Aktun Ha Cenote (Car Wash)

Aktun Ha, commonly called Car Wash, is a cenote near Tulum in Quintana Roo, part of the extensive cenote system of the Yucatan Peninsula. The name comes from local taxi drivers who once used the open pool to rinse their cars before it became a dive and snorkel site. It offers both open water swimming above a lily-covered surface and cavern and cave lines below, with clear fresh water giving way to a halocline where fresh and saline layers meet. Visibility is often very good in the open pool, though silt can reduce it quickly in the cave passages if divers are careless with buoyancy. The accessible cavern area reaches a maximum depth of around 18 metres and is rated a beginner dive, while the full cave systems extend much further and require cave certification and more advanced skills.

Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.

• Green Sea TurtleChelonia mydasReported here · unconfirmed