Ponderosa Cavern Dive Yucatan

Dos Ojos Cenote
Yucatan, Mexico

Image Gallery

Dive 1 - The Bat Cave
Depth: 24 feet
Run Time: 47 minutes

Dive 2 - The Alligator
Depth: 30 feet
Run Time: 48 minutes

Water temps: 78 F fresh water for both, June

Dos Ojos, made famous by an IMAX production, is the best known of the cavern systems accessible to recreational cavern divers in the Akumal area, and the vanloads of eager divers descending on the site are a testament to that. When I visited, there were no facilities for divers at Dos Ojos, but mayan-style toilets were under construction.

It’s a wild ride in from the highway (entrance about 40 minutes south of Playa): ten minutes of lurching painful and slow progress to a parking lot. From there it is a short walk down a decent path to the edge of the cenote. I would rate ease of entry and exit an 8.

Hidden Worlds also have their own special entry to the caverns via The Bat Cave. However, you don’t need to do the Hidden Worlds gig to experience The Bat Cave, unless you are a stickler for descending down a vertiginous ladder through a small hole in the ground to a platform at the water’s edge where you gear up. (Don’t worry, they lower your tanks on a pulley). You can visit The Bat Cave as one of two cavern dives from the Dos Ojos cenote, the other being The Alligator. I didn’t ask how it came to be named that because I didn’t want to know, but I do know for sure that I saw b-b-bats in The Bat Cave :^) It makes for an easy two tank cavern dive day, whether you are making the journey from Cozumel, or staying in Cancun or on the Riviera Maya.

One thing of note is that both of the dives at Dos Ojos are very dark. The caverns themselves are fairly spacious, and even where there was no light, I could see dry caves above the surface, but lack of natural light may make some divers uncomfortable. If in doubt, I'd stay out.

The entry to Dos Ojos cenote. The tables are reserved for divers diving double tank set ups. Besides the cavern dives offered here, there are also entrances to cave systems, and so you may see technical divers getting in the pond with you. There is a very sobering sign at the entrance to the cave system with skull and crossbones. I think they mean it.

Claudia the cavern guide shows her good form in Dos Ojos cenote. This kind of diving requires fins up propulsion - normal dive kick patterns will create huge updrafts of fine limestone silt, which in turn can cause whiteout conditions, which in turn means you may lose sight of your guide. All not good.

Those two light holes in the background are the two eyes, (dos ojos in Spanish), each of which leads to a separate cavern system to explore with your guide. You got it about the guide, right? Only a fool would attempt to dive these caverns unguided, untrained in technical cavern diving.

Dos Ojos had some very beautiful decorations, but not many large rooms.

These ancient formations were caused by ground water depositing leachate over the millenia.

More gnarly formations. They are very delicate and great care should be taken not to make contact with them. Once knocked off, they can never grow back.