After my diving experience in Tulum during the week before Eitan’s arrival with his parents, Eitan was cautiously looking forward to doing a couple of cenote dives with me, and I was incredibly excited to show him this new world. As I’m sure that anyone who has been reading this blog over the past year would know, Eitan prioritizes safety above all else and wasn’t initially onboard for doing this type of diving because it’s technically a confined space and outside of both of our diving qualifications. To get around this and further promote tourism, cenote diving is deemed allowable if you have your basic Open Water certification and go with a divemaster that is rated and outfitted for cave diving. Eitan agreed to dive as long as the cenote was relatively unconfined and he could rent a secondary pony tank with regulators. We found a company that accommodated his request for the secondary air tank and made plans to meet them at the dive shop in the morning.
At the shop, we met our guide along with another woman from Israel who would be diving with us. Initially, the dive company told us the plan would be to dive both routes in Dos Ojos (one of which I had already done) but when the guide picked us up, he told us we would be doing just one route at Dos Ojos as well as The Pit, which is a much deeper dive. Initially, it was a little strange that they would recommend starting with a shallower dive and going deeper since the common practice is to dive deep at first, but we trusted the guide’s dive plan and went along with it. Once we arrived at Dos Ojos, the guide handed us our gear and I was surprised to be given the same large-sized wetsuit size as Eitan, which didn’t fit me very well and the guide didn’t bring any other sizes. On top of that, the wetsuits were a 3 mm thickness, which was also surprising since I had done the same dive a week earlier with a 5 mm wetsuit. We asked the other dive groups how thick their wetsuits were and they each said 5 mm. After watching our guide put on a full dry suit, I knew we were going to be in for a cold trip.
Despite our initial impressions of this dive company, and being freezing cold the entire time, the dive went well. Since I had already done the Barbie Line route, we decided to do the Batcave Line route instead. The route has a lot more overhead coverage leading to less light, requiring us to use our flashlights almost the entire way. At the halfway point, we surfaced in the cave to look up and admire the different bat colonies that call the cenote home. Compared to the Barbie Line, I thought the Batcave Line was equally, if not more impressive. The stalagmites, stalactites, and cave formations were incredible and there seemed to be a little more aquatic life with some fish and shrimps meandering about.
Although he doesn’t show much emotion, I’d like to think Eitan was equally impressed at the unique diving conditions. Considering he was a search and recovery diver for the San Diego Sheriff Department, much of his diving has been in really poor visibility and potentially dangerous conditions. By comparison, the water quality in the cenotes is incredible with almost no sediment and unlimited visibility.
After our first dive, I was curious how our dive in The Pit would be, considering it was a surprise location and I hadn’t researched anything about it. Since our maximum depth would be 100 feet, you would technically need an Advanced Open Water certification, which Eitan and I both have. I asked our new Israeli dive buddy if she had hers and she said she was never able to complete the course because she has trouble equalizing at deeper depths. Once again, I thought it a little peculiar that our guide switched up the plan and decided to do this location instead. Not to mention, we had to pay an extra $20 to dive both Dos Ojos and The Pit sites.
Since we were diving to 100 feet and would need a safety stop during our ascent, Eitan asked if we could have dive computers. The guide replied that they didn’t have any extras and made it seem that it was not customary for the companies to provide them. Of course, all the other dive groups we saw were outfitted with dive computers, along with their 5mm wetsuits. The dive computers would also have been warranted considering none of our dive equipment came with any kind of depth gauges. So, we were basically at the complete mercy of the guide and his planned dive profile.
Once again, despite the numerous reflags and cold conditions we still had a nice dive. We descended the first 60 feet and experienced the blurry vision associated with the halocline layer of fresh overlying saltwater. Then, at the 100-foot depth, we experienced the sulfur layer that looked as if everything was suspended on a cloud. If you Google photos of The Pit, the images are incredible, showing the beams of light that enter the cave from above. I am a bit disappointed my GoPro photos didn’t come out as stunning but remembered I was also struggling the entire time to stay down since the guide also didn’t give me enough weight to control my buoyancy, despite my telling him I was sure I needed more.
Later that day, Eitan gave the dive company a very fair, 3-star review on TripAdvisor. He was immediately contacted by the owner of the company, saying that out of over 500 5-star reviews they had never received a review that low before. It was these reviews, combined with their excellent website that had made us choose this dive company in the first place. Eitan tried to explain the number of issues we had and the owner insisted on taking us on another dive or at least meeting us in person to give us a couple of free shirts. It was a bit creepy and given the number of headlines about tourists disappearing or being murdered in this region, we decided to play it safe and politely decline!
