Diving Cenote Maravilla- with Freedivers

See the video of this dive on my YouTube channel!

Cenote Maravilla is located in the Yucatan Jungle along the Rutas de Los Cenotes. It is a very large cenote, shaped like the bottom of an hourglass. Sunlight shines through the opening with instense beams of light. This cenote is popular with freedivers because of the beams of light and depth. A thick haze of hydrogen sulfide lies at the bottom glowing eerily and undulating.

I dove Maravilla with dive guide David from Blue Life along with Mia and Michaela. This was our 2nd dive of the day after Zapote (Hell’s Bells). It’s about 15min from Hell’s Bells

As I start to descend I can see a freediver rising through the sun beams. I’m happy to have these freedivers here but they are probably not happy to have us scuba divers around.

We circle the circumference of this hourglass shaped cenote. This one has a really wide circumference.

We are hugging the sidewall of the cavern. There’s not much other than a large underground void that looks like a sea. So enchanting! That is the charm and ‘personality’ of this cenote.

I look out across the way and see the hydrogen sulfide cloud. It’s this hazy mist that is glowing and undulating as I stare out through the void. I’m captivated by the vastness. You can just see the thin line of the freediver’s guideline. The light beam is not as strong now so I’m guessing there’s a cloud over head.

I steer my gaze upwards to capture some imagery of the cenote opening. I can see the steps and a couple of freedivers floating at the surface. For a moment I forget about exploring the wall of this cavern and just want to stare outward.

A few moments later I watch the freedivers descend then ascend as the light beam got stronger. They must have been poised, ready for the light beam to appear. It’s a magical ascension.

It’s basically one guy who did the full down and up and he had a couple guide watchers. I watched him till he reached the surface OK. My camera was able to get some good imagery of this.

I look at my buddies and it seems we all stopped to watch this freediver.

I don’t know how much of the interior wall we did but I’m sure it was not all of it. It’s just too big.

I film this catfish just before popping my head above water.

I’m thinking I have some good footage from this dive. The freediving event in particular since there was enough light.

This is my last dive in Mexico. Sad, after doing 4 cenote dives I still crave more.

I welcome your inputs!