Mexican Cave Diving Goodness!

31 12 2012

Saturday, December 1st, 2012 ~

This trip to Mexico would be a rather busy one, seeing as we had friends from all over the world join us, for some Mayan Riviera Cave Diving Goodness!

With a couple of our crew staying over at our place, on Friday night, we made our way to the airport, nice ‘n’ early . We checked in pretty quickly, went through security, then over to Booster Juice, before boarding.

We were pretty tired, having gone to sleep late, the previous night. That leads to some nice sleep on the plane. 😛

I watched a couple of movies, and we were starting our descent into Cancun. We had some pretty rowdy ladies beside us, who had started their party early…

Once we picked up our luggage (it was all there, yay!), we got a shuttle to the car rental place, where they only had two out of three of our cars. CoRal agreed to take the slightly smaller hatchback, and we finally got things sorted. Off to the shop!

When we arrived, we started to put our gear together, so we were ready for the next morning’s diving!

Becki and Dan were there, too.. and Jason came by to say hello! Nice shirt, Jason!

There were a lot of tanks to fill!

We finally went to the resort to check in, and loved our room! Then, dinner at the buffet, with Becki, Dan, Frankie, and Kathryn. After having some food, we went over to one of the bars, where we met up with some of our Dutch friends, as well as Kelly, Dave, and Warren! Heleen and Sander arrived late, but we were able to say a quick hello, before we all headed for some sleep!

Sunday, December 2nd, 2012 ~

I woke up nice and early, thanks to the w00t birds ~ 5:30 am. Breakfast, then to the shop. Steve was going to do his instructor requalifications today, so I was going to Chan Hol with Karen, Frankie, and Dan!

After sorting out some gear issues, we were finally on our way through the entry. We made our way past the first T, then the second, and took a jump, which lead us to another jump that Karen knew about. We had one stage bottle each, and dropped them at the 2nd jump. There was some gorgeous cave back there, that I had not seen before! I saw a giant crawling shrimp, with a little tint of brown to him. I think he was the largest that I have seen in the caves, so far.  An excellent way to start off our dives! Thanks for guiding us to those jumps, Karen!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Max. Depth: 32′
Water Temp: 77F
Visibility: Gin clear!

On the way back, we stopped at Karen’s place, to pick up a motor, for one of our scooters, then back to the shop, where Steve was finishing up with his classroom stuff. Back to the resort for a quick slice of pizza, and we headed to Playa for the Ox Bel Ha Project meeting!

Chris and Fred gave the intros, then JP showed some video, and Ed also gave a presentation for us. Great meeting! There was also some talk of “Organic Matter.” 😀

Back to the resort for a night cap, then sleep!

Monday, December 3rd, 2012 ~

Not a great night’s sleep, but that’s ok… We’re going to cavezzz! We were quite a while at the shop in the morning, waiting for the project folks to pack up, before we got in the way. Once the way was clear, we loaded up!

Chris Le Maillot, helping to load the truck, to Yax Chen.

Chris Malinowski, getting ready…

Steve, working on one of our scooters, while we waited…

Today, La Boca! Love this dive! This would be the second time for Steve and I, and the others were in for a treat!

We had two teams of three ~ Boy Team: Steve, Frankie, Chris; and Girl Team: Karen, Kathryn, Chan.

We made our way through the cavern zone, ran our lines, took the short cut, and 6 jumps later, we reached the 40′ to 20′ ascent, through the “fresher” fresh water. w00t! We did a little happy dance, as we looked around at the highly decorated ceilings, and had big arsed grins on our faces!  We continued on until it got quite pinchy, then started our return trip. There were just a few moose ears, as we headed back.

We fooled around in the basin for a while, and as the Girl Team came through the cavern zone, I noticed a few bubbles, hiding behind a rock. I turned the corner, and saw Steve, waiting to surprise us! Caught ya! 😛 Frankie, too! We floated around for a bit, discussed our fantastic dive, then made our way back up the stairs.

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 2 minutes
Max. Depth: 49′
Water Temp.: 77F

As we packed up, there was a neighbouring van nearby, blasting “U Can’t Touch This.” C-Mal was showing us his fantastic Hammertime dance moves!

Laurynn really enjoyed her La Boca dive, today…

Back to the shop, where we tended to gear, checked on the scooters, and chatted about our wonderful day of cavezzz!

Heleen, me, Sander.

Then to the resort for dinner (yes, there is a pattern growing, here), and some of us had a night cap, while the resort had a fire show going on! Exciting stuff!

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 ~

Breakfast, then to the shop for our Sensor Retrieval meeting! There were a number of us who would be collecting the CINDAQ sensors from different cave systems, bringing them back to the shop, where we would download the information on a temperamental laptop, note the time, date, system, etc., then leave them for the next group to bring them back to their locations in the cavezz. Our meeting explained what to do, and we assigned teams to different systems.

Steve, Frankie, Chris M., and I went to Mayan Blue, to do two dives. One, in the B Tunnel, and the second, to retrieve one of two sets of sensors. Joakim, Ali, and Johannes were retrieving another set of sensors, nearby. Dave L. and Ian M. also joined us in B Tunnel. We were to lead the way to E Tunnel… *cough*

Ali, Dave, Johannes…

Bad ass! Jo and Johannes…

Ian and Dave, getting ready to gear up…

Our team: Frankie, C-Mal, Steve…

Our team went in with two stages, to do B-E-F. When we reached what we thought was the jump to E Tunnel, our leader thought it was farther in, so we kept going. We ended up taking another jump, instead. It was not the jump to E Tunnel, but it was still a very cool dive… and we really didn’t care, anyway… except for the fact that the other two were going to follow our route. Oops! The cave started to get very much darker, and was nothing like the white and blue colours of E Tunnel. Hmm… I wonder if we are on our way to Naharon? Another jump and some swim time later, we jumped onto the end of another gold line, with the label, “Naharon.” Yep… we went to Naharon. How cool is that? We swam through some giant, dark, very decorated cave.

We made our way back, did a couple of stops as we came up, and chilled in the basin for a while. We ditched our stages, took turns clipping them all off on each other, and there was definitely Shenaniganry.

Us, chillin’ in the basin. Taken by Ali Fikree.
Clockwise, from top left: Frankie, Steve, Chris M., Me…

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 40 mins.
Max. Depth: 74′
Water Temp.: 77F

We surfaced, hung out for a little while, then discussed our plan to go into A Tunnel. We had pretty good directions, and thanks to Jo, for lifting the chain a bit, for us. We were able to find them pretty quickly. I jotted down which one was where, in my wetnotes, and Steve cut the sensors free. Very fun!

Bottom Time: 30 minutes
Max. Depth: 53′
Water Temp.: 77F

Back to the shop, drop tanks, socialize for a bit, then back to the resort! We headed to the bar, to meet friends, then had dinner at the Seaside Grill (really good – the spinach & cheese empenadas were incredible), then to sleep!

Chris, attempting to upload the sensors, on the temperamental laptop!

Man… Jorge and Eduardo worked around the clock, to keep everyone’s tanks filled! Thanks, guys!!!

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 ~ 

Steve was headed for Yax Chen/Ox Bel Ha, to do a scooter dive, with the project. I was going to Xtabay, with Heleen, Chris M., and Frankie!

Steve and Sander, getting their gear together…

We checked on our sensors that we tried to download, and they still would not cooperate (thanks to Chris Phinney, for getting them to work). We loaded up, and headed out! Heleen was going to take some video of the halocline!

Some of our friends at the shop, in the morning!

Jason, Constança, and Samhi, heading for a cavern tour. Photobomb courtesy of C-Mal… 😀

Team Temple Of Doom! Dave, Kelly, Johannes, Chris, Warren…

CoRal, after getting their tanks loaded…

Fred and Chris!

Heleen jumped into my car, and we were on our way! When we arrived, Danny happened to be there, with his C1 fellows! Ali was tagging along, too!

Mike R., Kees, Danny, Heleen…

Heleen and Frankie were matching!

We geared up and got in. The goal of our first dive, was for Heleen to get some footage of the halocline. We were going to swim very slowly on the main line, and turn the dive on our stage drop pressure, instead of using our back gas. As we got ready,  I noticed that Steve had taken all of our stage regs, leaving me with… zero. Oopsie. Thanks to Chris, for loaning me one!

Basin…

I ran the reel in, tied to the main line, and away we went. We waited for Danny’s team to go in, and we gave them a few minutes before making our way down. When we did go in, we watched them have an OOG drill, and steered clear of them, so that we wouldn’t be in their way. We went through the Wizard’s Den, which is one of my favourite rooms, here. I could spend ages in there, looking at everything. We got back to the reel, and Danny signaled to me, to bring in their reel. We were leaving ours in, so as we made our way to the other reel, I didn’t recognize the name on it, so I did not want to touch it. It made sense that it was theirs, but I would rather be safe than sorry. I figured we could surface, ask, and go back in for it. So.. yep… it was theirs. Frankie and I had quite a bit of gas left in our stages, so we went back in to get it.

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 29 mins.
Max. Depth: 45′
Water Temp.: 77F

My buddy! Heleen and I!

We got out for a “spot” of lunch, then back in! We were just using back gas for this one, and no camera. It was play time!

As we went back down, I couldn’t find my fins. Then, some snorkeler in the cenote starts to hand them up to me! Um.. Really??? You just took my fins???? I was a little “irked,” so say the least, but I was at least thankful that he gave them back. Thank you.. um.. strange fin stealing guy. Pftt…

Ok.. back to business, and away we went… Sort of… Heleen had some issues with her primary light, so had to sit this one out. Frankie, Chris, and I went back in. We took a jump to the left, and ended up at a place called Rainbow Cenote. We surfaced in a very small dome, and could see a very small opening, with light coming through. Very cool! We ran a spool over to where we surfaced, as it was extremely silty, and we had to gently kneel, in order to pop our heads out. It was very shallow. We headed back down, and since Heleen was waiting for us, we decided to make our way back in, instead of keep going. I tried to tell Heleen that the dive was really crappy, but.. well… I knew she wouldn’t believe me. It really was a wicked dive!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 11 mins.
Max. Depth: 47′
Water Temp.: 75F

When we got out, we met a photographer that takes shots of the tourists there. He had a new Canon MKiii camera, with Sea & Sea housing. Really nice set-up, and gorgeous shots!

My team! I had just said something very silly.
Frankie, Heleen, Chris…

…and back at the shop, Frankie, Dave, and Ian…

…and photobomb from Heleen!

Steve, Frankie, Kathryn, and I went over to Danny and Libby’s for some extremely yummy Mexican soup! I actually tried to make it at home, and was slightly successful. 🙂 It was really cool to see the twins, too!! Thanks Danny and Libby!!!
(I really should have taken pictures)

Back to the resort, where we met some of our peeps, had a bevvie, then to sleep!

Thursday, December 6th, 2012 ~ 

Dos Pisos!!! Steve and I have been wanting to come here for a very long time, and this would be our first time here! It was myself, Steve, Sander, Heleen, Kathryn, and Karen. Kathryn was taking photos, and Heleen was taking video, so we split up into a group of four and a group of two.

Heleen and Steve, at the entry…

The cenote is smaller than some of the others, and never mind all of the guano (bat shite) on the surface of the water… Do not drink this stuff.

The line starts in OW here, and the beginning passage is pretty restrictive, but very cool. Once you get through the first 100 meters (approximately), the cave opens up… and is stunning. The cave is very white, and absolutely full of decorations. We took a left at the T, and went through some absolutely gorgeous passage. Steve was in front, then me, Heleen, then Sander. When Steve would see that there was some neat passages to get on film, we would stop, signal Heleen, and she would move ahead. She would then signal when she was ready for us to start moving, and we would swim very slowly, through. Very cool experience in a stunning cave!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 35 mins.
Max. Depth: 27′
Water Temp.: 77F

Here is Heleen’s video of us, in Dos Pisos!

http://wethorse.nl/movies/DosPisos_12.html

Such fun, together!
Sander, Karen, Steve,
Kathryn, Heleen, Me!

…and that is definitely a sexy skirt….

Back to the shop!

Getting some updates on the sensors…

The GUE Ontario sensor, from Xtabay!

We finally got to go to the Mexican restaurant, on the resort. We had a little fun with Laurynn.

Chris and Laurynn…

Warren and Laurynn…

Steve and Laurynn…

Jorge and Laurynn…

Cas and Laurynn – Photobomb by C-Mal…

There was a LOT of this going on, throughout the week!

I headed back up to our room early. I think the Mexican place gave me a bit of a bloated tummy.. even though it did taste yummy! I was greeted with the resort’s “Rock Show,” out of our back door. They covered everything from the Stones to Michael Jackson, White Stripes, and Guns ‘N’ Roses. It was definitely.. rockin’!

I actually woke up in the wee hours of the morning, really not feeling too great. I feared that I wasn’t going to be able to dive the next day…

Friday, December 7th, 2012 ~ 

Well, I was feeling ok, went down for breakfast, and after eating something, started to feel a bit yucky, again. I loaded up anyway, as I really wanted to do this dive!!!

Cas, with his Mickey Mouse pancakes!

We went to the shop, and we all met to do the group photo! What a fantastic and giant group, from all over the world!

James, Eric, and Cory…

Amazing! Everyone was out diving. The place was pretty empty, but there were still a couple of sets left!

Steve was going back to Yax Chen/Ox Bel Ha, and I was going for a two stage, scooter dive at Camilo, with Karen and John! Chris, Frankie, and Kathryn were coming, too!

wOOt!!!

When we arrived at the farm, the land owner was there to greet us, with one of his horses…

It was nice to see that all of his horses looked to be in really good health. They even had their names above their stalls.

We made our way back to the cenote, and it was gorgeous! Apparently, they had done quite a bit of work to this spot. The entry used to be smaller than the pot hole at Chan Hol, and was now a giant castle moat!

Looking to one side…

The entry, with some really giant steps…

The other side…

Kathryn, Chris, and Frankie went in first. Karen, John, and I waited for a bit in the basin, then followed. They headed toward the Dark Side Of The Moon, and we headed to the Black Forest Line. The entry is quite “organic.” 😉 John had given me some warning about a restriction that we had to go through, which was a small crack, going upwards. I was to basically put my scooter on my head, and not look up. Yeah… I guess I wasn’t tucked in enough, and it did take me a minute to get through it. I should have also let a little bit more gas out of my wing. I didn’t fin too much, as I didn’t want to silt John out. *Dork* Coming back, I got through with no problem at all.

What was really cool about this cave, is that it is so different in so many places. It was a fairly dark cave, with highly decorated ceilings in some places, and really neat formations in others. There was so much to look at, and so many different kinds of passages. I really loved it. Thanks John and Karen, for taking me here!!! It was such an awesome experience!
*Wants to go back there!*

John, Karen, Me!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 44 mins.
Max. Depth: 65′
Water Temp.: 77F

We were out before the other three, and I started to pull my gear apart, to dry (last dive of our trip.. *sniff*).

When they came out, I took a few pics of them…

Kathryn, Chris, Frankie…

What an absolutely incredible dive to finish up the trip with!!!

My scooter, buckled in…

We made our way back to the shop, where we brought back tanks, weights, and ditched batteries etc.

Since there were so many of us, planning a group dinner would have been a nightmare, so we decided to meet for some bevvies at The Pub, after dinner. Dinner was at the buffet for us (with a whole bunch of friends), and it was Carribean night! Very yummy food!

Then, to The Pub, where we had an absolute blast!!!

There are about 50 pictures of Laurynn, with many different friends. She even had her party hat on! I decided to post a bunch of them, so that I could also post pics of the folks that came!

Chris and Marina…

Fred and Angelica…

Sander, Arno, Karen, Jan…

Onno and Shawn…

Ali and Cameron…

Jo, Samhi, Jason…

Kees and Kathryn…

James and Frankie…

Kelly, Dave, Karen…

Peter and Ale!

Becki, Sander, Dan…

Chris…

Jen…

Ricardo and Constança…

Sheila…

Sheila and Romano…

Cory and Raluca, with Frankie in the background… Awww….

Warren…

Ian and Jason…

Dylan & Dave. The conversation around this picture was freakin’ hilarious!

Brian, Chris, Jo, JP…

Steve and Heleen…

Me!

Karen and John…

…and the best for last. Welcome to the…. GUN SHOW!!!

Saturday, December 8th, 2012 ~

Well.. we went down for breakfast, bid our goodbyes and see ya next times, and drove back to return our cars. We had a three car convoy, and when we arrived, we were taken right to the airport. We checked in, went through security, had some lunch, and boarded. Our flight was good, and although we had a hard landing, we were back home, safe… to winter.

*Cheers* to everyone at ZG, for being so wonderful, helpful, and accommodating to our giant group. We had a TON of fun, and it was really great to meet new people, and to be in the Mexico cavezzz, with our friends! Until the next trip!

Buenos Dias!


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Categories : Twenty 12

2011 – A Year Of Friends and Adventure!

1 01 2012

This year has been another wonderful adventure, and we were blessed with some really amazing new and existing friendships.

We usually do a New Year’s Day dive, which we did, but it ended up being on the 2nd, instead of the 1st. There was not much snow on the ground, and the quarry was still open!

It did not take long for the quarry to freeze, and Ice Diving Goodness Season was upon us. I was very fortunate, to be able to test the DUI Heated Undergarment, too!

Then there was the release of the movie, Sanctum. A group of us went to see it, on its second night of showing, and decided to do a parody of it, the following day. We had quite a bit of fun, filming Sanked ‘Em. There were so many tears of laughter had, and thoughts of a sequel. Thanks to Chris Phinney, for his handy dandy camera work, and editing while being a passenger, on the way back home!

Then… Jacob came to visit, and try this ice diving thing! He was just in time, as this was the last weekend of an ice-covered quarry!

We were even able to take him down to the river, for some Scootering Goodness!

John Bailey got a bad ass tattoo!

We also hosted a GUE Meet ‘N’ Greet, which brought some new faces, and shared some information about GUE.

Andy and I, at the quarry!

Fred and Angelica came to town, too. It was really great to be able to share some of our dive sites with Fred, and to spend some time with both of them!

Raphael, Denis, Mick, and Mark came up for a visit too, and we went out for some St. Lawrence River diving!

We spent some more time doing some exploring, in the St. Lawrence River. We did some nice three hour dives, with our scooters.

Becky and I had threatened on many occasions to go diving together, and did not seem to be able to coordinate. Then the stars aligned, and Becky came up to dive with us! We had a blast!

I could have sworn that I saw David on one of the dives…

Becky took some shots of us, too (Below pics by Becky Kagan Schott)…

We then had the 2011 Brockville Canadian Invasion. This was the biggest group to date (50 people), and everyone was just absolutely wonderful. Thanks to all for being so wonderful!

I was also very fortunate to get one of the first Light Monkey wings, in which I started diving at the Invasion. This is a really nice wing, in which I have tried a few different tank combinations with.

*Thumbs up!* Thank  you, Light Monkey!

Forest Rothchild did a write-up of his thoughts on the Invasion. Thank you, Forest!

Forest’s Write-Up

More pics from the Brockville Invasion…

Then came the Kingston Invasion, which was smaller this year, but still much fun!

After the Invasions, we were finally able to meet Heleen and Sander, who came to visit us from Holland. They had been to Alberta for a week, before seeing us, then we took them out for some dives, and to see the infamous plane! We had been looking forward to meeting them for a few years, and the time finally came! w00t!!!

Here are Heleen’s videos, from the Quarry, Kinghorn and the Back Mine!

http://www.wethorse.nl/movies/Canada_quarry_kinghorn.html

http://www.wethorse.nl/movies/Canada_Backmine.html

I then took a trip to Seattle, while Steve left for his RB80 training, where I met some of the coolest kids on the block, and the “AGGAST” sisters were born! Leg Number One of the AGGAST (All Girls GUE All Star Team) sisters world adventures. This was the first time I had been in salt water, since before I had any GUE training. That is, apart from below the halocline… 😛 What an amazing place to dive, and a really fantastic GUE community. I can see why people love diving here! There are octos and wolf eels, and so much life! Anyone hiring in Seattle?

We even witnessed an octopus riding a wolf eel!

Laurynn’s video of the underwater rodeo!

My videos of Keystone Jetty (GUE day) and the Day Island Wall…

When Steve got back from his RB80 training, he hit the water with Blake and Steve S.

I ventured out with some other friends, too.

At the end of October, a group of us headed down to Mexico, for two weeks of Cave Diving Goodness. A few were taking Cave 1, a few taking Cave 2, and a few of us just going diving! We did some absolutely amazing dives, and each day, the dives seemed to be even more amazing, topping it off with a dive at Ox Bel Ha, on our last day.

One of our favourites was going to the Boa Restriction, in Grand Cenote/Sac Actun. Gorgeous cave and a lot of fun! Another highlight was Tux Ka Paxa, where we saw Mastadon bones. Just an absolutely incredible trip! That is, when we finally got there, and finally got our rental car. 😉 We even saw a Puma cross a jungle road, but still no “Tadantulas.” Well.. at least Steve and I didn’t see one. It seems everyone else did!

Me, in Dos Ojos…

Back to Canada, we went, where the water was significantly chillier than in the Mexico cavezzz… We still managed over an hour on the triggers!

Throughout the year, we made a couple more attempts at finding that darn truck, including the beginning of December.

We still haven’t found that thing, which brings us to the end of four years of looking for it. I think the other people that have seen it are photoshopping it into their pictures. Either that, or they move it, every time we go looking for it! 😀 Maybe next year! At least I got my new Santi undergarments in time for winter diving!

That brings us full circle, preparing for our season of winter ice diving. We recently went out to the quarry, to put in some “permanent lines,” for easier ice diving reference!

In between all of these adventures were also Fundamentals classes, in which Steve was teaching, and I was helping. Allan came up to intern, too!

I also had two photos chosen by National Geographic, in their Daily Dozen. At least one of them was supposed to have made it into the magazine, but I have no idea which issue. Two of them were made into Nat Geo wallpaper downloads. Thank you, Nat Geo! w00t!

A Year In Video…

If Steve and I have half of the adventures in 2012, that we had in 2011, we will be very lucky! *Cheers* to happy and safe Diving Goodness in 2012! Let the planning begin!!


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Categories : Wow... 2011!

Mexico Part 4 of 4 ~ Our Last Week…

10 11 2011

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 ~

Breakfast, shop, then off to  Chan Hol! Another cave that we hadn’t been to!

We were following Mike and Jen along the highway, and wondered if we had gone too far, until we pulled up to a nice fellow’s house. He obviously takes very good care of his property… including the large stone wall that was put up around one side of the cave entrance.

Frankie, Steve, and I were a team, and Mike and Jen were a team. The three of us brought two stages with us, which was a bit of overkill, but we weren’t sure what to expect, so we were prepared. The entry was basically blind. The line starts in open water, and you need to hold on to it, as you go in. Once in, the visibility clears right up, and you get to a T. We were going to follow the line to the left on the first dive, for 45 minutes, then turn it, drop our bottles, and do a second dive to the right of the first T. I was #1, Steve was #2, and Frankie was #3.

So.. in we went, and sure enough, after the blind entry down a slope, and a few gentle kicks through, the visibility turned from chocolate milk to crystal clear water. We reached the first T, dropped our cookies, and continued to the left. We made another left at the second T, dropped our first stage bottles, and after 45 minutes, we made our way back. We didn’t even touch the second stage bottles.

Bottom Time ~ 1 hour, 30 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 38′
Water Temp. ~ 77

Now, to the right! We just used back gas for this one, and as we followed the line to the right, it bent around, and we saw lights ahead.. Er.. huh? It seems that the line to the right wraps around to the line on the left, and is part of the 2nd T that we had reached on Dive 1. Fancy that… so.. we decided to turn around, and jump a little. We followed one jump line that came to an end, so we decided to come back to the main line and take another one. This one kept going, and squeezed into a narrow calcite bedding plane, where we turned around. Very neat cave.

As we came back to the first T, there was a note from Jen, making sure that we looked up onto the shelf, to see some pots, bones, and a monkey skull. How cool was that? Very.. We came back up the slope, through the zero vis, and back into the pool! Great dives!

Bottom Time ~ 1 hour, 4 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 38′
Water Temp. ~ 77

Back to the shop, hotel, and Asian themed dinner. Then.. sleep…

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 ~

After breakfast, we were extremely lazy. We decided to have our nap first, then go to the shop. These long swimming dives were tiring (hehe). We finally got out the door at 10:30am, and went over to the shop. Today, we were going to Dos Ojos. Steve and I had only ever done cavern dives here. Steve, Frankie, and I were Team C2, and Eric and Andy were Team C1. We also noticed that Danny’s truck was there, so we figured we would run into him, with Kirill and Maxim, on their scooter workshop at some point.

Since we had not been to the main line here, we knew that there were a few lines for the cavern, but weren’t sure which one to take, to get to the main line. We all did our gear checks, and as we were about to descend, we saw the scooter fellas come in. We waited for them to surface, and Danny gave us some instructions. Thank you, Danny!

We followed the cavern line past the alligator and Barbie, then jumped over to the main line. There was a jump at the alligator and Barbie, but we decided to take the second one. Eric and Andy had started their line in Open Water, and tied into the main line.

Some very cool cave back here. There were many decorations, and some of them “dipped in chocolate sauce.” I think I like that phrase. :p There were even giant chocolate chandeliers. It seemed that there was more silt on the floor in this system, and we spent quite a lot of our dive at 18′. We reached the end of the line, then jumped on to.. gold line? Yes.. we actually jumped on to gold line, from twisted line. We followed this line into about 2′ of water, where we surfaced into a dome. We did not see any openings, but there were some bats flying around, so we figured there had to be a little one, somewhere.

We had been swimming for over an hour, so we decided to turn around. I really liked the decorations here. It was a very interesting cave to see. Frankie had his camera with him, and filmed on the way in.

As we got back to the cavern line, we saw a fellow with a camera, who took a few pics of us.

Frankie in front, me in tow. Steve was behind me…

Me, with Steve behind…

Steve…

Frankie, Me, Steve…

Bottom Time ~ 2 hours, 7 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 25′
Water Temp. ~ 77

After our dive, we chatted with Danny for a while, and waited for Eric and Andy to finish their dives. Friday, we were going to join them at Ox Bel Ha. Yes, please!!

We made our way back to the shop, hotel, then to dinner! Tonight was Mexican night! w00 h00!

We made it an early night, and it seemed that I had the beginnings of an ear infection… *sniff*

Thursday, October 13th, 2011 ~

Since I had been up most of the night , and my ear was bugging me a little, I decided not to dive today. I still got up early, to meet everyone for breakfast, and although I really did want to dive, I really wanted to go to Ox Bel Ha the following day, and decided I would rather do that, than risk making my ear worse, today. It was also raining like crazy.

It seems that whenever it rains, the internet doesn’t work, here. It made for a bit of a boring day. I couldn’t even go to the beach or pool, with the amount of rain that was coming down, so the TV was the only entertainment that I had.

When the rain finally let up, I went out to the pool. Jen and Mike were out there, so I finally had some company! There were a bunch of people beside us, that had a neat looking drink. We asked them what it was, and so began a new drink.. The Banana Mama. It was extremely tasty! As everyone came back from their dives, they all trickled into the pool, where we had some fun. We had no-fin backfinning and heli turn contests… Yes, we are geeks…

For dinner, we headed down to Latitude 20º, where we met Fred, Angelica, and Chris for dinner. The food was quite yummy, and they had some seriously decadent cheesecake!

We walked back to the resort, and… sleeeeeeeep.

Friday, October 14th, 2011 ~

Today would be our last day of diving, before heading home tomorrow. Steve, Frankie, and I got up early, got our stuff ready, and had a quick breakfast at 7am, getting to the shop around 7:30am. We loaded up the cars with gear, and followed Danny to Yax Chen.

On the way over, the rain was holding off, but the sky was extremely dark. When we passed by the ocean, we noticed that the waves were huge, and seemed angry. The picture does not do the ocean and waves justice. That, and it was taken in a moving car…

When we arrived at the property, we were able to bring our gear down to the water before the rain came, and then it started to really come down.

Path to the water…

The entrance…

You have to love the Emergency Blow Whistle…

Thank goodness for the little covered tent that the owners had up, that we hung out under, as we went through our dive plan, and Danny gave us directions.

The water on the surface was a rusty red colour, for about 4′, then cleared up a little, below it. Danny ran a line for us, to get to the cave entrance. It was a good swim in open water, before we would reach it. We got to the main line, and calculated our thirds, as well as our gas turn pressures, with our two stages each.

There were tetras in this system that had evolved to be able to survive in this environment, and did not require oxygen in the water. They would actually come to the surface to get their 02. They are unique to this system.

Into the cave… This one was very different from other Mexico caves that we had been in. It was very dark, silty, and had a bit of flow. The line was white and very thin, but was covered in algae and silt. There are styrofoam balls marking each 1000′ into the cave, and sample stations throughout. There were even little patches of white on the floor of the cave, that looked like little patches of snow. When I asked about them later, I was told that it was bacteria. There were also many crab bones.

We swam through three different cenotes on the way through, seeing huge mangrove roots, and very large tarpin. It was extremely cool to look up and see the red/orange tannic layer. We passed through the “L-Shaped” Cenote, and made it through to the Hydrogen Sulphide layer. Because of the rain, it wasn’t as distinct of a layer, sitting on top of the halocline, but you could still clearly see that it was the H2S layer. It was pretty cool to descend through it and the halocline simultaneously.

We were close to our 2nd stage drop, and I signaled to Steve and Frankie… “Drop stages, or swim back?” We had already been swimming for 90’ish minutes, and still had to swim out. We opted to turn it.

Seeing some of the small openings in the cave were pretty amazing, with ambient light coming through. I am sure that it would have been much more dramatic, had it not been pouring rain, but it was still a pretty incredible experience.

As we came out of the cave, I picked up the reel, and started to reel in. That was one honkin’ big reel! Steve asked me a couple of times if I wanted him to take over, but I waved him off… until I had been reeling in for about 10 minutes. I then asked him if he wanted to take over. He did, and after a bit, handed it off to Frankie. As we came closer to the dock, I saw Danny’s scooter from the corner of my eye, then I went for a ride! I was giggling my fool head off, as Danny had grabbed me by the manifold, and given me a lift! Thanks, Danny! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!  

Bottom Time ~ 2 hours, 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 40′
Water Temp. ~ 78F (a little cooler on the surface)
Visibility ~ Not as clear as the other Mx caves, but still very good. Our lights were swallowed in certain sections.

As we got out, the rain was still coming down, which didn’t make for decent pictures, but I did get a couple.

Dark sky…

As we doffed our gear, Steve had the hatch to change under, and since we were kind of up against a palm tree, I moved a couple of branches over the rear passenger door, to shelter me. It was actually quite effective.

What an amazing day, and a privilege to be able to dive here. It was something that I will never forget, and hope to do again.  This was a pretty epic way to cap off our diving.

We headed back to the shop to drop off our tanks, strip our gear, pay our bills, and say our goodbyes (*sniff*). We also ran into Robert and Ward, from the Netherlands!

Thanks so much to everyone at Zero Gravity, for making our trip extra wonderful. Chris, Fred, Danny, Angelica, Jorge, Rosa… You all ROCK! Thank you!!!

We headed back to the resort, where the fellow met us to pick up our rental car. We took all of our gear out, handed over the keys, and went back to our room to hang everything up. I don’t think our drysuit underwear dried once, during the entire trip!

Dinner… sleep…

Saturday, October 15th, 2011 ~

Rain rain rain rain rain……. We went for breakfast, packed some, relaxed a bit, then checked out. The rain was coming down like crazy, and umbrellas were a  hot commodity. We all met in the lobby, loaded our cases near the bus, and climbed aboard. Next stop, Cancun airport…

Wow.. I think all of us came close to getting sick on the bus. The driver was putting his foot on the pedal, off of the pedal, on the pedal, off of the pedal.. ooh boy.. We did all make it, without losing our lunch.. barely. :p

We checked in, and went to TGIFriday’s, where we got to listen to Erasure tracks, and have some grub, before taking off.

Dear Mexico… We will be back. Thank you for the cavezzzzz!!


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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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