Arnotify

Rob, a friend from work, had been recommending me to dive in the Yucatan area for a while, and in particular to dive a cenote. I finally got to follow his advice and dive my first cenote today, and what an experience it was.

A cenote, or d’zenot (sacred well) in Maya, is a collapsed cavern part of an underground system of caves, caverns and rivers flowing to the sea, carved over centuries by the rainwater penetrating the limestone. At the surface they appear as large sink-holes in the middle of the jungle but they are doorways to a fantastic underwater world.

I dived the cenote Chac Mool (the claw of the Jaguar), located south of Playa del Carmen.

The water in the cenotes is clear as air, offering visibility of over 70m. The Chac Mool cavern featured stalagtite and stalagmite, proof that it was dry at some point. Indeed, during the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, the water level of the world’s ocean was some 100m lower.

Some of the stalagtites and stalagmites are slanted at steep angles which is another sign of the violent geologic event that shaped the region. Sixty-five million years ago an asteroid 10 to 20 km wide collided nearby at the present day location of the Chicxulub village, pushing 70% of Earth’s species, including the dinosaurs, into extinction. Some fossils were also visible, embedded in the limestone.

In contrast to the signs of these dramatic events, the shafts of light peering from the surface evoked the peacefulness of a cathedral. When crossing the halocline, the boundary between fresh and salt water, at about 10m of depth, the light is distorted at it passes through the water, enshrounding you in a dream-like haze.

It was a fantastic experience and incidentally my 100th logged dive. What a way to celebrate. Thanks Rob.