Cave Diving In Cozumel
11 September 2008
Trip report by Alex Soubeyrand
Cozumel—the island of swallows in Mexico—is world famous for being the favourite diving spot to a late red-hat-wearing French scuba diver. It has it all: beautiful reefs, high speed drifts and big colourful exotic fish.
It is less known as a place for cave diving, however this tiny and friendly island makes for a nice alternative to the Yucatan mainland. It has about 18 known caves and many more are waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately most of those caves are difficult to access and sherpas as well as path-cutting through the jungle are a necessity. Fortunately a few are easily accessible and like most of the cenotes in the Yucatan, they have no current and are pretty shallow all the way through.
One man who knows the island and its cave systems inside out is German Yanez Mendoza. German was my instructor in overhead diving and he became a very good friend. He has been an active explorer and cave discoverer for many years both on the island and on the mainland. Apart from spending most of his time underwater teaching cave and technical diving, he also teaches Ecology at the University of Cozumel and participates in many scientific researches. I hadn't seen him for a year when he picked me up from my hotel a few weeks ago and I was really happy to shake his hand.
Systema de Paraiso (aka Cenote Aerolito)
Cenote Aerolito is such a wicked cave! It is just off the main road, and a few miles south from St. Miguel. The cave is about 17 km long with a max depth of 25 metres and has been intensively explored. If you are allowed to breathe more than 1/6 of a set of doubles, you will have a great time diving the many, many circuits and jumps of this ever changing system. For instance, the one which leads to the Sulphur River: at the 5th double arrows following the main line there is a short jump to the right. A few frog kicks later and the cave is transformed—at the halocline level the walls are strikingly marked as if painted in white. All the water in contact with this white layer is in permanent state of ebullition and bubbles up. It is absolutely fantastic to witness! At other parts the Halocline stays so thin that the sensation you get swimming from one layer to the other is mesmerising! Beware of the temperature drop though!
As the cave is connected to the sea, there is a slight tide in the cave. At times it is even possible to use it and drift slowly back to the entrance. Or, you could also choose to swim gently along the permanent guide line until you hit the Botanic Pit. Here the cave drops down 10 metres vertically to the next level with a very dramatic effect. The walls change in colours and aspect and the floor looks like it is made from wood shavings.
Another remarkable feature of the cave is its unique fauna: there are massive white caterpillar-like worms crawling on the rocky floor, many star fish and also scallop look-alikes with long thick eyelashes which react to artificial light by jumping around like clockwork jaws. There is so much to see in this cave…
Cenote KM1
The entrance to this cenote is reached after a five minute hike from the main road along a pig trail through the tropical forest. It is imperative to have an early start in order to not fry alive in your dry suit. The visibility in this cave I was told is not so good. To give you an idea, imagine your best UK dive, multiplied the viz quality by 10 and you are still far from it… This cave is part of the Quebrada System. There is a fair bit of navigation to it (Ts, jumps and gaps), however it stays shallow all the way. I recorded a max depth of 9 metres. It is a bit like diving the Swanage Pier, but in a cave system. You can enjoy it for hours…
Cenote Xkan-Ha
If you leave Cozumel's one and only main road at Rancho Buena Vista crossroad and know where you are going, you might notice another smaller path on the left. If you decide to engage on this bumpy track and drive north 5 to 10 minutes, you will then reach a sort of clearing in the middle of nowhere. This clearing is in fact a spiritual place used for Mayan ceremonies. There is a basic block with a series of hammocks, a big hole in the ground to heat volcanic stones and a fantastic ancient Mayan sauna known as a Temascal. The sauna is a small round structure, with low ceiling and a hole in the floor right in the middle to receive the burning hot stones. Once it is ready, participants get in, relax and clean their body and soul. After the ceremony, they can then regain strength by cooling down in the cenote. A few metres away from the Temascal, a wooden path leads to the sinkhole. This place is sensational and I really got spirited away by its atmosphere.
The cenote is not open to divers, however on this occasion we were allowed to dive in as we were to help a group of students from Cozumel University. German would collect water samples and I was given the task to monitor the temperature at different depths.
Because this cenote is deeper than most caves in the area, we quickly accumulated decompression. I spent most of it reflecting about the dive. I have always had difficulties in understanding how a vertical hole could be classified as a cave. To me it seemed to be just another open water site—maybe restricted but open. I could not figure it out. While off-gassing, it was evident that I was wrong: the hole is shaped like a funnel, with its small end at the pool and its wider one at the bottom. So a direct ascent to the surface is not always possible. There is a thick layer of tannic acid at the surface that prevents any daylight to penetrate beneath it. Even at 3 metres below the surface, I could hardly see the outside light. It is a cave environment only with no cavern area. My torch was unable to pick up any walls around me, I realised how disturbing it would be to get lost here. As a safe guard there are two lines set at different depths. Each goes around the circumference and joins the main line.
Unfortunately, all too soon it was time to leave this wonderland and its hidden treasures. I would like to thanks German for the opportunities and the great fun.
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Labels: cave diving, cozumel, mexico, trip report
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