Mexico Part 3 ~ Adventure In The Jungle…

1 11 2011

Friday, October 7th, 2011 ~

Once again, breakfast, shop, load up tanks… We met up with David C Ruiz and Richard Wilde, who were heading out to Tux Ka Paxa. They gave us directions, in case we wanted to join them, and check out this cave. They were still doing exploration in this one, and had found mastadon bones in it. Most of them had been removed by INAH (Archaeological team), but there were still some left, apparently.

We decided to give it a go.. Steve and I were in one vehicle, and Oren was in another. Once we made the turn-off from the highway, the directions were a little bit of guess work. Go past the baseball camp (which we did see), to a T, follow nasty jungle road until you are near the end, and turn left, follow to a bump in the road… you know what I mean… Kind of like, “Turn left at the red barn,” kind of directions. 🙂

We made our way through some insane jungle road, and actually got to a part that we weren’t sure was even road. We even saw a Puma crossing the road! We were about an hour or so into the jungle, which was a little unnerving.. especially when we saw a couple of people on bicycles, on dirt roads, with shot guns on the handle bars.

The road where we saw the Puma…

Road that wasn’t road anymore…

Clearly, this was not the way. We headed back, and had decided that we were going to thumb the jungle.. until Oren decided to make a turn. Er.. Ok.. I guess we’re going, too. When we caught up to him, we also caught up with David and Richard…

Hmm.. think it will fit?

Well.. we gave it a go.. Steve and I sat on the tail gate, and it was just enough to get under.. *Phew!* Oren, then Steve and I followed.

Ahh.. our destination.. Tux Ka Paxa…

There was a bit of a restrictive entrance, which led into some absolutely huge cave. There were absolutely massive rooms. Some were very highly decorated, and some had stubby stalagmites. We swam for quite a ways, before reaching a T, where we headed to the left, to get to the mastadon bones. I was in the front, Oren was #2, and Steve was #3. We came up to the INAH cones, which were where the bones were. We saw some small ones, and one really large one. This was pretty amazing!! We actually had to change direction to see the larger one, and some of the smaller ones, that were labeled, below one of the shelves.

From here, we made our way back, and in.  What an incredible experience…

Bottom Time ~ 1 hour, 41 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 39′
Water Temp. ~ 77 (but felt a bit chillier in spots, for some reason)

When we got out, there was quite a bit of rain, and we were smack dab in the middle of the jungle. Since we were sheltered in the basin, we decided to hang out there for a while, and chit-chatted. The downpour did not seem to be letting up, so we decided to get out anyway. We doffed our gear, changed under a palapa (thank goodness for that), and got on our way. David and Richard were going back in.

Back to the shop, dropped tanks, hotel…. nap…

After my nap, I decided to head to the buffet, and grab our dinner table. There was a fellow there, who said he would only seat our group if we were all there, at that moment. We had been getting a big table all week, and it had not been a problem.. until now. It wasn’t like it was busy, either. The fellow said he would seat me, and I could eat on my own.. Um.. yeah… no thank you… So I left. I went to go back to the room, and my card wouldn’t work, so I went to the front desk. Since I was there anyway, I asked the girl if there was a problem with seating large groups at the buffet. She looked at me like I was nuts. I told her that I had gone to get a table for our group, and she then looked at me like I was giving her the gears. She immediately called the buffet, and asked the fellow what was going on. I guess they had a little chat, and she told me to go back, and I would get the table. “Thank you very much, wonderful lady.”

Steve came with me, and when I came in, they called the same fellow over, and he brought us to our table. Everyone else trickled in, and that was that. Sheesh…

Saturday, October 8th, 2011 ~

Today, Oren, Rasa, Michel, and Kim were heading home. It was Frankie, Richard, and Jen’s exam day for C2, so we decided to wait, to go for our dive. We hung out at the shop, checked e-mails (internet was unreliable at the resort.. it didn’t work if it was raining), and harassed Angelica. Exam time was over! Congratulations! w00t!

Steve, Frankie, and I headed next door, to Minotauro. None of us had been there, so Chris drew up a map for us. It was back gas only today.

There was a nice staircase down to the water, leading to a rather swampy area, and then to a really nice basin.

As we went down to get in  the water, we saw Mike and Sayed, coming in from a sidemount dive. Fancy meeting you here! We were planning on the upstream line, instead of the downstream sm stuff.

There was a slightly narrow entry and passage going in, and then into some cool cave (aren’t they all?:p). The halocline was in about 40′, and there were a few places where it was a bit messy to pass through, but it wasn’t too bad.

We took the third jump to the left, and there were many jumps in this cave. There was also what seemed to be survey line everywhere. We swam through some narrow passage, and through an area where you are swimming just above the halocline, making it look like a river below us. Just wicked!

There were spots on the main line, where it seemed like the stalactites and stalagmites had been dipped in chocolate sauce. That’s what came to mind for me, anyway.

We turned the dive before our turn pressures, as we were close enough to them, and we were going to be getting into some really tight spots. We did not know if there would be a place to turn around or not, so we opted to turn. Such cool cave!!!

Bottom Time ~ 1 hour, 22 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 48′
Water Temp. ~ 77

Same routine.. back to shop, resort, and nap… After dinner, myself, Steve, Frankie, Mike, and Jen walked over to The Pub, for a drink with Richard. He was leaving in the morning, so we had to have a congratulatory drink! Oh.. and dessert! We had quite a few laughs, then made our way back, and.. zzzzzzzzz….

Sunday, October 9th, 2011 ~

Breakfast, shop…

Today, Steve and Frankie headed over to Grand Cenote, so that Steve could show him the Boa Restriction. Eric, Andy, and I decided to take a trip over to Chichen Itza. Neither of us had been there, and we decided to be tourists for a day!

Between the three of us, we split the cost of a tour guide, so that we would get a bit of a clue as to what we were looking at. Alfredo was our man!  He gave us some really great information, and I think I probably took close to 200 pictures. I will narrow it down to two.

The main pyramid: The Mayan Calendar…

The Observatory…

There were so many cool buildings and structures, and all three of us were really interested in the history behind them.

Thank you, Alfredo! You da man!

I must also add that when walking through the vendors area, we watched as a wasp attacked a very funky and beefy looking spider. The wasp killed it within seconds! It was a very bizarre thing to see!

We did purchase a few souvenirs, which were, “almost free!” :p

Another myth that was put to bed was that the world was going to end in December 2012. It is just the end of the 52 year calendar cycle, and the beginning of a new cycle.

On the way back, we were stopped by the Federales. They actually asked to see Eric’s license and car rental agreement. It was a little odd, but they sent us on our way. *Phew.* We made it back to the resort, met our “peeps,” had dinner, and told the day’s stories!

Monday, October 10th, 2011 ~

Steve’s ear was bugging him a bit, so he and I decided to have a beach day. We slept in a little, then walked over to PA, for some ear drops. We noticed that there were some other creatures in one side of the dolphin area. They had a nurse shark, and some sting rays.

We walked back to the resort, where we hung out on the beach, and had a couple of girly drinks. Just a really lazy day, which was nice.

After dinner, we all watched a fellow paint pictures with just spray paint and a flame. His work was absolutely amazing, and a couple of us bought one. He was really fun to watch! We then went up for some crepes, then to Frankie’s room, to watch some of his footage! A great way to cap off the day!

Our last week of Cave Diving Goodness coming right up, in Part 4 of 4! Stay tuned! 🙂


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Mexico Part 2 ~ Time To Dive!

30 10 2011

Monday, October 3rd, 2011 ~

We were up and at ’em at 7:25am, when we met the gang for breakfast. We grabbed a quick bite, then headed to the lobby, and hoped we would get a vehicle. Since we had some trouble yesterday, the guy told us that he would be there at 7:45 (for the 8am meeting time). 7:59am.. uh ohhh.. Did they forget us again? 8:05, 06, 07… 8:10.. Is that? Could it be? w00t! There he was!

Thank goodness…

We got a little VW sport van, which was perfect (and similar to what we had originally requested)! We loaded the car, and headed straight to Zero Gravity. We saw Jorge first, then Angelica, and then met a few of the folks from Australia: Team Sombre-Roo. We got our tanks, a couple of stages, and had decided on  heading over to Nahoch. Great way to start the trip! Huw, Pascal, and Cam joined us, too!

We had three teams, doing different things. Oren, Steve, and I were a team, and decided to take two stages, for a longer dive. While we geared up, the clouds came in fast, and we were thankful for the overhead tarps to get changed under. Torrential downpour! The pully was also missing, so we walked all of our gear down, instead of lowering it. No big deal, it just took a little longer.

Steve had Francois’ camera with him, and took some footage. We breathed our first stage to our drop pressures, dropped them, and carried on. We eyed up all of the jumps, but decided to stay on the main line. There were so many jumps! Our plan was to turn the dive at our second stage drop pressure, and turn back.. which we did. We had a nice, leisurely swim back, and were loving how beautiful this cave was.

We saw a few small, white cave swimmies and a cave fish. Steve managed to get some footage, too. What a beautiful dive.

Bottom Time ~ 2 hours, 41 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 24′
Water Temp. ~ 77
Vis. ~ Endless

After our dive, we packed up, and headed back to the shop. We only needed our stages filled, as we didn’t even touch our back gas.

Back to the resort, where we hung up our gear, had a short rest, then off to the buffet! It was Italian night! We all told stories of our day, and then back to sleep…

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 ~

Breakfast at 7:20am. Shop at 9am, and then over to Dos Palmas! We had not been here before, and were looking forward to seeing some new to us cave.

There were definitely a lot of bats, here!

We decided on the upstream line first, and would use stages. There was higher flow here, than we have encountered in Mexico so far, and the further we swam in, the stronger the flow was. We did one jump (5th to the left). Wow.. some gorgeous cave. We reaced the end of that line, came back, and continued in. Very nicely decorated cave! Due to the flow, the swim out was much faster than the swim in!

Bottom Time ~ 1 hour, 49 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 35′
Water Temp. ~ 77

We came in for a spot of lunch, then got ready again.

We were just using back gas for our second dive, and went on the downstream line. This cave would not disappoint, and I thought was even more beautiful than our previous Nohoch dive. The downstream line was a little more restrictive and highly decorated. We went in against the flow, which was not as strong as the upstream line, and out against it. 

There were so many jumps, but we stayed on the main line. There was so much to see! I was completely wide-eyed.  

Bottom Time ~ 1 hour, 3 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 22′
Water Temp. ~ 77

We finished up, dropped gear off at the shop, then back for a little rest. The buffet had Asian food, but there was also a dinner for the Nolitours customers (which most of us were), so we went there, first. We had a piece of the 6′ x 3′ cake, then went for Asian food. 🙂

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 ~

Breakfast, Chedraui, then to the shop for tanks. We decided to go to Mayan Blue, and do the B,E,F tunnels. Chris, Frankie, Jen, and Richard were there too, for Cave 2, along with Jorge, too.

Jorge…

Chris, and the Cave 2 course…

Steve, Oren, and I brought our bottles down, geared up, and away we went. We made our first jump, dropped our first stage bottles, and headed to F tunnel. Absolutely beautiful! We then dropped our second stage bottles, and continued on with back gas. We reached a section that was quite restrictive and silty. We dubbed this part of the cave, The Shredder… although Chris told us that he calls that Swiss Cheese. 🙂

We were watching our gas, and I knew that it would soon be time for us to turn the dive. The spot we were in was very restrictive, and I was looking for places that would be easiest to turn around in, should the dive get called. I was #3, Oren was #2, and Steve was #1. As we moved along, I saw two places that would be half decent to turn around in, and a little bit further, I thought to myself, “Oh, this spot would really suck if we had to turn here..” Then, of course, there was a signal, and thumbs… Of course.. Murphy’s Law, right? Steve was in a decent spot, Oren turned, and although it was extremely silty, Oren did a pretty good job of turning around, without disturbing too much… until his last, tiny fin movement.. zero vis.. Now.. I had to turn around in a spot that was extremely tight, and no vis. I was not at all worried, as I had the line, and was able to get myself around. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but it was effective. It didn’t take long for us to move to where we could see, and we continued on towards the exit. I could hear Oren giggling, and he heard me giggling too, so everything was good.

We picked up our bottles, and headed out.

Bottom Time ~ 2 hours, 8 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 81′
Water Temp. ~ 77

We packed up, headed back to the shop, where we met up with Cam and Huw, then to the hotel for a nap. I swear, this napping thing is quite a novelty. I could get used to naps. Mexican food was on the menu tonight! W00 h00!

Of course, we topped off the night with a couple of beverages, and shared stories of our day’s dives.

Thursday, October 6th, 2011 ~

Same morning routine: breakfast, shop, tanks.

Today, Steve, Oren, and I were heading to Grand Cenote/Sac Actun. Rasa was also joining us today, to visit the cenote, and see this crazy cave stuff that we enjoy so much.

We brought along two stages, and since we had never been past Cave 1 limits in this cave, Fred had given us some directions to some cool cave. After finding the right line (yes, we found some exploration-type line first, going left of the cavern line, which was on the ceiling of the cave), we were off and in. We swam along the main line until we got to our jump to the Paseo Lagarto Line. We dropped our first stages before the T, then through the “heart” restriction. This was some really cool cave. We dropped our second stage bottles, then came to some absolutely beautiful cave, with stunning decorations. We reached the Boa Restriction, which was some extremely cool passage. It was up, down, around, and up, down, around some more. We reached a spot where it was going to dip down through a hole, and get even more restrictive, so we decided to turn the dive here. We were getting close to our turn pressures anyway.

I swear.. this was the Best. Cave. Dive. Yet. Period.

It seemed that each day, our dives got even more amazing. I think we all had permagrins on our faces, for the entire swim out, and the smiles extended into the basin. There were moose ears a-plenty!

Bottom Time ~ 2 hours, 25 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 43′
Water Temp. ~ 77

We brought our lunch, which we ate in the company of two extremely adorable puppies, a rooster, and a chicken. I think there may be a joke in there, somewhere…

King puppy, looking for treats and attention. He really did control the others…

This chicken actually pecked at my foot…

We headed back, dropped off tanks at the shop, then back to the resort, where Steve and I actually went for a swim in the pool. We then went and joined Rasa and Oren, and went for a dip in the ocean.

After the ocean dip, we went back to the pool, then grabbed a shower before dinner.. which was at the Mexican restaurant. We had to make reservations for this one, and let’s just say that “big” groups are not their favourite. Oh well… Everyone trickled in, and we shared the stories from our day. Eric and Andy had finished their Cave 1 course, and were looking forward to actually seeing some cave! 😀

Oren had discovered the Creperie, which was extremely dangerous. We all had a bit of a treat before calling it a night. I could seriously get used to this…

Stay tuned for Part 3! More cavez, our jungle adventure, and a bit of tourist stuff. 🙂


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Mexico Or Bust… Part 1

20 10 2011

Saturday, October 1st, 2011 & Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 ~

So.. our flight was supposed to leave at 3:40 Saturday afternoon, and while we were getting our luggage, carry-ons, and pretty much everything weighed, we were told that there would be a delay.. Our new flight time was to be 6:45pm, which subsequently changed to 10pm. Wow.. that was going to be a long wait, and we were a bit early, to begin with. They gave us $30 dinner vouchers, and $75 travel vouchers, which.. well.. ok…

When we saw the pilot finally arrive (apparently, they got us another plane from Edmonton, staff from Cornwall, and a pilot from Toronto), the entire terminal started to clap and cheer. We were quite happy to see him. We ended up leaving at around 10:30pm, arrived to a rather huge customs line up, got luggage, then hopped a bus to the hotel. There were six of us  together, on this flight, and were meeting up with 5 others, already at the resort.

We finally arrived at the resort, at 5:30am. We checked in, and found little point in going to sleep. Eric and Andy were being picked up for Cave 1, at 8:30am, and Steve and I were to meet our rental car people at 8am.

First, we sorted out our gear. My pile…

We then went down to the water, and watched the sunrise…

We also saw some fish, a heron, and found Andy!

We grabbed some quick breakfast, then went to wait for the rental car, as we bid a Good Day to Eric and Andy, leaving for their first day of C1!

8am came, and the car rental folks were not there. I had even confirmed with them, two days prior. 9am came and went, and a phone call confirmed that they had forgotten about  us, and would come right away, with our little sport van.

So.. they finally showed up, about an hour later, with a small four door car. This was not going to work for us. We had reserved a completely different car, and got this one. Oren, Steve and I jumped in the car with the nice fellow, and headed to Playa (on the advice of the rental car fellow), where we could see if there was a hatch for us, and the car that Oren had ordered.

When we arrived at the rental parking lot, we saw that there was no hatchback, and no little car that Oren had wanted. The fellow told us that there was a guy bringing us one, from the airport, and that he was on his way. About an hour went by, and there was still no vehicle. He called again, and the guy was still at the airport. So.. we asked him to bring it to our hotel  in the morning. He said he would. We went back with Oren, who had settled on one of the four doors. What an ordeal…

So.. our first diving day busted.. but at least we would get our car in the morning…

We got back to the resort, and joined Oren and Rasa for a beverage. We wanted to go for a dip in the ocean, so we headed back to our room to grab our fins… Yeah.. that turned into a nap…

When we woke up, we went to meet everyone for dinner, at the buffet.

Delicious Daquiris De Mango!

Then.. ocean time! Steve and I really did grab our fins, then met Oren, and headed into the water. When we first got in, I managed to get some sort of sting on my arm, that ended up lasting for a few days. I have no idea what it was, but it did burn like a stinker!

We saw many little fish, scuttle fish, a long pike-type fish, and a small squid. We were hanging out at the same place where we had seen the fish in the morning.   After our dip, we changed, and met up at Pure bar, for a night cap.

There was also a torrential downpour, when we were at Pure.  Water was pouring in through the ceiling in many places. Since Michel didn’t want to get his sandals wet, he took them off, before running back to his room.. He did say that he would end up clothesless by the end of the night. 😉

*Holding back picture, although I really want to post it*    Michel, you owe me one… 😀

After a very long day, it was time to sleep… Cavezzzzzz tomorrow (providing we get a car)!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

 


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AGGAST…With A Little Bit Of Awesome Sauce! Part 4 of 4.

15 09 2011

Tuesday, Septmber 6th, 2011 ~

Karen had to catch her flight today, so we went down for our Free Hotel Breakfast, which really wasn’t bad at all, then back up to the room.

I decided to go for a walk, and went down to the Pike Place Market. I had never been to Seattle, so I wanted to check it out!

There were so many interesting booths and goodies for sale. I even passed a fellow playing a sitar. He was pretty good!

 

I toured around for a couple of hours, then made my way back up the hill. I did stop in a couple of stores, and took in the scenery. I even found a very yummy taco place, where I picked up some dinner, to go!

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 ~

I was undecided as to what I was going to do today. I had a few ideas, but wasn’t really sure where anything was. I looked up the Seattle Aquarium, as Kathryn had suggested going there. I was going to call a cab, but then did a search on the directions.. Yeah.. that would have been silly. It was about a kilometer away! Off I went!

Oh look! A self portrait with an orca!

I saw sharks, sea horses, crabs, shrimp, fish of every kind, otters, seals, and I was even there for the Octopus feeding.

I also spoke to a girl about molting, which was actually quite interesting!

Seattle King Crab molting…

Yet another self portrait, with my head facing the wrong direction…lol.

Thank you for the suggestion, Kathryn! I had a great time there!

I walked back up the hill, lounged for a bit, then met Laurynn! Richard came to meet us too, and we headed to  the infamous Cove 2. There was a Tweak dive going on, but we were a bit early, so we decided to go to “Don’t Worry Be  Happy Hour,” down the road!

Of course, we were well-behaved.

Yes… there was much laughter…

Melody even joined in on the fun and goodness!

Bartender’s Mix? What does that really mean???

We finally made our way back down the road, where we met up with the gang. We were not diving tonight, but it was good to be able to bid “until next times” to everyone, and even meet a few more new faces. Marc was in town, too!

What an excellent place to dive, with such an awesome community. An extra thank you to my AGGAST sisters, for such a great trip! In the words of Arnold.. “I’ll be back!”

Thanks for the Awesome Sauce!!! See you in February, for the next AGGAST adventure!!

Below are a couple of videos that I put together, from the trip. 🙂

Keystone Jetty…

Day Island Wall…


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AGGAST…With A Little Bit Of Awesome Sauce! Part 3 of 4.

13 09 2011

Monday, September 5th, 2011 ~

Today, we were diving with Bandito Charters! Very cool boat!

We pulled up to the ramp, and brought our gear down…

We then met the Captain and the First Mate!

Once we were all aboard, we set sail for Sunrise Reef. We were right on for the slack tide timing, so in we went. I think I have been here before! Lol. We saw more GPOs, Wolfies, cool looking fish, crabs, cucumbers, sun stars, and so many other creatures that I am just not used to seeing in fresh water!

We had yet another excellent dive, and of course, there was no Shenaniganry had at all. Nope, none…

Bottom Time: 49 mins.
Max. Depth: 61′
Water Temp.: 55F

Definite Goodness was had!

While we made our way to our next destination, there was soup, brownies, cheese bread, and other delicious omnoms for us to feast on. I still can’t get over how amazing it is to have full kitchens aboard these boats!! It really is incredible, the service that we got out here. I “heart” the charters here! Not to mention, that there are some pretty fantastic people here, too!

Our next dive was at Z’s Reef. Another most excellent dive with Laurynn, that involved many tears of laughter, mask flooding, and hella fun. I don’t think I could get bored, diving out here. There is way too much to see, and most fun had!

Bottom Time: 58 mins.
Max. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 53F

I am not sure which of the two dives it was, but as Laurynn and I were ascending, we noticed a big Lion’s Mane Jelly Fish, about 40′ away from us. We were hovering at 20′, and making each other laugh, when I saw what appeared to be a bit of filament in front of me.. Um.. yeah.. that wasn’t filament. That was Jelly tentacle.. and there was another one. *Signaled to Laurynn… next stop, up!* *Phew!* Lol.. Crisis averted!

Catching some Zzz’s, after Z’s reef…

Do not forget to stay hydrated, while complying with Rule #6!

This would surely make a nice dive boat!

When we returned to shore, we packed up, unloaded gear, then back to Laurynn’s. It was time to shift shop! Since our AGGAST sister Laurynn had to be up silly early, Karen and I went to a hotel. Not before we went for some delicious Indian food!

Thank you so much for everything, Laurynn, Karen, and Kathryn!!! Thank you to everyone that loaned us gear, tanks, fills, lights, and drove us around! It really was such an amazing experience, to be here. I *heart* Seattle. 🙂

Karen and I checked in to our hotel, relaxed, then went and met Lamont for a bevvie, at a really cool place, just up the road from us!

Another excellent adventure in Seattle!!

Stay tuned for Part 4 of 4!


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