Spirit and Adventure: Diving at Akumal (Second Half)

Sunday, 30 November 2025

Diving at Akumal (Second Half)

After taking a day off, our first dives back were at Cenote Dos Ojos. Cenotes are rated on a scale from 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest). Our dives were rated 1 and 2. Both were, at most, within 200m of an opening where you could surface. The first dive, "Barbie Line", was “roomier” and you didn’t have to worry so much about hitting something. The second dive, you had to be more on top of your buoyancy control to avoid getting too close to the formations and risk damaging them. Also on the second dive we surfaced for a few minutes in the “Bat Cave” which was aptly named because there were bats.

The water was crystal clear but, annoyingly, my mask was fogging up badly, so I didn’t get the full effect of the clear water.

The cenote formations under water were quite spectacular. Since I really didn’t know exactly what we were getting into, I didn’t take my camera. Between my mask fogging and trying to be very careful, it was one less thing to be stressed about. On top of that, as beautiful as the experience was, it reaffirmed my belief that I’m not fond of enclosed spaces!

Eduardo giving a briefing on diving in the cenotes.

Our last two days, we started earlier in the morning and did a deep dive (max. 30m) and then a second shallow dive. The deeper reef seemed to be a lot healthier with larger formations and more fish, which makes sense as it doesn’t get as much diver traffic.

We again saw lots of turtles, some sharks – a couple reef sharks and a quick glimpse of a rarer bull shark (Eduardo said that’s just the second one he’s seen here), spotted lobster (much more colorful!), sting rays, a huge barracuda, and much more!