Cave diving in Playa del Carmen

Already a certified cave diver? Do not miss the awesome Mayan world, which is hidden under the jungle of the Yucatan peninsula.

Mexico has the largest systems of caverns and flooded caves in the world. This area is the Mecca for cave divers! The variety is endless, from black to white walls, from delicately shaped ceilings to colossal stalactites, chambers the size of a tennis court or minuscule passage restrictions. The amazing haloclines top off the immersion.

Diving in Caves is considered to be Technical Diving and penetration into the caves is only authorized if the diver has a recognized certification in cave diving. With this pass, you can access miles of cave lines, which will lead you through some of the most beautiful and amazing cave system in the world. There are experiences for all levels, always with an impressive changing landscape.

If you do not know these places Pura Vida will guide you, according to your experience in cave diving, and will provide you with all the information about local regulations and laws. These caves are formed by sediments of limestone dissolution, which makes the bottom and ceiling of the caves very fragile, so all visiting divers will be asked to take special care not to touch anything to keep the cave intact.

A Basic or Advanced Nitrox certification when deciding which cave to dive into, because of the depth variety. If you do not have this certification you can choose to either obtain it or dive in cave where it’s not necessary.
More than 150 cave systems are known in the Yucatan Peninsula.

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Tajma Ha

This is a unique and phenomenal system. It has many lines and directions, where you can jump from cenote to cenote in shallow waters. The maximum depth is 15m / 50ft below the halocline. Routes are for all levels; most of them are spacious, but you will also find some small passages where a “sidemount” configuration is mandatory.

Some areas are very brittle, which generates roof percolations. We have to be ready to move quickly to an area without any visibility. One of the famous dives of this place is the “Chinese Garden” which is a room in the upstream section, dressed in beautiful stalactites, stalagmites and columns.

Chac Mool

Chac Mool is a 9 km long system, and the main entrance is through the Chac Mool cenote.
At the end of the northern entrance of the cave, you will find the line of the cave that will take you to the “Monster room”.

Inside the cave you can see a huge stalactite measuring about 15m / 50ft high, one of the largest in the world inside a flooded cave. Chac Mool is a giant cave where your passing makes an engraving effect on the halocline, and your light will also be quickly absorbed by its darkness.

In the south section leading upstream, the cave is very different, with white limestone. It is smaller, but again, we can observe the effects of the halocline with some beautiful speleothems.

Dos Ojos

Dos Ojos is a system of flooded caves located north of Tulum, on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. The exploration of Dos Ojos began in 1987 and still continues today. The surveyed portion of the cave system is 82 kilometers (51 miles) and there are 28 known sinkhole entries, which are locally called cenotes.

Dos Ojos lies broadly parallel and north of Sac Actun cave system. Dos Ojos has remained in the top ten, if not the top three, longest underwater cave systems in the world since the late 80s. Dos Ojos contains the deepest known cave passage in Quintana Roo with 119.1 meters (391 ft) of depth located at “The Pit” discovered in 1996 by cave explorers who came all the way from the main entrance some 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) away. The deep passages include the “Wakulla Room”, the “Beyond Main Base (BMB) passage”, “Jill’s room” and “The Next Generation passage”. In August 2012 Dos Ojos was connected through a dry passage to Sistema Sac Actun. In March 2014 the total length of the combined system measures 319.05 kilometers (198.25 mi).

Dos Ojos is an anchialine cave system with connections to naturally intruding marine water and tidal influence in the cenotes. The coastal discharge point(s) of this cave system have not yet been humanly explored through to the ocean, although large volumes of groundwater were demonstrated by dye tracing to flow towards Caleta Xel-Ha, a nearby coastal bedrock lagoon.

The name Dos Ojos refers to two neighbouring cenotes that connect into a very large cavern zone shared between the two. These two cenotes appear like two large eyes into the underground. The original cave diving exploration of the whole cave system began through these cenotes. The Dos Ojos underwater cave system was featured in a 2002 IMAX film, Journey Into Amazing Caves, and the 2006 BBC/Discovery Channel series Planet Earth. Parts of the Hollywood 2005 movie The Cave were filmed in the Dos Ojos cave system.

Water temperature is 25 °C or 77 °F throughout the year, and the maximum depth near the Dos Ojos cenotes is approximately 10 meters (33 ft). The water is exceptionally clear as a result of rainwater filtered through limestone, and there being very little soil development in this region since the limestone is very pure.