Crystal clear water, incredible light rays, stunning rock formations and indescribable haloclines, cenotes really are a special place to dive. As a scuba diver, we can have fresh water or salty ocean dives. Fresh water dives are usually in murky lakes, quarries, and riverbeds where the visibility doesn’t really warrant the best conditions for underwater photography. But then there are the cenotes. If you’ve never heard of them, after reading this blog you’ll be wanting to add these freshwater caves and caverns to your diving bucket list. What are Cenotes? Cenotes are natural deep-water sinkholes which contains fresh water which is run off from the rain and filters through the limestone rock below. It is believed that they are all connected by a vast series of underground rivers and caves and a new cenote is formed when the roof of the cave collapses and exposes it to the world above. Close to Tulum is the underground river system named Sac Actun, which is the second longest cave system in the world and has been mapped at over 335 kilometers long. The name ‘cenote’ is derived from the Mayan word d’zonot, meaning ‘well’. Cenotes were revered by the ancient Mayans, as they believed them to be the entrance to the underworld, called Xibalba, and that the god of rain, Chaac, lived at the bottom of these sacred wells. The Mayan people performed special rituals and ceremonies at cenotes to ask for rain and good crops. Inside cenotes archeologists and divers have found skeletons, bones and remains of animals, pottery and jade and gold ornaments. The cenotes are the only fresh water source in the area which contributed to the Mayan people being able to create such an expansive and successful civilization in this area of the world over a thousand years ago.
Crystal clear water, incredible light rays, stunning rock formations and indescribable haloclines, cenotes really are a special place to dive. As a scuba diver, we can have fresh water or salty ocean dives. Fresh water dives are usually in murky lakes, quarries, and riverbeds where the visibility doesn’t really warrant the best conditions for underwater
The hardest skill to master as a SCUBA diver is buoyancy control. That mid-water, floating-in-space, horizontal body position may look effortless, but learning to do it can be tricky and confusing. Buoyancy control is also the most important diving skill; in fact, it is the essence of diving, and a diver without buoyancy control is not really a diver at all. Buoyancy control means that you can place yourself exactly where you want when you’re underwater. You can achieve your intended depth and maintain it. You can ascend and descend calmly and efficiently. You can get close to the reef without touching it- no part of your fins, hands, face, or body ever make contact. Most importantly, you can “hover” in one place. This means that you don’t move significantly forward, backward, up or down. Hovering is the hardest of the buoyancy skills. It’s also critical for an underwater photographer. A photographer needs to hover to check the camera settings, frame a scene, get focus, and wait for the perfect shot. As an underwater photographer, your buoyancy will be tested to the extreme. A diver’s brain and body already have two tasks to manage (exploring the reef and controlling buoyancy); underwater photography adds a third, and the excitement and challenge of taking pictures often steals the spotlight. It’s not uncommon for an underwater photographer to crash into the reef, break coral, get stung by urchins, or float away from the group while focusing on the camera. These mistakes can injure both diver and reef. It’s easy to brush up against a venomous organism like a scorpionfish or hydroid (or worse) when you’re not paying attention. And from the reef’s perspective, a broken branch of coral is a big loss- coral only grows 5 centimeters per year, on average. Plus,
The hardest skill to master as a SCUBA diver is buoyancy control. That mid-water, floating-in-space, horizontal body position may look effortless, but learning to do it can be tricky and confusing. Buoyancy control is also the most important diving skill; in fact, it is the essence of diving, and a diver without buoyancy control is
