Cave Diving

As with all cave speleothems, the underwater speleothems in the Yucatán Peninsula are fragile. If a diver accidentally breaks off a stalactite from the ceiling or other speleothem formation, it will not reform as long as the cave is underwater so active cave conservation diving techniques are paramount.
In plan form, the Quintana Roo caves are extremely complex with anastomotic interconnected passages. When cave diving through the caves, the pathways then appear to have many offshoots and junctions, requiring careful navigation with permanent tees or the implementation of jumps in the guideline.
The beginning of the 1980s brought the first cave divers from the U.S. to the Yucatán Peninsula, Quintana Roo (Q.Roo) to explore cenotes such as Carwash, Naharon and Maya Blue, but also to central Mexico where resurgence rivers such as Rio Mante, sinkholes such as Zacaton were documented.
In the Yucatán, the 1980s ended with the discoveries of the Dos Ojos and Nohoch Nah Chich cave systems which lead into a long ongoing competition of which exploration team had the longest underwater cave system in the world at the time, with both teams vying for first place.