Since I was spending a cumulative total of five months in Playa del Carmen, I did a ton of diving in the nearby island of Cozumel as well as bull shark diving in Playa del Carmen and a couple of amazing nearby cenotes.
Diving With Bull Sharks
From the National Wildlife Federation: “Bull sharks are found in coastal waters all over the world. In the United States they are found off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike most sharks, bull sharks can survive in freshwater for long periods of time. They have even been found in the Mississippi and Amazon Rivers. They prefer shallow coastal water, which means they can often come into contact with humans. Bull sharks are often considered to be the most dangerous sharks to humans because of their aggressive tendencies and ability to migrate up rivers.”
However each year between November and March female bull sharks come to the shallow waters near Playa del Carmen to quietly spend part of their gestation period before heading off to shallow mangrove outlets to actually give birth to their live young in a relatively safe environment. It creates a great opportunity to see these large, magnificent animals up close in a very safe environment. The sharks are fed three times a day and at two other times in the day, divers are allowed to spend about 25 minutes in a specific spot where the sharks congrigate. This is all highly regulated by the Mexican government. They’ve realized they can make more money from shark tourism than shark fishing.
The morning I dove had very poor visibility, but we could still view these magnificent creatures swimming close by. As you can see from the videos below, it’s an amazing experience.
On the second dive nearby we saw a large stingray floating gracefully through the sand.
Diving in Cenotes
Cenotes are a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting when the collapse of limestone bedrock exposes groundwater. The ancient Maya commonly used cenotes for water supplies, and occasionally, for sacrificial offerings. The Yucatán Peninsula has an estimated 10,000 cenotes.
Some of the larger cenotes are amazing places to dive. Technically, since there is exposure to the outside, these are not caves. But in many of them there are large sections that are indestinguishable from being in a cave. I’ve dove many of these cenotes in previous trips to Playa del Carmen. In this trip I dove in The Pit and Dreamgate Cenote.
The Pit is a multilevel dive. First we descended into an area with the remnants of dead trees thousands of years old.
Then we went over and through a spooky layer of hydrogen sulfide gas.
There are some small bird bones at one point in the dive.
At a depth of over 30 meters (around 100 feet) there was a small, beautiful cavern.
Throughout the dive there were sections of intricate stalagtites.
As we circled back up The Pit to the surface we could see the light streaming in.
Then there was the final ascent to the surface of this magnificent cenote.
Dreamgate is one of the most famous sinkholes in Mexico. Because of its stunningly decorative stalagmites and stalactites, Dreamgate was featured in the BBC documentary “Planet Earth”. While my small flashlight doesn’t completely illuminate these fascination intricate, you can still get a glimpse of the fascinating diving here.
Coming back to the blue light of the opening of the cenote after over an hour of diving.
Cozumel Diving
But the best reason to come to this part of the world for diving is the magnificent reef system off the nearby island of Cozumel. I would take the ferry over there almost every week to dive. The Cozumel reef system is part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second largest coral reef system in the world. Swimming through these large structures in the incredibly clear waters of this area feels a bit like flying through those large floating islands in the Avatar movies.
Because the sheer wall reef structure and the prevailing currents the amount of sea life is not as abundant as you would expect such a rich coral environment. There just aren’t as many places for large groups of smaller fish to find homes. That being said, there is still plenty of life to see in here.