Ponderosa and Tajma Ha Cenote Diving from Playa del Carmen

The experience

Why Ponderosa and Tajma Ha belong on the same day

Ponderosa earns its other name. El Edén is a wide, open pool with jungle on every side, where the shallows are full of small fish and freshwater turtles and the sun reaches all the way to the rock. The cavern line runs along the wall of the pool rather than into the dark, so daylight stays with you, and the halocline here is one of the finest in the region: a rippling, oily curtain where fresh and salt water meet. It is also a lovely place to linger after the dive, and non diving companions can snorkel while you are down.

Tajma Ha is the photographer’s cenote, and yes, the name is a play on the Taj Mahal. One line takes you through decorated rooms, deep blue passages and more than one halocline to the Sugar Bowl, a chamber where the sun angles spotlight beams into the darkness on a bright day. It asks a little more of your trim than Ponderosa, which is why we dive it second, once everyone has settled into fresh water.

The two dives

Dive 1: Ponderosa (El Edén)

We start in the open pool, drop through the sunlit shallows and follow the guideline along the rock wall of the cenote. The route stays within sight of the surface for most of the dive, passes a decorated section beneath the overhang and reaches the halocline in the deeper part of the loop. It is an easy, bright dive with plenty of life for a fresh water site, and the ideal way to get your buoyancy dialled in before Tajma Ha.

Dive 2: Tajma Ha

A short drive brings you to a smaller, quieter entrance and a very different dive. The line leads through rooms hung with stalactites, across passages that turn a deep blue where daylight filters in from side openings, and through a halocline or two before the Sugar Bowl, where beams of sunlight fall through the opening above like stage lights. Your guide keeps the pace slow: the formations are close, the light changes every few metres, and there is a lot to look at.

Who Ponderosa and Tajma Ha is for

• Open Water divers who want an easy cenote and a decorated one in the same morning
• Photographers who want a halocline, blue passages and the Sugar Bowl beams on one memory card
• Groups with non diving partners or children who can snorkel at Ponderosa while you dive
• Divers working up to the delicate sites such as Dreamgate, because Tajma Ha is the perfect rehearsal

Advanced Open Water is not required. If you have not dived for a while, tell us when you book and we plan a gentle first dive or a reef refresher the day before. Not certified yet? The Open Water course is the starting point.