COZUMEL & AREA DIVE SITES

Cozumel | Cancun / Isla Mujeres | Mainland Caverns | Mainland Reefs

Paradise Reef

Depth: 20 to 50 feet
Skill Level: Novice
Even though it's become an environmental battleground, Paradise Reef is one of Cozumel's most popular second-tank and night dives, full of shallow patch reefs and a medium-depth ridge of brain corals, sea fans and sponges. At night, look for octopuses, spotted eels and endemic toadfish.

Chankanaab Caves

Depth: 35 feet
Skill Level: Novice
Just south of the beach at Chanka-naab Park, cold fresh water flows out of an L-shaped cave in the limestone coast. Stay in ambient light as you elbow your way past big tarpon and through mobs of glassy sweepers beneath the 'green mirror,' a halocline band of salt water riding on a clear layer of fresh water.

Tormentos

Depth: 50 to 70 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate
Ride Cozumel's fastest currents on a speed dive over coral pinnacles topped with brain and whip corals. Joining you on the flight are snapper, grunts and beefy grouper. Drop down into a lee behind a coral head and you'll find plenty of macro subjects.

Punta Tunich

Depth: 50 to 130 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
From a sand bottom at 70 feet, a rolling ridge of corals rises from snowy-white sand dunes at the top of the wall. Big grouper, playful green moray eels and lobster populate ledges and overhangs.

Santa Rosa Wall

Depth: 30 to 130 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate
Sail over a jagged fence of coral heads, down the lip of the wall and into the deep blue chasm. Ride the current until you reach a series of swim-throughs at the northern end. Keep an eye on the channel where pelagic eagle rays and turtles occasionally swim by.

Cedar Pass

Depth: 35 to 60 feet
Skill Level: Novice to Intermediate
Massive black groupers mob you the second you enter the water. It's a fast drift over coral heads that boast swim-through tunnels jammed with glassy sweepers and ledges sheltering large green moray eels.

Palancar Horseshoe and Gardens

Depth: 25 to 130 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate
Tall heads of brain, star and sheet corals line the wall like sentry towers. As you head over the wall, gorgonians branch out like fishing nets and bush-like green and black corals grow in abundance.

Punta Sur

Depth: 80 to 130 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
With wide tunnels and cavernous rooms lit by natural skylights, Punta Sur is a favorite dive of Cozumel veterans. Devil's Throat is the famous underwater subway tunnel that takes you from the top of the wall at 80 feet through a sun-dappled ballroom and deposits you in the channel at 130 feet where eagle rays and sharks occasionally cruise.

Maracaibo Deep

Depth: 90 to 150 feet
Skill Level: Advanced to Expert This southernmost reef is exposed to current and topside surf and is a favorite of advanced divers. The wall starts at 90 feet and is covered with black corals, orange elephant ear sponges and broad sheet corals, sharks, rays and loggerhead turtles cruise the channel.

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Cancun/Isla Mujeres

Aristo

Depth: 50 to 60 feet
Skill Level: Novice to Intermediate
A current-swept coral arena surrounds a bowl of snowy-white sand. Wherever there's a ledge, you'll find schools of grunts, snapper or goatfish by the hundreds.

Horseshoe

Depth: 60 feet
Skill Level: Novice to Intermediate
Crisscrossing the current, you'll bounce from one patch of coral to the next, each with its own resident mob of grunts, crinoids or porkfish.

Ultra Freeze

Depth: 100 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate
Located in exposed water west of Isla Mujeres, this cargo ship rests in a mixing zone of warm currents from the south and cold Gulf of Mexico currents from the north. Look for Atlantic spadefish, big grey angelfish and pelagics.

Tulum

Depth: 125 feet
Skill Level: Advanced
Only recently discovered, this 200-foot cargo ship is covered by white telesto coral. Ready for swells and current? You won't mind once you're headed down through schools of bar jacks and barracuda.

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Mainland Caverns

Ponderosa

Depth: 60 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
The oval-shaped pool of this freshwater cavern is 200 feet long, 70 feet across and infinitely clear as it funnels you into a 100-foot-long tunnel dripping with foot-long stalactites. The tunnel leads to a second cenote where you'll pause with wonder at the limestone formations.

Temple of Doom

Depth: 60 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
With an Indiana Jones-style flourish, you jump off a 10-foot ledge at the edge of this cenote and splash into a sombrero-shaped cone. A swim around the hat's brim at 60 feet is a tour of a multilevel maze of cave formations, boulders and stalactites dripping from the blanched white limestone.

El Grand Cenote

Depth: 40 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
From the center island of this massive sinkhole, you dive past a field of lily pads and beneath a canopy of rock that's also popular with snorkelers. Divers plunge into a Mayan ballroom of stalagmites, stalactites and columns as thick as trees to a maze of white rock formations and boulders.

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Mainland Reefs

Paraiso Shallow

Depth: 50 to 70 feet
Skill Level: Novice
Located just a few hundred yards outside the pass at Puerto Aventuras, an aggregation of coral patches that rise 20 to 30 feet from the sand bottom are a popular medium-depth dive that splits the difference between Cozumel's coral spires and Cancun's abundant fish.

CEDAM Caves

Depth: 45 feet
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
You'll have plenty of bottom time to explore this fish-rich patch reef that's hollowed out with mini-tunnels and grouper holes. You'll find plenty of rare and elusive spotted drum here, as well as glassy sweepers. During nesting season, it's a great place to spot turtles.

Paamul Mini Wall

Depth: 90 to 130 feet
Skill Level: Advanced
This deep mini-wall is a rarely visited treat between Puerto Aventuras and Playa Del Carmen. Look for nurse sharks, lobster and moray eels, and keep an expectant eye on the open water for pelagic fish, sharks and turtles.