Aktun Ha, meaning water cave in Maya, also known as Carwash, lays less than 15m from the side of the road. Supposedly taxi drivers used to wash their cars here, from where its nickname.
Since the discovery of its cavern and cave system, the cenote has become a popular tourist attraction. There’s a changing hut and restrooms, besides very practical wooden tables for gearing up. A wooden platform and stairs allow for easy entry and exit. Both the open water area and cavern zone are an ideal training and skills review ground.
At first sight the cenote is nothing more than a pool of not very inviting greenish water, surrounded by the typical low Yucatan jungle. The water’s color is due to microscopic algae that reduce visibility in the upper 3m to nearly zero. Below that however, the water becomes crystal clear and noticeably cooler. This green algae bloom, not present during the colder winter months, adds a lot to the cenote’s ancient and mysterious atmosphere.
As soon as one jumps in, dozens of hungry little fish form an inquisitive escort, a real hunting party that seldom relents before the end of the dive, following the diver all the way into the cave and back, looking for an easy caught meal of helpless tiny cave creatures caught in the dive light’s merciless beam.
The bottom of the pool, at 5m, is easily stirred up by careless fins, so watch your step. The entrance to the upstream cavern zone is partially obstructed by fallen trees. The branches of which form a perfect spot for a first tie off of the mandatory guideline.
As one enters, little is visible at first, but as the eyes slowly adjust to the twilight, the cavern’s great hall seems to grow bigger, the rock-strewn bottom dips down to 18m and large ancient stalactites loom out of its gaping void.
In the back, where the floor rises up again to about 9m, a sturdy column seems to support the whole ceiling. Behind it, past the no nonsense warning sign: "Stop! Prevent your death! Do not dive further unless cave trained.", several thinner columns of joined stalactites and stalagmites decorate the low chamber, which lead the knowledgeable cave diver deeper into the cave, away from the last faint glow of daylight.
A lonely catfish seems to patrol the area where the main line starts. Once well within the cave, it is not uncommon to see the white almost translucent ghost fish here, or even a shrimp scurrying away on some of the silt slopes.
The main line leads to Adriana’s beautifully decorated room. Before getting that far, it is also possible to do a side jump through a narrow tunnel to the Crystal Palace and the famous Room of Tears.
No matter how fantastic the cave, it is always a magical moment, when near the end of the dive, after an hour or more in darkness, one slowly returns back into the daylight. This is especially true for Aktun Ha, whether the light is tinted misty green by the algae cloud or not, the view out is always fabulous.
A couple of colder nights is all it takes to totally clear up the cenote’s open water area, and this allows one to check out the pool’s edges for the many fresh water turtles living here. If lucky you might even spot a small alligator at the water’s edge, warming up in the sun, floating around like a log or even slowly snaking its way around underwater. I’ve also seen a diving duck here in the past, speeding through the water like a torpedo.
