Diving into Heaven at El Pit in Tulum, Mexico
The blog title might sound overly ambitious -- "Diving into Heaven"?! I also was skeptical when someone told me about El Pit, a cenote near Tulum, Mexico. But I can honestly say, the best dive of my life was here at El Pit -- I will never forget what the feeling was like.
I don't think that scuba diving in cenotes (caves) are for everyone. They are dark, cramped, there is little to no life to see, and if you are not careful you can get turned around and potentially lost. For the last reason alone, I would only go with a very by the book, conservative dive operator. We happened to come across Phocea Dive Shop in Playa Del Carmen and I would highly recommend them. They have newer equipment and experienced dive instructors who know the cenotes extremely well.
El Pit is an advanced dive only since the initial drop is 100ft straight down. Since most divers plan their deepest dive first, El Pit is busy in the morning. Our dive guide recommended that instead we dive Dos Ojos in the morning, max depth of 24ft and El Pit in the afternoon. He explained that El Pit is the best when the sun is overhead so that the rays of light stream through the opening and really light up the cavern. I would also speculate that he wanted to assess our diving ability since this is the first time we met him.
The opening of El Pit, look at those stairs!!
After a successful dive at Dos Ojos, we headed to El Pit and we were lucky, there was no one there! El Pit is off limits to snorkelers so that really cuts down on the crowds as well. We suited up with all of our gear and walked down these extremely steep steps to this platform where we were instructed to get all of our equipment ready to jump in and inflate our BCDs. We were warned that we need to be careful not to drop any of our equipment since the initial drop is deep.
We jumped in with all of our gear on and inflated our BCDs, when everyone was ready to go, we deflated our BCDs and descended. At around 50ft we hit the halocline. The halocline occurs when there is a mixture of saltwater and freshwater and the result is about 10ft of blurriness.
As you get closer to the bottom, you see this white substance, which I later learned is a sulfur cloud surrounding a tree! Yes, you read it right -- a tree! It is, of course, dead but the trunk and branches still remain. If you think about it, it is truly mind blowing -- it means that a long time ago when the cenote was not yet filled with water life had grown and existed in these caves. All of this sounds kind of creepy but in reality, it is one of the most serene experiences I have ever had and it was in that moment that I understood why people told me that it was like "diving into heaven".
Of course at that depth we didn't have too much bottom time so after we descended we moved on to the cavern that was directly on the side of the opening. The side cavern is dark but there is a large boulder like structure in the middle of it. We did a once around loop looking at all the stalactites and stalagmites, but the real beauty is that it gave us another look at the opening of the cavern. The sunlight was streaming down through the water, illuminating the sulfur cloud and the tree -- it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Unfortunately pictures cannot do it justice. You really have to see the video:
Or better yet, go experience it for yourself!
Side note: The cavern has another entrance to another cavern which is MUCH deeper and a favorite for technical divers. Of course, it was off limits to recreational divers.
