Today I had a very exciting day off.  The unknown cenote exploration!!! 

My cave instructor has been here in Playa del Carmen for about 20 years and teaching cave courses at his own dive center. He is not only teaching courses but he is also an explorer. He has worked with some archaeological research projects and discovered some animal bones such as massive ground sloths from Ice Age!!!  

This exploration is also requested by a local who owns this property where the cenote is located. Luckily he invited me to join his team this time!!!

As we were told that we would walk in the jungle for about half an hour to get to the cenote, we hired some sherpas to carry our hearvy diving gears and tanks. 

They are really in good shape and walk so fast !!!!  It looks like those double tanks and big box don't weigh anything for them. They even made a couple of trips between the entrance and the cenote.  WOW!!  

After hiking in the jungle for a while...... 

Ta-da!   This beautiful cenote appeared right in front of our eyes!

Now, get ready to dive!!   But....  it is not easy task.  Unlike well structured other cenotes such as Dos Ojos, Chac Mool and so on where we usually take our divers out, there is no steps, no deck for the tanks , no nothing!  

It requires good team work. Everyone helps each other.  ( My role is taking pictures!  Ha! )

Finally ready to dive.  Big Juuummmmppp! 

Well... I am afraid of height.  I got down to the water through the big tree leaning on the wall of the cenote. 

No one has dove this cenote before. This is our first diving here. We didn't go wild and decided to stay shallow to check out the topography. The first 1m/3ft on the surface is green and murky due to algea then after that the water gets really clear. This cenote is sink-hole type just like "Cenote Angelita" and "El Pit". But not really big and deep like those two. As you see the picture above, this cenote has good size of open area. The center area is not deep at all, less than 10m/30ft. 

We stayed shallower than 20m/60ft and swam along the wall to look for any tunnels. No luck...   There were some big overhang area ( cavern area) and found huge stalactites that was approximately 10m/30ft long!!! The silhouette of the stalactites with green water in the background was really beautiful. Also there was the area of white cloud hydrogen sulfide layer. 

This was our first diving in this cenote with no information. We were looking forward to discovering some tunnels but we didn't.  Who knows, maybe some tunnels in much deeper area in this cenote....  We might find out next time!