There is a lot to be said about Cenote diving and in recent years it has become a bucket list item for anyone looking for a unique dive. Quintana Roo is by far the most popular holiday destination in Mexico and Latin America with 30 million passengers arriving at Cancun International airport in 2022. It would be difficult to say that this is the perfect spot for an off-the-beaten path experience but being a true local and being born here I have not only learnt to skip the crowds, I also can easily predict best times of day for visiting the Cenotes and other attractions depending on the season, and have at hand great escape plans for those who like to experience nature away from the busy roads.
In fact, I know Quintana Roo well, but I also lived in the neighboring state of Yucatan. Not to be confused with the Yucatan Peninsula itself which is composed of three whole states (Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Campeche). During my university studies, I lived in the city of Merida. A colonial hub founded in 1542. What does this have to do with diving? Well, the location of Merida is privileged when it comes to cenotes, it is estimated that eight thousand cenotes are located in that state only. And they are quite different than anything you’ve seen on a holiday brochure from Quintana Roo.
Access to the cenotes in Yucatan is usually through private land, often next to or within the ruins of abandoned buildings that belonged to Hacienda grounds. The Haciendas were estates founded and owned by the Spanish during the Viceroyalty in the 16th century. As productive enterprises, the Haciendas needed and used water from the aquifer to conduct their business in textile, plantations, cattle, etc. Water was extracted from the ground as it is the only source of fresh water in the Yucatan Peninsula, and the “Noria” was the man made structure that allowed them to wheel the water out of the well. These wells have since been accessed by divers and complex systems of caves have been found and explored.
What can we find diving in a Noria?
First, we can find cave systems with horizontal development that differ to the cenotes and caves from Quintana Roo in temperature (fresh water is warmer in this region at around 28 degrees celsius), the depth is usually quickly down to 30+ meters, and a lot of the dives are preferably conducted on Trimix with average depths of 35m to 45m.
Another distinctive feature of the caves in Yucatan is the darker colored walls together with incredible cracked clay floors that tile the bottom surface along the collapses.
We can find human artifacts from the 16th century, sometimes machinery (wheels, chains, pulleys), wooden buckets, and the sort. And we can come across animal skeletons such as cows, horses and sheep that may be more recent but still add an exotic touch to the dive. Older artifacts from the Maya times such as pots can also be found scattered around, often times in perfect condition and still half way buried in the sediment.
Human bones are also found in these caverns, and it is impossible for the untrained eye to conclude at first sight if these date from the 16th century (and are related to the life in the Hacienda) or from before. Could they be related to the Maya culture? Yes, they could, and in some cases you can see skull deformation and teeth embellishments or modifications.
Dating even further back, you can also find interesting fossils in these caves such as shells, urchins, and even shark teeth from the times when the sea level was much higher than today and the Yucatan Peninsula hadn’t been exposed by the drop of sea level.
Taking a trip to the Yucatan is a trip in time, the sleepy villages tell stories on their own, you can sit down at the end of a dive day and drink Horchata on a park bench watching people pass by, enjoy a unique Antojitos dinner with the locals, eat fresh fruit from a mango tree, and plan the next day. Merida is an excellent base to get to know these off the beaten path spots. Providing both a convenient location for diving and a city full of food, culture and history, the also known as White City, will leave you feeling you only began to scratch the surface at the end of a trip.
---
Images courtesy of Mekan Photography
Written by Tamara Adame
Tamara is a self taught underwater naturalist from Puerto Morelos, Mexico. She has spent most of her life around water and is an Open Water Scuba Instructor and cave diving guide. She holds a BSc in Communication and a Scientific Diving diploma which has allowed her to work in environmental conservation projects and motivated her to launch the Cave Corals Project in 2020.
