Scuba Diving Mexico’s Tajma Ha Cenote

Mexico’s Riviera Maya might be unique among scuba diving destinations in one respect: If the weather gods deny your ocean dive dreams, you can simply head inland to dozens of remarkable spots that also offer a unique scuba diving experience — cenotes, those crystal-clear pools held sacred by the Maya, for whom they were both mystical sites and sources of life-giving fresh water.

When winds turn uncooperative during a stay at Playa del Carmen’s uber-charming, luxe-rustic Mahekal Beach Resort, its on-site dive shop entrusts me to the excellent care of cave-diving instructor Mauro “Momo” Moro of Extreme Excursions.

We hop in Moro’s truck and take off down 307, the modern highway that links Cancun to Playa del Carmen to Tulum. Cenotes pepper the Yucatan, Moro tells me, an estimated 5,000 or more. “I have one in my garden,” he says with a smile. New ones can open at any time. Along the way, Moro pulls off on a short jungle track to show me newly opened Cenote Sagrada.

Access here is closely controlled — some of the most popular cenotes, which also are beloved as local swimming holes, can be overrun by as many as 250 snorkelers at a time. “No good for divers,” Moro says, shaking his head; happily, many cenotes are dive-only.

At a hand-painted billboard proclaiming Tajma Ha cenote about 50 miles south of Playa, Moro turns off 307 again onto a bumpy track that winds through dense greenery. About 2 miles down the track we came to a parking area with basic amenities — bathroom, changing area and a small hut with souvenirs — and a giant, detailed map of the cenote that’s anything but basic. Before we suit up we walk down a few stone steps to view the cenote. It’s an easy entry, and already filling up with new and experienced divers.

Using the map, Moro briefs me on how we will dive the cavern. The first 40 feet are freshwater, then you hit a salty halocline — Moro tells me there’s no direct connection between the sea and this cenote; salt filters through rock throughout Riviera Maya. Maximum depth in the cavern is about 50 feet. It’s really three cenotes connected underground — as many of them are — Tajma Ha, Sugar Bowl and Esmerelda. Viz is around 300 feet. “The real limitation,” Moro says of that stellar view, “is people kicking the silt on the floor.”

I’m instructed to keep 3 feet off the line we will follow — always visible — and to use my pull dumps, not inflator, to control buoyancy. Cenotes differ from ocean diving in that profiles by necessity have a lot of ups and downs, Moro says, which can affect some divers’ ability to equalize.

From the first minute we enter the first “room” underground, it’s breathtaking, and only gets more so as the dive progresses. The delicacy with which Earth can reshape itself — given enough time — is mind-blowing. Rock appears whipped like meringue; you can’t imagine what’s holding it all up. The answer — not much — is sometimes testified to by rubble on the bottom, with stalactites still evident below the slabs. These stalactites grow only about an inch in 100 years, Moro tells me, “so if you break one, it’s a tragedy.”

Silently traversing the mammoth rooms produces a feeling of awe very much like visiting a grand cathedral, moving from one “chapel” to the next through cloistered tunnels. The feeling of exploring this “inner space” is at once unnatural and exhilarating, as though you have truly slipped the bonds of man and entered the realm of the gods. Certainly the Maya thought so, and it’s easy to see why as you dive. Tajma Ha is renowned for the shafts of light that spectacularly illuminate the cenote at midday from March to September; this time the weather gods are kind, and the cenote’s “Points of Light” room does not disappoint.

Our second dive, along different lines laid out through more or less the same rooms, boasts ever-more-fanciful stalactite formations, including one like a giant pipe organ. Awe is the only word to express the feeling — that and a desire to become a fully certified cave diver ASAP, to continue to explore more mystical underwater spaces like this one.

WHAT IT TAKES

Good buoyancy is essential in cenote diving because of the delicate nature of many formations within the caverns. Ability to equalize easily and often also is a requirement because of up-and- down sawtooth dive profiles.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Mahekal Beach Resort is located on the beach blocks from Playa del Carmen’s lively 5th Avenue shopping and entertainment district; it offers a variety of accommodation styles from penthouse to bungalow, and garden-, beach- and pool-front rooms and casitas. Mahekal specializes in unique cuisines, wines, spirits and authentic experiences but is perhaps most distinguished by the warmth and care of its large staff, many of whom have worked for the resort for decades; you won’t be here long before you’re a member of the family too. Learn more at Mahekal Beach Resort.