages. The caves in Mexico are incredibly diverse from one another, showcasing gigantic and/or delicate millennial geological formations, from huge rooms and large bedding plains to tight corridors and restrictions in all orientations possible. The caves having been dry in the past, you could also encounter remains of Mayan artefacts or even fossilized bones of ancient animals such as giant sloth, short faced bears or even mastodons.

Most caves display the mystical Halocline, separating the saltwater passage from the freshwater one, creating an observable layer which we compare to the inter-dimensional portal between our world and Xibalba, the Mayan Underworld. They even change colors from white to black, or even green or red depending on the season due to tannic acid from the vegetation which can make these places very psychedelic.

If you would like to get certified for cave diving, please contact us for more info. We offer full cave training for those who want to learn how to cave dive.

Why Hire A Cave Guide?

Our caves are the most extensive systems in the world, and the complexity of navigation is both its most treacherous and exciting feature. Our professional cave guides will provide the required safety, fill the logistical needs and transportation with our pick up trucks avoiding you the hassle to rent a car, which are usually not made for the terrain where the caves are located.

Entrances are on private property and most land owners now require you to have a local guides. We know the location, we know the owners, where to pay the entrance and where to get the keys.

Our guides know the off-the-beaten-path caves for some more authentic cave diving, and most mainlines are hidden away from the surface, as well as most interesting sections, features and point of interests.

Using our services will ensure to optimize your time and ensure the most enjoyable experience.

A Typical Cave Diving Day

We will pick you up at your accommodation in Playa Del Carmen* with all the equipment and tanks ready around 8 am. From there, we will be on our way to the chosen system of the day. If it is your first time cave diving in Mexico we will give you a briefing on the general history of the area and unique aspects of the Mexican caves during the drive.

Once we arrived onsite we will pay the entrance fees (all cenotes are private properties) to the local family in cash in Mexican Pesos.
After explaining logistics of the dive sites, we will have a look at the entrance of our cave chosen for the day and a quick summary about its history and what makes it special. Afterwards we plan our dive. This always includes studying our route either via official cave maps or stick maps, agreeing on our gas plan and team formation, reviewing some cave diving procedures to refresh your skills with some land drills if necessary, to make sure we are all on the same page. For stage/ multi-stages and DPV dives, this also includes agreeing on our deco plan for deeper caves and how and where we recalculate gas reserves.

If we are doing two dives (at Intro to Cave or Full Cave level) we will have a break for lunch before going in for the second dive or have lunch after diving if we went on a long stage dive (at Stage, Multistage, DPV or Rebreather level). Once we are done diving, we pack our gear and make our way back to drop you off at your accommodation around 4-6pm.