Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · cave · The Quintana Roo cenotes

🇲🇽 Cenote Aktun Ha (Car Wash)

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico · part of Sistema Aktun Ha

"Water cave" in Maya, and Car Wash to everyone else, because taxi drivers used to wash their cars in it.

Dives here
3
Deepest
23.5 m
Water
fresh
First · last
2022 · 2022
Getting in
Roadside on QR 109. (20.2749, -87.4862)
Also known as
Car Wash · Cenote Carwash · car wash

Revision 1 · changed 10 Oct 2026

History
  1. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

35 m30 m34 m37 mCenote Aktun Ha (Car Wash)Luke's Hope · Cenote Zacil Ha533 m↓12.2 mAdriana's Room↓12.2 mLower White Room↓21.3 m↓18.3 m122 mCell Block · 427 m →305 mDreamland · 610 m →↓9.1 m640 mLotus RoomsRoom of Tears Basement · 488 m↓15.2 mAlux's Key↓19.8 mChamber of the Ancients229 mSiphon Basement · 213 m↓19.8 m354 m →↓21.3 m244 mChamber of Horrors↓15.2 m274 m↓13.7 mCrystal Palace↓18.3 mRoom of Tears↓13.7 m↓9.1 mThe White Room↓10.7 mSatan's Methole↓19.8 mThe DrainN50 m
  • Entrance
  • T
  • End of line
  • Shoreline
  • Depth
  • Along the line
Stick map · 110 stations · 1979 m of line · max 21.3 m

Drawn along the passage centrelines of the 1988–90 Coke / de Groot / Young survey of Cenote Carwash (upstream 1467 m, downstream 1122 m; 300 ft scale bar, magnetic north up), so the lines show the passages, not the exact permanent line. Depths are the survey's floor depths and penetrations the survey's P marks, converted from feet. Upstream runs west past Luke's Hope, whose open-sky section and position about 200 m west match Cenote Zacil Ha; downstream runs south toward Tulum. The cavern line loops through the cavern zone on the pool's north side (cavern map on cave-ha.com, not drawn). Positions are approximate.

Aktun Ha is Maya for water cave. The other name is more prosaic and more used: the cenote sits right beside the Tulum–Cobá road, and for years taxi drivers pulled in and washed their cars in it.

It is one of the standard training cenotes, and a good one: an open pool with a shallow ledge, a resident crocodile in some seasons, and a cavern zone lit well enough to teach in. The cave behind it is the downstream end of Sistema Aktun Ha, whose upstream entrance is Zacil Ha, about 200 m along the road and reachable along the main line.

Three dives, February 2022, during the Cave 2 course, to 23.5 m.

Dived here with

Andrea Benjamin Erik Mauro

Nearby sites

3 dives at Cenote Aktun Ha (Car Wash)

Water temperature by month

Mean water temperature in °C; an empty month had no dives.

Mean water temperature per month at Cenote Aktun Ha (Car Wash)
MonthMeanDives
Januaryno dives0
February25.0 °C3
Marchno dives0
Aprilno dives0
Mayno dives0
Juneno dives0
Julyno dives0
Augustno dives0
Septemberno dives0
Octoberno dives0
Novemberno dives0
Decemberno dives0
  1. 9 Feb 2022 with Andrea, Benjamin, Mauro cavetraining date9 Feb 2022 depth19.9 m time84 min water25 °C
  2. 9 Feb 2022 with Andrea, Benjamin, Mauro cavetraining date9 Feb 2022 depth23.5 m time83 min water25 °C
  3. 4 Feb 2022 with Benjamin, Erik cave date4 Feb 2022 depth20.9 m time73 min water25 °C

Sources

  • First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)