Taj Mahal

Marina El Cid     Whale Sharks     Bat Cave     Dos Ojos     Kukulkan

Chac Mool     Ponderosa     Angelita     Grand Cenote     Dive Mexico     Puerto Aventures

Dream Gate     Tankah


			Taj Mahal





	As Ricardo briefed us before the dive, he said Taj is his favorite dive of the area cenotes. There are some magnificent formations in Taj and I regret I could not get shots of them. I purchased a new strobe prior to the trip and tested it thoroughly. It worked beautifully. However, it never fired a single shot once I reached Quintana Roo, so, all the shots in this article are shot with natural light, and I had to sacrifice everything deeper inside.






	There are several types of Iguanas indigent to the area including this Frilled Iguana.


	Even back deeper inside the cavern there are areas where light shines through small openings in the ceiling and it’s possible to get photos anyway. Some are very dramatic like the light column which stands 15 feet tall.




		There are many places where the surface of the water is visible inside air pockets and often you can see dramatic reflections off the underside of the water. Sometimes they even look like you are seeing the sky.

There is a large collapsed dome where the entire roof has fallen in and it makes a nice rest stop where you can come up and inflate your bc and rest for awhile. As we floated and chatted, a Basilisk about two feet long either jumped into the opening or fell into the water. He was surely as surprised as we were and promptly swam over to some tree roots hanging down to the water, and climbed back up. The reflection of what appears a pile of rubble is just that and is the detritus from the collapsed roof reflecting in the surface.

I think the reason Ricardo likes this cavern best is areas like the two pictures below. These are places where there is a hole to the surface for sunlight to come through and as it reflects off the water’s surface it causes some dramatic lighting effects. When I was looking at these two pictures, I noticed something quite strange about them. When I flipped them ove upside down, they looked like a lake inside a dry cave. On the left are the pictures as they really are and on the right they’ve been flipped.


	Taj has many areas of formations and beautiful draperies as well as the conch fossils found in most cenotes, but, again, I was limited by the lack of a strobe.