Quintana Roo Redux – The Perennial Pilgrim

I decided to do one last 2021 Mexico trip to spend a few days in Cozumel and a few weeks in Playa del Carmen catching up with some friends and doing some amazing diving. Both places are in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.

Diving with Bull Sharks

For the second year in a row I had the opportunity to dive with the bull sharks in Playa del Carmen. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as last year, but it was still a great experience.

A triggerfish got jealous of the sharks getting all the attention and went after my camera 🙂

Our second dive was in a really nice shallow reef call Shangri La.

Diving in the Dreamgate Cenote

Dreamgate is considered one of the most beautiful and advanced cenotes to dive in. It has an amazing variety of stalagmites and stalagites and is probably the closest to actual cave diving of any of the Quintana Roo cenotes. It’s so beautiful it was featured in the BBC series Planet Earth. The first part of this clip from the show is from Dreamgate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0037nmg

Below are some of what I filmed from my GoPro. The lighting is not great, and things get a bit jerky as I try to align my light and the camera, but you can get a sense of how unique this place is.

We surfaced into a unique cavern within the cenote

Moving towards the end of the dive at the cenote opening

Here’s a more professionally lighted short video to give you a better overall picture of Dreamgate.

It’s a wonderful place from the outside as well.

It’s a steep climb down to the entrance. We actually used a rope and pulley to bring our dive tanks down to the water.

Diving the Zenote and Kin-Ha Cenotes

Last year I was able to do two dives at Zenote Cenote, as I described in the post below. I wanted to see it one more time this year.

Diving in the Magical Zapote Cenote

This year my GoPro was actually working on the dive so you can see first hand how eery it can be and how large these life forms can grow. The bells shown on the videos are formations called biothems. They are formed by bacteria breathing and solidifying in the calcium. Slowly, over thousands of years, the combination of the bacteria, adequate pH, and the hydrogen sulfate in the water created these complex downward directed formations.

Some of the young bacteria organisms are growing on a fossilized tree limb.

And finally coming to the surface to see what the cenote looks like above water.

The second dive that day was at the Kin-Ha Cenote. It also had some smaller of these bell shaped life forms. It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Zapote, but it had some more variety in what can be seen.

I have no idea what this large structure was, but it was earily beautiful.

My guide was showing me 20 million year old clam fossils from when this area was at the bottom of the ocean.

Some larger stalagmites descending down from the top of the cenote

Kin-Ha is one of the few cenotes I’ve been to where it was enclosed even above the surface of the water.

Cozumel Diving

Before going to Playa, I did two days of incredibly beatiful diving at Cozumel. Below are some of the videos of these dives.

I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving in Playa del Carmen with some friends from my first time in Playa. It was a nice reunion!

4 Americans, 2 Germans, a Brit and an Argentinian. A Mexican friend was there earlier and a Canadian friend joined us later. Typical of the mix in Playa.

I had a really comfortable Airbnb in Playa del Carmen.

The rooftop pool deck, which a few of used a couple of times while I was there 🙂

I could even see the local second division Inter Playa soccer team practice from my front window

And watch them in a playoff match against the Cancun team called Yalmakan

GOALLLL! At that point they were up 3-0 on aggregate goals. They went on to play a team from Chiapas in the next round.

And I was able to find a nice, large Airbnb right in the heart of town in Cozumel.

The non-descript entrance from the main walk street, with a view of my small balcony in the upper right.

Finally, I stumbled upon this in a market in Puerto Morales. Unfortunately, since I’m living out of a suitcase, I didn’t have a wall to hang it on. So a picture will have to do.