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!!


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Categories : Wow... 2011!

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! 🙂


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Wow... 2011!

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. 🙂


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Wow... 2011!

Mexico 2010 ~ Part 3 of 3 ~ Cave 2

4 01 2011

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 ~

Well, here we go…  Cave 2. We have spent the last week in the caves, so at least we had done quite a few dives beforehand. That, and we do consistantly work on skills at home, so we weren’t worried about that part… much… 🙂 Both Steve and I have been thinking about doing the course, but didn’t realize how quickly we’d be doing it. We did get to meet Ryan a couple of times before the course, who would be our team mate. Tom Karch was also co-teaching with Chris Le Maillot, as his last internship, to become a C2 instructor. I am not going to give away all of the details on our failures though.. I can’t give everything away. 🙂

The day started out with some line drills, discussion on deco, jumps, and many other wonderful details. The first two dives would be at Taj Mahal.

Dive 1

Main line, taking first jump to the left. We almost made it to the “T,” which was the plan, but had to turn on gas before we got there. On the way out, we had multiple light failures, and realigned the team accordingly. We did our “deco,” then surfaced and debriefed.

Bottom Time ~ 61 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 44′ (Avg. 33′)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Ryan, Me, Steve

Dive 2
Main line to DCS Dome, then a jump to the right. We had to locate the line (thanks for the help, Steve). We had even more light failures on the way out, as well as post failures, and a no vis exit to our deco bottles. Wow.. we had crappy luck…lol.

Bottom Time ~ 85 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 42′ (Avg. 23′)
Me, Steve, Ryan

After ascending and debriefing, we ducked back under for valve drills and S drills (13 mins. @ 7′).

We then packed up our gear, and back to the shop for lectures. We discussed training limits, cave composition, navigation, circuits and traverses, and were given some homework on stage gas management.

Then.. home.. homework.. sleep.. zzzzzzz….

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 ~

Today, we went to Mayan Blue, where we did two dives.

Dive 1 ~ Death Arrow Passage (wicked dive)

We entered A Tunnel, did a jump to the right, which took us down through a crack, and a very cool narrow passage. We navigated through the halocline and a couple of restrictive areas. We brought deco bottles on this dive, that we left at 20′.

Bottom Time ~ 67 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 77′ (Avg. 47′)
Water Temp. ~ 78
Steve, Ryan, me

Once in the basin, we dropped down for more valve and S drills.

Dive 2 ~ Circuit Set Up

This dive was to set up a circuit, to complete on tomorrow’s dive day. We entered A Tunnel, taking a jump to the right. We had a team cookie that we made up, and dropped it at the spot where we turned the dive. We left all cookies in, as well as the jump spool, and reel, that we would use tomorrow.

Bottom Time ~ 82 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 72′ (Avg. 47′)
Water Temp. ~ 78
Ryan, Me, Steve

We then headed back to the shop for more lectures! I now realize why people dive this system. It is absolutely awesome, off of the main line!

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Back to Mayan Blue to complete our circuit. We dropped our deco bottles at 20′, at the A Tunnel entrance, then went over to B Tunnel. What a wicked section of cave. We arrived at our “Team Cookie,” confirmed that we were going to continue on through the circuit, then away we went. It took us 22 minutes to get to our cookie. We removed our jump spool, cookies, and reel on our way out. What a cool dive!

Dive 1 ~ Complete Circuit

Bottom Time ~ 92 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 74′ (Avg. 43′)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Me, Steve, Ryan

Dive 2 ~ Valve Drills and Air Shares in Basin

Bottom Time ~ 13 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 13′ (Avg. 10′)
Water Temp. ~ 7
 

Dive 3 ~ B-E-F Tunnel (almost) 😉

The plan for this dive, was to use a stage and deco bottles, and take B to E to F Tunnels. There were absolutely amazing formations in this system, and I think I could dive it over and over again, without getting tired of it.

We dropped our deco bottles at 20′, then our stage bottles just before our drop pressures, which was right ahead of our jump to E Tunnel. Absolutely stunning cave. Unfortunately, we reached our turn pressures just before we reached the jump to F Tunnel. Oh well.. We made our way back to the main line, where we retrieved our stage bottles.. Uh ohh.. failures failures failures! We handled our failures, and made our way to the deco bottles, where we did our planned deco, surfaced, and debriefed. I think we did well on this one. 😉

Bottom Time ~ 90 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 78′ (Avg. 54′)
Water Temp. ~ 78
Steve, Ryan, Me

Dive 4 ~ No Vis Air Shares In Basin

Bottom Time ~ 29 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 15′ (Avg. 10′)
Water Temp. 77

Tom and Chris, as we brought our bottles to the water…

After our dives, we were making good time, so Chris took us to a fancy bakery in Tulum. Ryan, Steve, and I gathered a few treats for the way back, and an extra couple for the next day. Then, back to the shop for lectures.

After our lectures, we went over to the Chaudri (new supermarket) in search for some dinner. Instead, we found Angelica and Fred! 😀

Friday, December 10th, 2010 ~

Today, we headed back towards Mayan Blue, but went across to Cristal/Naharon instead. We hadn’t done this system before, and were eager to check it out. It was much darker cave, and was very large. Very cool stuff!

Dive 1 ~ Survey Skills

 
Our objective of the first dive was to work on survey skills. I really enjoyed this dive, and look forward to using these skills more. We took turns doing the different tasks at each station. We were also using stage and deco bottles. It was very dark cave at first, and once we went below the halocline, it was much whiter. There were some very highly decorated areas in this cave. The halocline was a bit deeper than some of the other cave systems we’ve been in, as it is farther from the ocean.

Bottom Time ~111 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 45′ (Avg. 36′)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Steve, Ryan, Me

Naharon…

Dive 2 ~ Lost Line Drills

This dive was a 2 jump dive, using back gas and a deco bottle. On our way back, we had the usual failures.. valves, lights, gas sharing etc. Once we reached the beginning of the main line, we dropped our stages, and were taken off the line for lost line drills, with blind folds on. Steve and Ryan found the line, and I could hear people giggling at me, as I felt my way up and around a rocky area. Bah… tap on the head.. drill over.. pft.. They told me afterwards, that I was about 6 inches away from the line, when I climbed up the rock. Apparently, I was not going far enough with my spool.. It did feel like it, but I guess your perception of “far enough” is a bit different when you’re blindfolded. Lol.

Bottom Time ~ 96 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 72′ (Avg. 36′)
Ryan, Me, Steve

Back to the shop again, where we had more discussions and lectures!

From there, we headed back to PA, where we joined Ryan, Liam, and Jesper for some spaghetti.

Saturday, December 11th, 2o1o ~

Well, today was the final day of the course. The three of us were definitely a bit tired, but were determined and ready for our  day’s dives at Car Wash.

Fred and Danny. Fred was working the fill station, as Jorge was taking a well-deserved day off…

When we arrived at Mayan Blue, we started off with the swim and breath hold tests. My fitness level was the only thing I was concerned about, when signing up for the course. My injuries had not been kind to me, over the last year, and my fitness level is lacking. Thank goodness I was able to get them in.. just… *Phew* Steve and Ryan were superstars.

Ryan, at the Car Wash basin…

Dive 1 ~ Satan’s Silthole ~ Downstream Line

I ran the reel on this one, Steve was 2, and Ryan was 3. This was a difficult line to find, but Tom gave us a bit of help in the right direction. When Tom moved aside, we still couldn’t see the line, but I do remember Chris saying to look up, so I did have my eyes peeled upward. Bingo! The line was covered in silt, which made me think that either this road hasn’t been traveled recently, or may be quite silty. This section of cave was slightly restrictive, and there were areas where you had to stay very low to the bottom of the cave, in order not to touch the ceilings. There was definitely alot of modified fluttering going on. Our limits on this dive were either on gas, or when we reached the 4th “T.” We ended up having to turn it at the 4th “T.” After turning the dive, we once again had failure after failure. I was on Steve’s long hose, then Ryan’s long hose, as well as light failures galore. We were extra relaxed in handling all of our failures today, after Chris and Tom’s demo the night before.. The Slow-Mo failure demo was very effective.. Thanks, Chris! 😉 We got to our deco bottles, where we did our deco and ascended. Extremely cool dive.

Bottom Time ~ 71 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 68′ (Avg. 53′)
Me, Steve, Ryan

Dive 2 ~ Rescues in the basin

We took turns carrying each other back and forth, across a line that Chris laid out for us, in the Basin. We managed to save each other. 🙂

Bottom Time ~ 27 mins.
Max. Depth ~17 ‘ (Avg. 11’)
Water Temp. ~ 77

Dive 3 ~ Upstream ~ Room Of Tears (almost)

Steve tied into the main line. There were alot of depth fluctuations in this system. We went past Luke’s Hope, where we took a jump to the left, down a slope, into a restriction. There were two other jump lines in as well. We made our way down, and there was definitely alot of silt here. The jump spool that we had turned out to be a bit short for the jump we were making, and in the process of attaching another one to it, and checking gas consumption, we made the decision that it wasn’t worth it to continue with the jump, and we turned the dive. Once we got back to an open area, Chris took me aside, and I was able to do the lost line drill again.

Woo Hoo! I found it! Thanks to my team mates for cheering me on.. You guys ROCK!

Bottom Time ~ 75 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 62′ (Avg. 31′)
Steve, Ryan, Me

Truck, following a runner, for Our Lady Of Guadalupe. We didn’t envy the people sitting on the back of that truck…

We returned to the shop once again, had another lecture, then.. exam time! We spent a couple of hours in the classroom, reviewed, and then… bah-bah-bah (drum roll)…. the three of us were congratulated with succeeding as Cave 2 divers.

This course was absolutely brilliant. I love how we had to always think outside of the box, and how much amazing cave was opened up to us. I really enjoyed refining my skills even more, and learning so much. Chris is an absolutely stellar instructor, and I really enjoyed learning from Tom as well. After our course, Tom was also signed off as a Cave 2 instructor. Way to go, Tom! You “done” good!

We headed back to PA, where we headed down to The Pub, for some Daquiri Fresas and some dinner. Jacob joined us for a drink as well. From there, we went back to the condo and packed… *sniff.*

We definitely had a fun-filled couple of weeks, seeing so many people that we haven’t seen in a while, as well as putting faces to names. We worked extremely hard  during our second week, but it paid off.

I must give an extra couple of high-fives to Angelica and Jorge. They run a tight ship at the shop, and even with so many people visiting and diving, all of our tanks were always filled and ready for us, all accounts were kept track of, and they always greeted us with smiles. Angelica is also a master card-maker! Thank you both so much!! xoxo We can’t wait to come back and see you!

Angelica, striking a pose…

Jorge…

Another thanks to the entire GUE crew, who made the Conference possible, and go off without a hitch. I bet it wasn’t easy to do, when it’s not on “home turf.” Thanks everyone!! 🙂

Sunday, December 12th, 2010 ~ Time to go…

We left the condo at 6:30 on the dot, and away we drove, to the airport. I will leave out the details on our police encounter, but we learned where we are not allowed to turn…

Our flight was amazing. I think I am now spoiled on the whole “direct flight” thing.

I am thankful that we did miss a bout of deep freeze and a snow storm at home, but we did come home to this…

Thank you Chris, Fred, Danny, Tom, Angelica, and Jorge! Thanks also to the entire GUE team, that made the Conference a success! See you soon!! :o)

Video to follow…


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : It's 2010!

Mexico ~ 2010 ~ Part 1 of 3

24 12 2010

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 ~

We were up and at ’em, out the door by 4:20am, and headed to the airport. We got through security fairly quickly, and while sitting in the lounge, heard them on the loud speaker.. “Last boarding call for Blake Wilson. Blake Wilson, final boarding call.” Doh!

We grabbed a quick bite at Timmy’s, and waiting for our flight to Toronto. Once there, we had an hour and a half wait for our connecting flight.

Once we arrived at the Cancun airport, we found all of our luggage, exchanged some deneros, then went out in search of our rental car company. Apparently, there are two with similar names.. EZ Way and Easy Way. The EZ Way guy tried to convince us that he was our guy, but we found the other fella behind him. Well.. he didn’t seem to have our names down, but I did have my print out from the net, so all was well.

We were taken a short drive to the rental car place, where it was not exactly on the main path. It looked a little scary, but our fears were eased quickly. They were very quick, friendly, and  honoured our online pricing.. which had been cut off on my print out. We were given a nice little Toyota SUV, that turned out to be the coolest dive mobile. We loaded it up with our suitcases, and started off for PA. The Climate Summit was going on as well, which led to a ton of military personnel everywhere… Trucks everywhere, machine guns on top of trucks, personnel hiding in the bushes.. all while burning cans of fuel, to block off lanes.

Rental car place…

Once we arrived, we really had no idea which condo we were in. We did some deduction, and figured it out. We went up the stairs, to the door, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Hummm…

Just then, Ralph came up the stairway, and it turned out that we were in the right place! w00t! We went in, ditched our stuff, then headed down to Gringo Daves. Mmmm.. chicken nachos. It made a nice snack to share, since we hadn’t eaten lunch.  Jen knew we were arriving today, and she had wandered a bit, then into Gringo Daves. Yippee!

We then headed over to The Pub with Jen, Ralph, Gina, Ed, Piotr, Chris, Olof, and Kathy. It was great to see everyone! We had another bite, and a couple of drinks, before heading back over to Gringo Daves, for a bit of Karaoke. Of course, I had to sing a couple of songs. It was alot of fun!

Monday, November 29th, 2010 ~

Let the diving begin!!

We made our way to Zero Gravity, where we met alot of the gang. We decided to head over to El Eden for the day’s diving. It turned out that Blake just made his flight, but he wasn’t too sure about his luggage. 🙂

Dive 1 ~ River Run Clockwise
Bottom Time ~ 38 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 46′ (Avg. 37′)
Water Temp. ~ 78
Visibility ~ Clear!
Steve, Me, Blake

Dive 2 ~ River Run Counter Clockwise
Bottom Time ~ 28 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 50′ (Avg. 34′)
Water Temp. ~ 78
Me, Blake, Steve

Dive 3 ~ River Run Counter Clockwise
Bottom Time ~ 38 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 50′ (Avg. 33′)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Me, Jen, Blake, Steve

Dive 4 ~ Cavern Line
Bottom Time ~ 36 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 38′ (Avg. 22′)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Jen, Me, Blake, Steve

We had some pretty awesome dives, and it felt really good to be back in the caves. We also saw Fred there, who was teaching a Cave 1 course.

There was some discussion about all of the Rock Boat sightings in the River, as well. 😉

We then went back to the shop, dropped off our tanks for fills, then went to get some groceries, in Playa. Dinner was at The Pub with Chris L., Tom K., David R., Bob S., Chris M., Piotr, Blake, Jen, and Lamont.

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 ~ Happy Birthday, Jen!

Today, we were going to Nahoch. Steve and I had still not been there, so we were really looking forward to this dive. A great one for Jen’s B’day too!

We packed a lunch, picked up our tanks, and packed the cars. A taxi pulled up, letting out a fella and his gear… “Are you guys going diving? I need a buddy!” He arrived just in the nick of time, and he filled Jen’s car with his gear. Hassan, nice to meet you!

We arrived at Nohoch, and we did make the first trek down with our doubles on our backs, but lowered our second sets down the rope. Thanks to the guys for that one.

Steve and I buddied up, Jen, Hassan, and Lamont were a team, and CMal and Piotr too. Ralph, Ed, and Gina were there ahead of us.

Wow.. what a stunning cave. I swear, it was like we were swimming through a Halloween movie. The stalactites, stalagmites, and columns were just incredible. There was one room that looked like there were a hundred different chess pieces from a scene out of Alice In Wonderland. Some broken, some just waiting to be played with. Call me crazy, but that’s what came to mind. In our swim through “Halloween-land,” it seemed like each room had a different gothic theme to it. Heaven’s Gates.. also amazing. This is definitely the coolest freakin’ cave I have ever been in.

Jen, Lamont, and Hassan were ahead of us, and them lighting up the cave for us was absolutely amazing. Thanks, guys!

One section had what looked like a giant pipe organ, with what could have been melted candle wax all down the sides. Another, was a giant section of more candle wax, sliding down to form the shape of a grand piano. There was even a shape that took the shape of what looked like Hobbes, from “Calvin & Hobbes,” columns that looked like stripper poles, even a giant slab of rock that looked like a boat ramp, and shapes that looked like religious figurines.

On the third dive, my light was flickering a little bit. I turned the dive on gas, and my light appeared to be fading a little. Just as I thought of pulling out my Heser backup to compare them… poof… my primary light went out. Heser, it is. I guess the battery was tired after three longer dives.

On the way out, both Steve and I were making animal shadows with our hands, and when I had my light turned, Steve would shine his light towards me, making a shadow of a giant “me,” ahead. That was cool!

Dive 1 ~ Main Line
Bottom Time ~ 57 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 24′ (Avg. 13′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

Dive 2 ~ Main Line
Bottom Time ~ 66 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 24′ (Avg. 13′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

Dive 3 ~ Parker Line
Bottom Time ~ 70 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 17′ (Avg. 12′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

After our dives, we dropped our tanks off, and headed back to the condo to hang up gear. We headed to The Pub again, meeting up with the usual suspects, as well as Maren, Dirk, Jesper, Thomas, and Jacob. It was great to see Jacob again!

We also noticed that at the entrance to PA, the security checks alot of the empty taxi cabs.. back seats and trunks. Interesting.

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 ~

Up and at ’em again, to the shop. Not before having my All Bran with Raisins, and Steve, his Zucaritas! We ran into the Florida crew, who had arrived the night before, and were also getting ready for some Diving Goodness.

Myself, Steve, Chris, Piotr, Jen, and Hassan headed down through Tulum, and over to Car Wash. Steve and I hadn’t been there before, and were looking forward to it. There were rumours of a croc in the basin, which I didn’t really need to see. Jen had seen him the week before.

Part of the basin…

Jen led us on three out of four dives, as she had been there before, and the lines were not that easy to find. We did the Upstream line twice, then to the Chamber Of The Ancients, then the Downstream line.

The Upstream line was pretty cool, but I think my favourite was the Downstream line. The Upstream line was darker cave, with alot of depth change. Luke’s Hope was pretty neat to swim through, as we passed through giant schools of fish. The Chamber Of The Ancients was also very cool. Jen found the line quite easily, which was sweet! We dropped through the halocline to enter, and once we had gotten in and looked around a bit, we noticed a couple of lights at the entrance of the room. At first, I thought that there were two divers, but then noticed that it was a primary light and a helmet light of one diver. It appeared that whoever it was, had followed us in.  As we turned to exit the room, the diver left in front of us, and was out of the water when we surfaced. He did come up to us afterwards though, to thank us for letting him follow our line…

The Downstream line is probably one of my favourites, so far. There was SO much to see! So many formations, columns, stalactites and stalagmites. It all looked like candle wax.. just stunning. I think I liked this line as much as I liked Nah0ch!

After our dives, we goofed off a bit, in the basin. We did not see the croc at all, but we did see a few turtles. Steve and Hassan were blowing water rings, while Piotr demonstrated his wonderful trim.. upside down, and fins pointing upward. 🙂 Jen and I resorted to somersaults. Thank goodness there were no other people there.. They probably would have had us all committed.

Dive 1 ~ Upstream
Bottom Time ~ 42 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 52′ (30′ Avg.)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Jen, Hassan, Steve, Me

Dive 2 ~ Upstream
Bottom Time ~ 52 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 52′ (27′ Avg.)
Steve, Me, Hassan, Jen

Dive 3 ~ Chamber Of The Ancients
Bottom Time ~ 33 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 88′ (50′ Avg.)
Jen, Hassan, Me, Steve

Dive 4 ~ Downstream
Bottom Time ~ 47 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 60′ (32′ Avg.)
Jen, Hassan, Me, Steve

After our dives, we headed back through Tulum, where we were slowed down by the military check point, then back to drop off our tanks. Kirill and Julia had arrived!

We went back to the condo, and readied ourselves for yet another night at The Pub. More people had arrived, and the tables grew. What an awesome day!

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 ~

We continued with our morning rituals, then headed to the shop. AM and JP met us there too. A gaggle of us headed over to Sac Actun/Grand Cenote. This would be another first for Steve and I.

There were some pretty amazing formations, large rooms, and some incredible ceilings. Some of the formations looked like incense cones, covered in candle wax. There were some really neat looking passages off of the main line, that looked really cool too. So many nooks and crannies that longed to be peeked in. One day!

We made it to a very short gap, that is at another cenote. Apparently, this is the only place where a Cave 1 diver is allowed to put a spool  in, to continue through. There is open water there, so it is permitted. This was pretty cool too. We went a short distance past this gap, then headed back. We decided to leave the reel in, as we were going to do another few dives.

After our second dive, we came up to switch tanks around and have some lunch. We ended up having a much longer lunch than we had planned, so we only ended up doing one more dive. We made it past the gap this time, and into a HUGE room. What a wicked freakin’ room. We turned the dive, right before the restriction, and brought the reel in.

Dive 1
Bottom Time ~ 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 39′ (Avg. 29′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

Dive 2
Bottom Time ~ 48 mins
Max. Depth ~ 39′

Dive 3
Bottom Time ~ 67 mins
Max. Depth ~ 38′

During our lunch break, we chatted and took some pics of the animals…

Again, we headed back to the shop, dropped off our tanks, chatted, checked e-mails, then back to the condo to shower and change.

For dinner, we went to Tu Parador, across from PA. What a great place! The owners were very friendly, the food was awesome, and the drinks were even better. They had so many variations of different fruity smoothies, that you could have with or without alcohol. They were all freshly made, and were incredible! Even Piotr’s wierd Onion concoction was good!

Next… GUE Conference begins!


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : It's 2010!

« Previous Entries Next Entries »