JamesK
Contributor
Diving, Mexican style.....
Well, I am back from my nice trip to Mexico. The trip was a lot of fun. Heck it was a freggin blast! I really enjoyed it. I am having problems trying to come up with a good report to describe this trip and the diving. I will try my best to convey my feelings, as I do not remember the names of all of the rooms we visited, or the penetrations distances. Besides, who cares about penetration when you could spend an hour in the first 50 feet of the cave and never get bored.
We flew down on September 4th. It was Stan, Dale, and myself (I know that you probably dont know the names, but I will use them anyway). We got there 2.5 hours early, and had no line. Our Pelican cases were all too heavy, and we had to remove our backplates and place them in our suitcase to avoid overweight charges. Dale got hassled in security because he put the stuff in his carry on bag. They did not say anything about his backplate, or his z-knife, but they wanted to confiscate his 9/16th wrench, idiots. Anyway, the flight was great, and my nice large business class seat was very welcome as I needed some rest. However, the lady next to me made me mad, that is a different story though.
When we arrived in Mexico, I thought I was going to melt! Good lord it was hot! It was very nice to get into the rental car and turn on the a/c. The place we stayed at was very nice, it was called Vista Del Mar. It is a 3 bedroom/3 bath condo overlooking Half Moon Bay in Akumal. The view was gorgeous, and so far I am loving Mexico. That night we headed over to our friends house, got our gear ready, and headed into Playa Del Carmen for a dinner at TGIFridays.
Thursday Sept 5th
Well, today is my birthday, and the diving is going to be great! I forgot my "Happy B-Day To Me" sign that I was going to hold underwater for a picture, bummer.
We got up in the morning, picked up our guide/friend and headed to Hidden Worlds to get some tanks. Dale found his new love, Buddy Quattlebaums pet monkey named Lola. The monkey took to Dale quick and would not let him put her down. When he tried, she would scream and blow him kisses. Of course, Dale caught a good natured ribbing from me on that one. From Hidden Worlds, we headed out to Cenote Cristal, AKA Carwash. If you have never been there, Carwash has an upstream, and a downstream cave system. The pool is rather large when compared to places like Peacock. We started to gear up, and Dale realized he forgot his wetsuit back at the room. He went back to get it, while we geared up. I decided to jump into the water to get a quick weight check, and check out the basin. The water was in the 80s on the surface, but dropped to 77 after 5 feet. The top of the basin was covered in algae bloom, but under the thermocline, it was crystal clear.
Dale got back and geared up, so we all headed in. The cave was beautiful. While our guide ran the mainline, I found myself lost in my own head as I stared back at the cavern entrance. It was Huge! The cavern was beautiful. I could have spent the entire day diving in that, and not gotten bored. Anyway, we continued to head in. I can not even describe what I felt on that first dive. I was overwhelmed and in awe as I stared at the inside of these caves. I could not believe the size of the tunnels, and how beautiful the formations were. Stan told me that once I saw the caves there, I would think Florida caves were mudholes. Well, he was right, but I still love my mudholes. We were about 35-40 minutes into the dive when my head started squealing! My ears were blocked bad! I had never had pain like that, and had to fight to keep my eyes from watering. I turned the dive, and we headed back out. Stan came over to see if I was alright, and I signaled that we needed to leave, fast. When we got to the primary, we had a slight communications breakdown. Dale started to help our guide with the line, and that was not liked. The guide wanted no help at all. Stan also wanted to stop for 3 minutes at 15ft, and signaled us. Our guide did not understand, because he only flashed 3 to us. Dale and I knew what that meant, but the guide was not sure what he was saying. The guide wanted to know 3 what? However, with the three of us diving together all of the time, we knew what was asked.
Anyway, after the dive, we had a rather heated discussion about those things. There were no hard feelings, so we decided to make a second dive. After all, we are all friends, and it was just simple communication errors.
Well, my second set of 80s was only filled to 1100psi, so I kept my originals on since they still had 2200psi in them. We decided to make a short dive. Well, remember when I said I could dive the cavern all day? I got my chance. Once in the cavern my ears started hurting again. I could not go below 20ft. I signaled to them to continue, and I stayed behind. I dove in the cavern for a while just playing around and practicing reel work. Like I said, the cavern was amazing. I can not even begin to describe what it was like. It was by far the best cavern dive I have ever had.
Sept 6th
Today we decided to do some ocean diving. We booked a 2 dive trip with Akumal Dive Center, and headed out. The little boats they use are cool. The boat ride was only 3 minutes, so after the dive, we came back to shore for lunch and to switch tanks. The dive was great. Max depth was about 94ft, but that was only in the channels between the reef. Average depth was about 80 feet, and the marine life was abundant. The second dive was just as good. It was about 50ft deep and lasted about an hour. On the second dive, it was only the three of us and the DM. He saw how we dove on the first dive, and let us do what we wanted on the second dive.
Well, we enjoyed the dives so much, we decided to book a night dive. So later in the evening we went back and had some more fun. However, there was another group of 4 divers with us, and they were not very skilled. I found myself watching them too much. They spent so much time dinking around, that they missed 2 octopus, 4 eel, and about 5 lobster. One even went rocketing to the surface. I went to ten feet and checked on him, when his buddy finally came up to get him. The dive was still very enjoyable though.
When we got back to the room that afternoon though, we realized that 2700pesos was stolen. That is $300 in USD. That would cut into our diving for the trip.
Sept 7th
We decided not to dive at all this day. Instead we went shopping for gifts for the wives/girlfriend. Later in the evening, Dale and I snorkeled in the bay for about an hour and a half. It was great. About 1000ft out, we were only in 15ft of water. It was just as good as the ocean diving the day before. There was tons of coral, fish, and even a large ray.
Sept 8th
Back into the caves! Today we were going to dive Dos Ojos through the Bat Cave. We got to Hidden Worlds, and Lola recognized Dale and went nuts. That monkey was in love! We hopped in El Animal, one of the Buddy Mobiles, and headed into the jungle. This was a lot different than Carwash, as CW is right on one of the main roads. This was way back in the jungle. So bad cool!
Well we got to the Bat Cave, and I jumped off El Animal and headed right over to the hole. Yes, it is a hole. It is about 3-4 feet wide, and goes down about 30 feet or so. You set up your gear topside and climb down in. The gear is then lowered down to you. Inside the Bat Cave it opens up into a large domed room. A platform was built in the middle so you can get into your gear. They have also added lights from the ceiling since hardly any comes in from the hole in the ceiling.
We started our first dive, and I was really uncomfortable. My tank bands were too low, and causing the manifold to hit my head. I almost called the dive for being uncomfortable. I stuck with it though, and am glad I did. We headed towards another cenote, and surfaced there. That was about a 45 minute trip. It was gorgeous. It was even more beautiful than Carwash. I could not believe anything was more beautiful than Carwash, but I was wrong. On the way out, I spent even more time enjoying the formations, and the beams of light that penetrated from small holes in the ceiling. It was breathtaking.
After we finished having lunch, and the mosquitoes finished having theirs, we went in for another dive. This time we headed down one of the lines that was used in filming the IMAX Journey Into Amazing Caves. I can see why they choose this line! (BTW, I bought the movie and it is so bad cool!) The cave was almost pristine down the line. When we came back out, something was wrong. We saw what appeared to be the entrance we came in from, but it was dark. Luckily our guide knew what was going on. The generator ran out of gas, so we had no light in the Bat Cave.
Dos Ojos was simply amazing. I wish that I had the time and money to spend and dive the entire system. It would take months, but it would be worth it!
Sept 9th
Today was the day for TajMahal! So after getting the tanks back from Hidden Worlds, and Dale talking to his new girlmonkey, we headed that way.
TajMahal is a sink where the water sits about 30 feet below the regular ground. It is a slippery rock step walk down to the pool, and the surface of the basin is not that large.
We had decided that we wanted to do one good dive, and then a slow picture taking tour. On our first dive I really enjoyed the vast changes in the cave. This was my favorite cave dive ever. The cave went from a low ceiling, to a narrow vertical fissure, to a large room. It did this over and over again. You never knew what it was going to be like around the next corner. The ceiling was very soft in this cave. Exhaust bubbles continually brought down pieces of cave. No formations, just flecks and small rocks. With the brilliant white of the cave, it frequently looked like it was snowing. This 1 hour and 15 minute dive seemed way too short. If I could do one dive over and over again, it would be that one.
On the second dive, we wanted to keep the penetration short. So we played in the cavern taking pictures for a while. The cavern here is HUGE. You would swear you are back in the cave, and then you turn around and see light! Amazing! When we finally did enter the cave, we went to an area called the Pit. It is not far in at all. It is about a 40ft tube that goes down to 80ft deep. It is at about a 60 degree angle and about 5 feet across. At the bottom are a bunch of bones and the remains of a camp fire. Obviously this was a cavemans lunch table at one time. It was very cool to see though. On the way out we had some problems. Someone in front of me kicked the floor/wall on accident. It quickly became a total siltout. It was like diving in white paint. I waited for Dale, who was behind me to establish touch contact, so we could continue our exit. Well, this was not liked by the guide who thought I was taking too much time in the tube. I felt my face slam against the rock wall twice as the guide tried to shove me out of the tube. I was finally upended, turtled, peeved off, and stuck to the ceiling. Luckily, I was in a spot that had no stalactites to break off. It would have made me feel even worse if I destroyed some of the formations. Dale had made his way out of the tube, and I could vaguely make out his shape and the glow from his light. Vis was slightly improved near the ceiling, with almost 3 feet of vis. I found the line and tried to orient myself to the cave. I saw the glow from the others HIDs up ahead, so I went in that direction on the line. Between a stirred up halocline, and the silt from the pit vis was only about 5-10 feet. In about 20 feet, the silt cleared, and the vis improved noticeably. The only thing disrupting it was the halocline. I got off the line and joined the group. After this the dive was over, and we headed out. I had to stop myself from being VERY mad on the surface. After everything was explained to me, I calmed down. The guide thought I was worried froze up. When in reality, I was very calm and simply waiting for my team member to join me for the exit. Simple miscommunication from not diving together before.
Remember when I said it looked like it was snowing? Well, it was an avalanche apparently. When we got out, Dale and Stan told me of the rocks they saw break loose from my bubbles and land on my tanks. I never even noticed it. One was the size of a baseball, and we even have a picture of that one. The other was the size of a football. If bubbles alone can do this, imagine what a collision with the ceiling can do!
Sept 10th
Today was a day of decisions. After having money stolen from us, we were going to be tight on cash. We decided to leave a day early, and fly out on Sept 11th. So today we decided to visit a local cave called Aktun-Chen. It means "cave with cenote inside" in Mayan. It is a basic "touristy" dry cave. They have added lights inside, but did an excellent job of hiding everything. You could not see any wires or exposed bulbs. It was really nice, and I would recommend it to anyone as a last day before you fly type deal.
The flight home was uneventful. Well aside from Dale and Stan getting all of their luggage searched. I settled into my nice comfy seat and drifted off into a much needed sleep.
Besides the problems we had, and the people in Playa Del Carmen trying to sell me everything, including drugs and their sisters, it was a great trip. I can not wait until we go again next year!
Well, I am back from my nice trip to Mexico. The trip was a lot of fun. Heck it was a freggin blast! I really enjoyed it. I am having problems trying to come up with a good report to describe this trip and the diving. I will try my best to convey my feelings, as I do not remember the names of all of the rooms we visited, or the penetrations distances. Besides, who cares about penetration when you could spend an hour in the first 50 feet of the cave and never get bored.
We flew down on September 4th. It was Stan, Dale, and myself (I know that you probably dont know the names, but I will use them anyway). We got there 2.5 hours early, and had no line. Our Pelican cases were all too heavy, and we had to remove our backplates and place them in our suitcase to avoid overweight charges. Dale got hassled in security because he put the stuff in his carry on bag. They did not say anything about his backplate, or his z-knife, but they wanted to confiscate his 9/16th wrench, idiots. Anyway, the flight was great, and my nice large business class seat was very welcome as I needed some rest. However, the lady next to me made me mad, that is a different story though.
When we arrived in Mexico, I thought I was going to melt! Good lord it was hot! It was very nice to get into the rental car and turn on the a/c. The place we stayed at was very nice, it was called Vista Del Mar. It is a 3 bedroom/3 bath condo overlooking Half Moon Bay in Akumal. The view was gorgeous, and so far I am loving Mexico. That night we headed over to our friends house, got our gear ready, and headed into Playa Del Carmen for a dinner at TGIFridays.
Thursday Sept 5th
Well, today is my birthday, and the diving is going to be great! I forgot my "Happy B-Day To Me" sign that I was going to hold underwater for a picture, bummer.
We got up in the morning, picked up our guide/friend and headed to Hidden Worlds to get some tanks. Dale found his new love, Buddy Quattlebaums pet monkey named Lola. The monkey took to Dale quick and would not let him put her down. When he tried, she would scream and blow him kisses. Of course, Dale caught a good natured ribbing from me on that one. From Hidden Worlds, we headed out to Cenote Cristal, AKA Carwash. If you have never been there, Carwash has an upstream, and a downstream cave system. The pool is rather large when compared to places like Peacock. We started to gear up, and Dale realized he forgot his wetsuit back at the room. He went back to get it, while we geared up. I decided to jump into the water to get a quick weight check, and check out the basin. The water was in the 80s on the surface, but dropped to 77 after 5 feet. The top of the basin was covered in algae bloom, but under the thermocline, it was crystal clear.
Dale got back and geared up, so we all headed in. The cave was beautiful. While our guide ran the mainline, I found myself lost in my own head as I stared back at the cavern entrance. It was Huge! The cavern was beautiful. I could have spent the entire day diving in that, and not gotten bored. Anyway, we continued to head in. I can not even describe what I felt on that first dive. I was overwhelmed and in awe as I stared at the inside of these caves. I could not believe the size of the tunnels, and how beautiful the formations were. Stan told me that once I saw the caves there, I would think Florida caves were mudholes. Well, he was right, but I still love my mudholes. We were about 35-40 minutes into the dive when my head started squealing! My ears were blocked bad! I had never had pain like that, and had to fight to keep my eyes from watering. I turned the dive, and we headed back out. Stan came over to see if I was alright, and I signaled that we needed to leave, fast. When we got to the primary, we had a slight communications breakdown. Dale started to help our guide with the line, and that was not liked. The guide wanted no help at all. Stan also wanted to stop for 3 minutes at 15ft, and signaled us. Our guide did not understand, because he only flashed 3 to us. Dale and I knew what that meant, but the guide was not sure what he was saying. The guide wanted to know 3 what? However, with the three of us diving together all of the time, we knew what was asked.
Anyway, after the dive, we had a rather heated discussion about those things. There were no hard feelings, so we decided to make a second dive. After all, we are all friends, and it was just simple communication errors.
Well, my second set of 80s was only filled to 1100psi, so I kept my originals on since they still had 2200psi in them. We decided to make a short dive. Well, remember when I said I could dive the cavern all day? I got my chance. Once in the cavern my ears started hurting again. I could not go below 20ft. I signaled to them to continue, and I stayed behind. I dove in the cavern for a while just playing around and practicing reel work. Like I said, the cavern was amazing. I can not even begin to describe what it was like. It was by far the best cavern dive I have ever had.
Sept 6th
Today we decided to do some ocean diving. We booked a 2 dive trip with Akumal Dive Center, and headed out. The little boats they use are cool. The boat ride was only 3 minutes, so after the dive, we came back to shore for lunch and to switch tanks. The dive was great. Max depth was about 94ft, but that was only in the channels between the reef. Average depth was about 80 feet, and the marine life was abundant. The second dive was just as good. It was about 50ft deep and lasted about an hour. On the second dive, it was only the three of us and the DM. He saw how we dove on the first dive, and let us do what we wanted on the second dive.
Well, we enjoyed the dives so much, we decided to book a night dive. So later in the evening we went back and had some more fun. However, there was another group of 4 divers with us, and they were not very skilled. I found myself watching them too much. They spent so much time dinking around, that they missed 2 octopus, 4 eel, and about 5 lobster. One even went rocketing to the surface. I went to ten feet and checked on him, when his buddy finally came up to get him. The dive was still very enjoyable though.
When we got back to the room that afternoon though, we realized that 2700pesos was stolen. That is $300 in USD. That would cut into our diving for the trip.
Sept 7th
We decided not to dive at all this day. Instead we went shopping for gifts for the wives/girlfriend. Later in the evening, Dale and I snorkeled in the bay for about an hour and a half. It was great. About 1000ft out, we were only in 15ft of water. It was just as good as the ocean diving the day before. There was tons of coral, fish, and even a large ray.
Sept 8th
Back into the caves! Today we were going to dive Dos Ojos through the Bat Cave. We got to Hidden Worlds, and Lola recognized Dale and went nuts. That monkey was in love! We hopped in El Animal, one of the Buddy Mobiles, and headed into the jungle. This was a lot different than Carwash, as CW is right on one of the main roads. This was way back in the jungle. So bad cool!
Well we got to the Bat Cave, and I jumped off El Animal and headed right over to the hole. Yes, it is a hole. It is about 3-4 feet wide, and goes down about 30 feet or so. You set up your gear topside and climb down in. The gear is then lowered down to you. Inside the Bat Cave it opens up into a large domed room. A platform was built in the middle so you can get into your gear. They have also added lights from the ceiling since hardly any comes in from the hole in the ceiling.
We started our first dive, and I was really uncomfortable. My tank bands were too low, and causing the manifold to hit my head. I almost called the dive for being uncomfortable. I stuck with it though, and am glad I did. We headed towards another cenote, and surfaced there. That was about a 45 minute trip. It was gorgeous. It was even more beautiful than Carwash. I could not believe anything was more beautiful than Carwash, but I was wrong. On the way out, I spent even more time enjoying the formations, and the beams of light that penetrated from small holes in the ceiling. It was breathtaking.
After we finished having lunch, and the mosquitoes finished having theirs, we went in for another dive. This time we headed down one of the lines that was used in filming the IMAX Journey Into Amazing Caves. I can see why they choose this line! (BTW, I bought the movie and it is so bad cool!) The cave was almost pristine down the line. When we came back out, something was wrong. We saw what appeared to be the entrance we came in from, but it was dark. Luckily our guide knew what was going on. The generator ran out of gas, so we had no light in the Bat Cave.
Dos Ojos was simply amazing. I wish that I had the time and money to spend and dive the entire system. It would take months, but it would be worth it!
Sept 9th
Today was the day for TajMahal! So after getting the tanks back from Hidden Worlds, and Dale talking to his new girlmonkey, we headed that way.
TajMahal is a sink where the water sits about 30 feet below the regular ground. It is a slippery rock step walk down to the pool, and the surface of the basin is not that large.
We had decided that we wanted to do one good dive, and then a slow picture taking tour. On our first dive I really enjoyed the vast changes in the cave. This was my favorite cave dive ever. The cave went from a low ceiling, to a narrow vertical fissure, to a large room. It did this over and over again. You never knew what it was going to be like around the next corner. The ceiling was very soft in this cave. Exhaust bubbles continually brought down pieces of cave. No formations, just flecks and small rocks. With the brilliant white of the cave, it frequently looked like it was snowing. This 1 hour and 15 minute dive seemed way too short. If I could do one dive over and over again, it would be that one.
On the second dive, we wanted to keep the penetration short. So we played in the cavern taking pictures for a while. The cavern here is HUGE. You would swear you are back in the cave, and then you turn around and see light! Amazing! When we finally did enter the cave, we went to an area called the Pit. It is not far in at all. It is about a 40ft tube that goes down to 80ft deep. It is at about a 60 degree angle and about 5 feet across. At the bottom are a bunch of bones and the remains of a camp fire. Obviously this was a cavemans lunch table at one time. It was very cool to see though. On the way out we had some problems. Someone in front of me kicked the floor/wall on accident. It quickly became a total siltout. It was like diving in white paint. I waited for Dale, who was behind me to establish touch contact, so we could continue our exit. Well, this was not liked by the guide who thought I was taking too much time in the tube. I felt my face slam against the rock wall twice as the guide tried to shove me out of the tube. I was finally upended, turtled, peeved off, and stuck to the ceiling. Luckily, I was in a spot that had no stalactites to break off. It would have made me feel even worse if I destroyed some of the formations. Dale had made his way out of the tube, and I could vaguely make out his shape and the glow from his light. Vis was slightly improved near the ceiling, with almost 3 feet of vis. I found the line and tried to orient myself to the cave. I saw the glow from the others HIDs up ahead, so I went in that direction on the line. Between a stirred up halocline, and the silt from the pit vis was only about 5-10 feet. In about 20 feet, the silt cleared, and the vis improved noticeably. The only thing disrupting it was the halocline. I got off the line and joined the group. After this the dive was over, and we headed out. I had to stop myself from being VERY mad on the surface. After everything was explained to me, I calmed down. The guide thought I was worried froze up. When in reality, I was very calm and simply waiting for my team member to join me for the exit. Simple miscommunication from not diving together before.
Remember when I said it looked like it was snowing? Well, it was an avalanche apparently. When we got out, Dale and Stan told me of the rocks they saw break loose from my bubbles and land on my tanks. I never even noticed it. One was the size of a baseball, and we even have a picture of that one. The other was the size of a football. If bubbles alone can do this, imagine what a collision with the ceiling can do!
Sept 10th
Today was a day of decisions. After having money stolen from us, we were going to be tight on cash. We decided to leave a day early, and fly out on Sept 11th. So today we decided to visit a local cave called Aktun-Chen. It means "cave with cenote inside" in Mayan. It is a basic "touristy" dry cave. They have added lights inside, but did an excellent job of hiding everything. You could not see any wires or exposed bulbs. It was really nice, and I would recommend it to anyone as a last day before you fly type deal.
The flight home was uneventful. Well aside from Dale and Stan getting all of their luggage searched. I settled into my nice comfy seat and drifted off into a much needed sleep.
Besides the problems we had, and the people in Playa Del Carmen trying to sell me everything, including drugs and their sisters, it was a great trip. I can not wait until we go again next year!
