5- A Pinch Of Salt

17 02 2018

Saturday, February 17th, 2018 ~

Today, we headed to Otoch Ha, with scooters and a stage. I have scootered parts of the upstream section a few times, but had never been on the downstream line.

We packed our little VW Gol (that’s right, Gol… not Golf), and I’m not sure we could have fit much else in it.

Two scooters, two stages, two sets of doubles, and two bins…

It took about 30 minutes to get down the Labna Ha road, since we were weighed down, a bit, and didn’t want to bottom the car out, or get a flat tire.

The bugs were in full force, when we arrived at the cenote. It’s further into the jungle, so we did come prepared (those Avon wipes are the best invention, ever).

We carried our gear down the path, and got ready for Diving Goodness.

With a view of the cave entrance…

We entered, T’d left, jumped right, and reached a crazy restriction. Steve went in, first. He got through. My turn… scooter, then me… oop… oop… oop… regroup… oop… I wasn’t sure that I was going to fit through, and was trying to figure out how the puzzle piece was going to fit. Regroup again, and try to squeeze a different way. I had watched how Steve went through, and thought that I was doing the same thing. Apparently, not. Ooh, ooh… there I go! I’m through! Not the easiest spot to navigate, when you’re half upside-down, and sideways.

We scootered for a bit longer, dropped stages, then scooters, and came up to some absolutely stunning and highly decorated cave. Oh. Em. Gee. Being stuck for 4 minutes was worth absolutely every second, for what we saw. We just hovered there, and couldn’t move. There were decorations from floor to ceiling, big stalactites, a bunch of tiny straw stalagmites, and just pure heaven. I didn’t want to leave! We eventually kept swimming, and went through some narrow, decorated passage. As the line continued, there was a small collapse in the floor, which dipped into the halocline. We had a quick peek, then turned around. Holy smokes, such beauty. Steve did take some video, and I will eventually post it, once it’s edited.

We turned, picked-up scooters, stages, then reached the restriction. I guess I figured out the puzzle, as I didn’t have any trouble, getting through, from the back side. w0000000t!!

We surfaced, and I was giggling like a school girl. I’m sure I had a shit-eating grin on my face, too!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Max. Depth: 41′

Water Temp.: 77F

Avg. Depth: 32′

Once packed, we realized that we had so much gas left over, we could have done another swimming dive. I guess we were so happy with our dive, that it never even occurred to us. 🤓

Very silty entry…

We finished off our day with a presentation of the Hoyo Negro project, some food at The Pub, and a free shot of tequila. Such an exceptional day!


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Categories : Twenty-Oh-One-Eight

4- Always Room For Tears

16 02 2018

Friday, February 16th, 2018 ~

Today’s planned dive didn’t quite pan out as we had hoped. We couldn’t go to the cenote that we wanted to, so we ended up going to Car Wash, instead. We hadn’t been there since 2010, when we had a big group of us visiting. When we did our C2, in 2008, our Room of Tears dive didn’t quite happen, on the upstream side. There was a whole thing about, “You said the jump was 30 feet,” and, “No, I said 30 meters,” and a safety spool, and… well… we never did make it to that room… until today!

Entry…

There were a few other groups in the cave, but only one other jump line down the rabbit hole. We could see their lights coming back, so we waited for them to come through, then made our jump.

Hmm… this little passage doesn’t appear as tight as it did in 2008. I guess your perception of a tight space changes, as you gain more cave time. 😆

w00000t! Room of Tears! After all this time. Pretty cave goodness.

We continued along the line, up and down a couple of crevices, until we got to a spot, where it didn’t look like the line continued. It was up against a wall, and seemed to end. Oh, wait… Steve is in front, and he’s eying up a crevice, going down. I’m thinking, “Oh, hell, no.” As I’m thinking that, Steve went head-first, down the hole, and slithered down. As I watched his fins disappeared, I neared it. “Ohhh… hell, yes!” Definitely doable. Down, I go, head over tea kettle, down the hole. Freakin’ awesome little restriction! I may or may not have giggled, a little.

We swam a little more, then turned back. What a freakin’ fun dive!

Upon returning to the basin, we practiced a bunch of skills, and recorded them, with the Go Pro.

BT: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Max. Depth: 61′

Water Temp.: 78F

Avg. Depth: 28′

Tanks: Back gas, only – AL80s

<<<<
ur day didn’t quite go as planned, but we still had a fun dive, and got to practice skills. A day of Cave Diving Goodness, is a good day. When I was exiting the water, a girl was recording me, with her phone. She said to me, “You look happy!” I replied, “I am! It’s beautiful, down there!” CAVEZZZZZZZ!

<<<<
we unpacked at the shop, we met Oren and Rasa for dinner. The band at Latitude 20 was AWESOME! I had to use that word – it was the word of the night! Of course, we had to top off the night with some gelato! We walked by Cafe Ole, where I saw my new friend, Gaylita. I promised her that I would g back to karaoke, on Monday! 🎤🎼

We will see what tomorrow’s adventure brings!


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3- I Can’t Tell You…

15 02 2018

Thursday, February 15th, 2018 ~

Today’s dive was at a site that we had never been to before, and cannot really disclose info on. It was a good distance into the jungle, and not very well-known. The land owners were pretty friendly, and showed us the direction in. We parked, then went to look around, to find the entry, and brought our tanks down. The stairs weren’t bad, but there were a few steep steps that I knew that I would need an arm to climb up, with my tanks on!

We looked down another path, that another cenote was, but didn’t want to venture too far, wearing only flip flops and shorts. We tried to narrow our chances of getting invested with ticks.

Second path…

As we were prepping gear, another couple unloaded, to dive the other cenote.

Looking down, to the large cenote…

Steve went in without gear on, to locate the line, so we didn’t silt up the area, looking around, with gear on (very silty bottom). We did find it, so we got ready to dive!

What. An. Awesome. Cave. This place has just about everything: decorations, big passage, small passage, restrictions, up and down crevices, chocolate sauce decorations, and just freaking amazing. We will definitely go back to this place!

Gear: AL 80s ~ Back gas, only

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 11 minutes

Max. Depth: 44′

Water Temp.: 77F

Avg. Depth: 32′

After our dive, we met up with some other folks that were swimming in the cenote. One was a local, and the other two were from the US.

Definitely some happy cavezzzz faces!!!


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2- Caracol

15 02 2018

Wednesday. February 14th, 2018 ~

Ale and Peter kept us out late, so we weren’t as quick to get up, this morning (of course, we had nothing to do with it – nope, not a bit – that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it). I say that, but the torrential downpour did wake me up, in the wee hours.

Oren just happened to be in the area, so he was joining us on a dive to Caracol. We had been given directions to some pretty parts of the cave, so we were looking forward to seeing it!

On the jungle road, leading to the cenote, we drove past more wildlife than I remember seeing, in the past.

We saw a bunch of lizards…

A couple of vultures, that appeared to be waiting for us…

We also saw a little fox, that took off, once he noticed us. He didn’t stick around long enough, for us to ask him what it is that he really says…

We also saw a couple of mini road runners (ok, that’s not what they are really called, but that’s what they looked like). They ran across so fast, that one of them wiped out, when he hit the brakes. It was almost like he was skidding on ice. They were too fast, to get a picture of. We did learn that they are called, “agoutis.”

Ok, back to diving! They charge 250 pesos, per person, and if you pay an extra 100 pesos, the guys that work there, will bring your tanks to and from the benches, above the stairs. They don’t take them down, but will help to ease the load. Those steps are so friggin’ steep, and when you’re as vertically challenged as I am, you wish for the tank fairy to bring them up and down, for you. They are so steep, that when I take each step down, the butt end of my tanks hit the stair behind me. That’s a little unnerving, when you have about 120 lbs on your back. Nice and slow… nice and slow… Thank goodness they have decent hand rails, along the way.

Photo from a few years ago. At least they have better traction on the stairs now, than they did in this photo!

Caracol is a lovely, shallow dive. We realized that bringing a stage was probably overkill, but we were unsure of the distance that we were traveling, so we opted to bring one, just in case.

There were a bus-load of snorkelers jumping in, as we were entering the water. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. The cenote people didn’t turn on the lights for them, as we were hoping they would. It’s gorgeous, when they do!

Photo, from a few years ago, taken with an iPhone…

Oren led, Steve was #2, and I was #3. It seems that the main line has been cut back a bit, closer to the STOP sign, which was probably a good idea. We took the line behind the staircase (upstream), jumped, swam to the end, tied into another line, swam past another cenote, and as we passed the second cenote, dropped our stages. Holy smokes, that was a long swim. We swam some more, got to the end, tied into another line, and got to some slightly more narrow passage, with many decorations. There were even a couple of rooms with highly decorated “chocolate sauce” formations. We were not yet at our turn pressures, but we had been swimming for an hour and sixteen minutes, and still had to swim all the way back. Team consensus was to turn back. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” I kept singing to myself, along with wishing I had my scooter. Ah, well… get some exercise, right? Something has to take place of the farm work, this week!

I was happy to see the STOP sign, even though it really was a nice dive. Day 2 of cavezzzz, and we already put in a good workout. After surfacing, I hadn’t even reached my back gas turn pressure.

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 16 mins.

Max. Depth: 28′

Water Temp.: 77F

Avg. Depth: 17′

Now, to climb back up those stairs…

It was fun to dive with Oren, too! Or… half of what we remember of Oren, when we last saw him, in September! Looking good, Dr. O!


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1- Minotauro

15 02 2018

Tuesday, February 13th, 2018 ~

After our rigamarole (yes, I used that word…), in trying to get to Cave Diving Goodness, we finally made it. This morning, Steve spent some time playing with his rack… ok, he was putting together his LP50 rack, then we threw some gear together, and went diving. I kept having that feeling that I was forgetting something, as you do, on your first day.

Steve’s pretty LP50 rack…

We decided on Minotauro, since it was getting on in the day, and it was close by. There were two other groups there: a GUE cave course, and a sidemount crew. Both teams were in the water, already.

Stairs, going down to the entry:

As we pulled into the entrance, the mujere let us know that we were to pay at the cenote, instead of at the house, like we always had. We kept driving down the path, and saw new park signs, as we went. Apart from the road taking a different direction than I remembered, all seemed the same… until we got to the parking. Half of the parking lot was roped off, and there were extra palapas, with life vests and snorkel gear. They also had a tree adventure place, which we did not investigate. The fellow taking our money said that the tree adventures were new, and the price for diving had gone up to 300 pesos. We signed in, paid the fellow, and that was about the same moment that I remembered what I had forgotten… the hose to connect my drysuit hose to my She-P. Well, this should be interesting.

Well, if there ever was a field fix for that, I have come up with another one. Apparently, electrical tape will hold the quick disconnect to the She-P, if you use a figure 8 pattern. You must also have both sides of the QD. It actually worked. Enough said.

Entry…

We were just using back gas, since it was our first day back. We did our gear checks, and away we went. We took the jump to the left, that takes you to the “underwater river,” which is awesome, if you’re diver #1. If you stay in the fresh water, you can really see the beautiful halocline, drawing a line above the salt water. Of course, there are a couple of spots that diver #1 cannot avoid going through it, and causing diver #2 to be blinded with gasoline water. At least I could pay back, on the way out. 😁

Our dive was nice and relaxing, although I did feel like I was breathing slightly heavier than normal, because… CAVEZZZZZZZZZZ! I was a little happy to be back, seeing pretty cavez.

Where the cave begins…

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 19 mins.

Max. Depth: 47′

Water Temp.: 77F

Avg. Depth: 24′

The walk back up…

Of course, we had to celebrate being back in the Mexico cavez, with a couple of Daquiris, at The Pub, where we had a great dinner and chat, with Ale and Peter! I can’t believe that we didn’t take a photo! I mean… other than the beverages! Cheers, until tomorrow’s adventure!


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