Diving The Dos Ojos Cenote Dive Route 1
Cenote Dives 1 & 2 of 8 Cenote dives. Dos Ojos is the best known Cenote and is actually 2 Cenotes joined by a cavern so it’s 2 dives, 1 in each direction. It’s one of my 3 favorite dives as it has lots of decorations, great rooms and beams of light too. One side even has an enclosed bat cave.
In January 2019, I was lucky enough to return to the Yucatan Peninsula to dive 8 of my favorite Cenotes. Cenotes are underground caves or caverns where a part of the top has fallen in forming what looks like a sinkhole but is often linked by the caves to other cenotes. The caves were originally above ground when they formed and so some are incredibly decorated with stalactites, stalagmites, columns and all the beautiful speleothems (a structure formed in a cave by the deposition of minerals from water) you’d expect to find in a cave. But these caves or caverns are flooded and you can float up and get just inches from all the wonderful decorations. It’s an awesome experience. Think Carlsbad Caverns with giant rooms, great decorations but without the miles of walking, crowds of people or railings to keep you back from admiring the decorations.
Other Caverns are incredibly beautiful, actually breathtaking, because of the way light plays through openings above that are completely surrounded by jungle so they add a green ting and awesome moving beams of light that change as clouds and sun change the experience. It’s never exactly the same twice. And it’s a wonder to behold. Some Cenotes have both decorations and light beams others one or the other. Diving Cenotes is great.
Still other caverns have cool haloclines. A halocline is an area that you swim though in a cave where salt water meets fresh water. They don’t mix very much and so it causes a distortion. It’s still totally clear, but it’s like looking through somebody’s really strong glasses. It’s hard to see. It doesn’t photograph well, but it’s cool to swim through. Sometimes you can see the actual line where they meet and that’s cool too.
You’ll notice that most of my videos have a green tint. Yes the Cenotes are slightly on the green side, but I liked the color so I did enhance the color and sharpness. I used a super wide-angle lens on this trip that was so wide, even my new BigBlue, 160 degree, 15,000 lumen video light couldn’t fully cover the view. I used it anyway because it reproduced the feeling of the dives as I saw them. In the past I used a 24mm lens and it was wonderful for the detail of the decorations, but you didn’t get the feeling of drifting down into the tunnels, between rocks and so much more you experience in the caverns. Next time I’ll use 2 lights to widen the view.
Cenotes I Dived This Trip:
Dives 1 & 2. Dos Ojos.
Dive 3. Ponderosa
Dive 4. Dreamgate Cenote.
Dive 5. Calavera (Temple of Doom)
Dive 6. TAJMA HA (TAJMAHAL)
Dive 7 Carwash (AKTUN HA)
Dive 8. Hell's Bells (Cenote Zapote)
Пікірлер: 19
Amazing video
Cenote/Caverns in Riviera Maya are amazing! Thanks for the video!
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. We did this dude yesterday and it was spectacular. I had a GoPro, but my flashlight wasn’t enough to produce well-lit footage. You definitely had a good setup.
Great vid! I’m diving Dos Ojos next week, that was an awesome preview!
Very beautiful
Felicidades ala gente que vive serca de los cenotes dos ojos deberían de echar de todo tipo de pezcados en los cenotes saludos desde Jalisco México
Nice see my videos in the same cenote
Out of the 8 cenotes you dove... which 2 would you recommend? I only have time to dive 2-3. thanks!
@DrewAKaplan
3 жыл бұрын
Hi, The cenotes are really awesome. Dos Ojos (which can be two dives as there are two ways to go and Dreamgate are the best. Also if you have time, it's a long way to go, Hells Bells is the most exciting. But it's deep and you need to be fairly advanced to visit. It's not hard, just deeper and a long way off. Enjoy. I wish I was going with you.
Made my first attempt at cenote videography today and you beat me hands down! I read that you used. 24mm lens and a 15000 lumen light. What camera? I was using an Olympus point and shoot with a pair of 1500 lumen lights on a mount
@DrewAKaplan
Ай бұрын
Loved diving the Cenotes. If you're there, try to do Hells Bells, it's awesome and if they've opened Pet Cemetery it's wonderful too. But Dos Ojos is great. I only use an Olympus TG-5 (now 6), so just a point and shoot. I have A Sony RX100 V and VII, but they can overheat on long dives so I use the Olympus which normally I use for MACRO. Enjoy. Wish I was there with you.
@MorganBrown
Ай бұрын
@@DrewAKaplan Interesting, I also have a TG-6. It does pretty well in full sunlight, but not as well in these conditions: kzread.info/dash/bejne/qmV5udSygNrJkaQ.html It's pretty clear that lack of light was my limiting constraint here. I will look into buying one of these "Big Blues" for the cenotes. We came to Cancun on this trip for the reef dives, and we got one done on Thursday April 25, but they closed the harbor due to wind. And honestly, it was unpleasantly rough on the drive to MUSA and Atlantis Reef, but I got some OK video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/haKI17tsgpTflsY.html I think I still could have benefitted from a stronger light. Any tips you are willing to share would be appreciated. Your videos are a clinic!!!
@DrewAKaplan
Ай бұрын
@@MorganBrown Hi Morgan, I watched both your videos. Looks like you had a great time. You have good instincts. Two things you might do. Especially in the cave, is it possible the camera wasn't set on auto-focus? It really looked like a focus issue rather than just not enough light. Try shooting full auto and auto focus. It's happened to me, so it could be you didn't see it underwater. Also for both videos, slow down your camera movements. Move at 1/4 the speed you think that would look good. Even if you have to move to catch something, move really slow, or edit out any movements between good shots. Then all will be perfect. I really do believe that the issue in the cenote was a camera focus issue, not you.
@MorganBrown
Ай бұрын
@@DrewAKaplan To be honest, I can't guarantee the focus settings. I've hardly ever used that camera previously, and with the waterproof housing (and my farsightedness!), it's even more difficult. I completely agree with the part about moving too quickly. I was turning the video on and off. I bought a 1 TB card, so am hoping just to leave the camera on for the entire dive, so I can focus on moving smoothly. I also got a pair of 10,000 lumen lights, so that can't hurt! 😂The best part about sucking as a videographer is that I "have to" go back underwater to improve!
Watch the bubbles going up at 50 seconds in, they become a shapely pair legs and feet rising into the ceiling.
@FADn12641
3 жыл бұрын
WOW
How much of this is cavern vs cave?
@clarkeysam
3 жыл бұрын
@Vincent submarinismo hmm I'm not sure that definition is correct!
@MorganBrown
Ай бұрын
If you look at the sign at the entrance, only a very small amount of the cenote is considered a "cave", and I don't think any of the marked lines are in the "cave". Most of the cenote is considered "cavern". I think we always had at least 8 feet of vertical clearance.