Casa Cenote

Casa Cenote, also known as Cenote Manatee, sits near Tankah Bay on the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo, close to Tulum. It is an open lagoon-style cenote connected to a mangrove system and to the sea, so it mixes fresh and salt water and has a noticeable halocline in places. It reaches a maximum depth of around 12 metres, is rated a beginner dive, and has no current, with visibility generally described as great. Divers move through sunlit sections following tree roots and rock formations rather than tight cave passage, though it remains an overhead environment and some areas hold fragile formations, so care with buoyancy and a guide familiar with the site are standard practice. Sea turtles are a regular sighting here, and divers have also reported snapper and even dugong in the area.

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

• Sea turtleSea turtleConfirmed present · 2 independent sources
• Slippery DickHalichoeres bivittatusReported here · unconfirmed
• Crested GobyLophogobius cyprinoidesReported here · unconfirmed
• Green Sea TurtleChelonia mydasReported here · unconfirmed
• Caribbean Land Hermit CrabCoenobita clypeatusReported here · unconfirmed
• DugongDugongReported here · unconfirmed
• SnapperSnapperReported here · unconfirmed