As many of you know, we're finally back to the water, back to our beloved ocean, and we have to say, diving in Akumal is just beautiful these days, one can appreciate that not a lot of people have been messing around in the ocean during quarantine. However, today we decided to share with you one of the most memorable dives you can get around the Mayan Riviera and perhaps the entire world.
Come join us on our most recent journey to Cenote Angelita where we went diving last week with a couple of really good divers who visited it for the first time, verdict... BEST DIVE EVER
A 40 minutes ride from our diveshop in Akumal is necessary to get to this one of a kind dive. Angelita is spanish for "little angel", and that's just the beginning of the mysticism around this dive site.
Angelita is not the typical Cenote Dive, no big stalagmites or stalactites, no big chambers or ups and downs, just a genuine 60m / 200ft drop into an incredible adventure.
We get there around 9 am and luckily there are not many divers at Angelita. Only the jungle around you with all its smells and sounds, gives you this primitive feeling, reminding you that you are a part of nature.
Once our gear is set, and we're ready for the dive we get down to this little deck, final preparations and off we go, our cenote dive begins...
First meters going down, we're a group of three, my two partners on this adventure have never been there, as for myself, I have been there a couple of times already but will never get tired of visiting this place. As we keep descending visibility seems rather poor, if it wasn't for our torches we maybe won't tell where the rest of the group is, and then suddenly, that first layer is gone, and we find ourselves hovering in crystal clear water, so transparent it makes you feel like flying.
Once you feel that nice weightless sensation and start looking around, Angelita's highlight pops to your eyes, the "bottom" is this thick Hydrogen Sulfide cloud that lays at around 27m / 90ft depth. Now you're not only flying, you're flying over the clouds, and in the middle of them, an island, like taken out from a fairy tale, a pile of sediment and branches just sticking out from this white smoky cloud underneath us!
If you're following the picture then you may be having the image in your head, three divers, crystal clear water that seems to not be there at all, and this vaporous bottom making you wonder if you're ready to keep going down. We had planned this dive exactly that way, we were going down Angelita's cloud, so you take a deep breathe, make sure your buddies are fine and continue your journey down.
Little by little misty becomes smoky and smoky becomes dense, you can feel a different taste in your mouth, you're in the middle of Angelita's cloud, but don't you think for a second it's pitch black in here, there's a vivid experience of colours as you descend through it, from the greenish blues of the top, to the reds and yellows as you're approaching 30m/100ft deep. Then suddenly you find yourself in a very different place, just a couple of metres deeper, once crystal clear water is now yellow and reddish due to plant decompostion, there's no light unless you are using a torch, and things seem to happen at a faster pace.
Everytime I come back to Angelita this surroundings make me think of why the Mayans believed that Cenotes were the underworld, its mystic flair transports you to a completely different environment and maybe a different time altogether.
As planned, we start ascending through the cloud again, we don't want to risk decompression, and then again another impression catches your eye when you see your buddies emerging from the cloud, it feels like coming back from "the other side¨. As minutes go by, you start getting more used to this unique underwater cavern and you start discovering more of it. The ascend is a spiral around it's walls which gives you many different angles of this magnificent view underneath you, you'll notice the cracks in the walls, some of them deep enough to fit a group of people, if you know where to look, you may even find a couple of fossils that have been there for tenths of thousands of years.
When you surface after a Cenote Dive at Angelita you won't be the same, every person comes out with a different state of mind. I've heard many, some say it's the most mind challenging thing they've done, some others say it's too alien. Personally, Angelita reminds me of what brought me to diving in the first place: being able to see things that not everyone can see and remembering how magnificent this planet is.
Cenote Angelita is one of those places that make you understand how little we know about our world, how small we are, and at the same time, how lucky we divers are for being able to see, live, and breathe where most people haven't.
Dive safe!
