yak
Contributor
We arrived in Playa Del Carmen on the 8 AM ferry from Coz. Dennis Weeks from Diablo Divers was waiting on the pier, as usual. This would be my 3rd cenote dive with Dennis, and my 11th cenote dive overall, Jim's second cenote dive, and Jeff's virgin encounter. We swung by the fill station to grab Dennis' doubles, then visited his shop in Puerto Aventuras, where we loaded up on food from the market next door and grabbed a few things from the shop.
As we were heading out, Dennis asked us where we wanted to dive, and if we had any time constraints. We had all the time in the world, so that was not an issue. I had been trying to decide which cenote to bring Jeff to on his maiden voyage, and hadn't really settled in on one yet when Dennis asked us if we were up for an adventure. The three amigos - up for an adventure? Si Si Si!
Dennis told us about a cenote that he had visited first via a cave system, and more recently via the cenote opening. It was called "The Pit". It was a bit of a hike into the jungle from the road, and the entry involved ropes and leaping off the edge. (It was sounding better by the minute).
The Pit is part of Systema Dos Ojos, and was bout a mile or so back from Cenote Dos Ojos. The road to it was bit more primitive.
Along the way, Dennis provided his usual informative commentary about the surrounding jungles, pointing out the chicle trees, whose sap had been used to create gum - the original chiclets came from these trees. You can still see the cross-hatch cuts in the bark where they used to extract the sap:
We arrived and surveyed the surrounding jungle, noting that we would need to load all our gear on our backs and hike as far as the eye could see down this path:
We set up our gear by the side of the road, and carried our wetsuits. It was a hot slog through the heat of the jungle, and we arrived at the end of the path to find our little oasis down about a 20 foot drop from the set-up area. The light layer of dust and leaves on the surface prevented a clear view into the water, but every time the sun beamed down, the azure blue would light up the water as well as our imaginations.
Dennis gave us a briefing on our entry, which involved filling our bladders, then lowering our tanks down into the cenote (with the valves turned off in case of a freeflow). We would then jump off the cliff and don our gear in the water, and descend to the bas of the rubble cone at about 95 feet. As the picture above shows, one half of the cenote is sheer wall, while the other half is an overhang, which had stalactites decorating the ceiling. There were also two passages, the deeper one being Cardea, and the shallower one being Tikim Ich. Dennis walked down to the right to show us where the exit was, and was promptly stung right between the eyes by a bee. Now we knew that we had to move through there quickly. Dennis also pointed out the chem-chem tree along the exit path, and told us that a slight brush against the bark would cause painful skin blisters. Ok - watch the bees, watch the trees. Anything else - poisonous snakes, man-eating plants, ...?
Next, Dennis lowered our rigs down into the water.
And we did one giant stride down into the cool water.
We donned our rigs, did a bubble check, then slowly descended into another world. <I'll have to describe it the best I can, as I don't have a camera housing yet>.The base of the rubble cone was mainly sandy gravel, probably due to currents moving the silt away. I had been looking toward the wall on my descent, then at 95 feet I glanced over to my right and caught my first glimpse of a huge domed cavern. The lower part looked like it had been built out of large cobbles, with a defined strata layer from the various stages of water levels, and the coral-based rock layers between. As my eyes rose, I saw the ceiling, decorated with stalactites disappearing into shadows high above my head. Dennis had also briefed us on another phenomenon in The Pit - there's a layer of wispy milky-white clouds that are the result of some type of organic off-gassing. As we proceeded around the base of the pit, we descended into this wispy swirl of water and clouds, leveling off at about 130 feet. From there we circumnavigated the base. As we reached the furthest part of the base from the sheer wall of the cenote, we looked back through the haze and saw a huge, brilliant azure blue shaft of light descending from the surface. I knew I was close to heaven on earth. We navigated past the Carde Passage, shining our lights longingly at the crystal clear water disappearing though the shaft.
We gradually descended back through the milky layer, and around 50 feet we encountered the halocline, where salt water and fresh water mix. This was unlike any halocline I had seen before, as there was about a 10 foot layer of blurry water that was sandwiched both above and below by clear fresh water. As we reached 40 feet, we were at prime viewing depth to check out the stalactites that covered the ceiling like icicles. Dennis also pointed out some fossils imbedded in the walls, and we did another longing look down into the shaft leading to the Tikim Ich passage.
We ended the dive with a brief safety stop, then proceeded to doff our gear and tie it off to a rope, which Dennis retrieved as we were each climbing out, avoiding the bees and the trees. The hike back to the truck was a bit cooler, although my paper-thin booties were not the best choice for walking on hard coral.
Our second dive was at Taj Mahal. We walked down the steps
and ate lunch next to the cool blue water
while Dennis briefed us on the dive, the protocols, and the rule-of-thirds.
We geared up and giant-strode into the water, did our bubble check, and set out for the points of light room. The sun was working its magic, shining laser beams of blue-white light into the room. We proceeded further through waxy white speleotherms, into the sugar bowl, which was aptly named for the piles of white grains flowing down around the debris. Some where between the two rooms we encountered a more traditional halocline, and we spread out a bit to enjoy the view of the "false surface" that it created when viewed from below. We continued to the third room, named after someone whose name I can't remember, and returned on a different line, surfaced for a few minutes in a room with a large opening, then submerged through the sugar bowl again and approached the points of light from the other direction. I noticed that the shaft of light took a sharp angle above the surface, almost like an elbow, from the refraction. Along our way back we noticed the collapsed sections of ceiling that had stalactites hanging off at odd angles, and I hoped that the gods were pleased with my visit.
The interesting thing about these two dives was that while Taj Mahal is more beautifully decorated that the Pit, I found the Pit to be a more fascinating dive, with the eerie layer of clouds at depth, and the fantastic view looking back at the opening.
I found this little fella at the water's edge,
and Dennis pointed out the mot mot birds that live in the cenotes, noting that the ancient Mayans used to follow the calls of the mot mot to find cenotes deep in the jungle.
We stopped by the shop again on our return, and we wandered around Puerto Aventuras, checking out all the captive sealife such as this poor fella:
Dennis dropped us at our hotel in PDC, and we said our goodbyes, promising to do it again next year. Until then, the next time someone says "this place is the pits" - I'll be dreaming...
As we were heading out, Dennis asked us where we wanted to dive, and if we had any time constraints. We had all the time in the world, so that was not an issue. I had been trying to decide which cenote to bring Jeff to on his maiden voyage, and hadn't really settled in on one yet when Dennis asked us if we were up for an adventure. The three amigos - up for an adventure? Si Si Si!
Dennis told us about a cenote that he had visited first via a cave system, and more recently via the cenote opening. It was called "The Pit". It was a bit of a hike into the jungle from the road, and the entry involved ropes and leaping off the edge. (It was sounding better by the minute).
The Pit is part of Systema Dos Ojos, and was bout a mile or so back from Cenote Dos Ojos. The road to it was bit more primitive.
Along the way, Dennis provided his usual informative commentary about the surrounding jungles, pointing out the chicle trees, whose sap had been used to create gum - the original chiclets came from these trees. You can still see the cross-hatch cuts in the bark where they used to extract the sap:
We arrived and surveyed the surrounding jungle, noting that we would need to load all our gear on our backs and hike as far as the eye could see down this path:
We set up our gear by the side of the road, and carried our wetsuits. It was a hot slog through the heat of the jungle, and we arrived at the end of the path to find our little oasis down about a 20 foot drop from the set-up area. The light layer of dust and leaves on the surface prevented a clear view into the water, but every time the sun beamed down, the azure blue would light up the water as well as our imaginations.
Dennis gave us a briefing on our entry, which involved filling our bladders, then lowering our tanks down into the cenote (with the valves turned off in case of a freeflow). We would then jump off the cliff and don our gear in the water, and descend to the bas of the rubble cone at about 95 feet. As the picture above shows, one half of the cenote is sheer wall, while the other half is an overhang, which had stalactites decorating the ceiling. There were also two passages, the deeper one being Cardea, and the shallower one being Tikim Ich. Dennis walked down to the right to show us where the exit was, and was promptly stung right between the eyes by a bee. Now we knew that we had to move through there quickly. Dennis also pointed out the chem-chem tree along the exit path, and told us that a slight brush against the bark would cause painful skin blisters. Ok - watch the bees, watch the trees. Anything else - poisonous snakes, man-eating plants, ...?
Next, Dennis lowered our rigs down into the water.
And we did one giant stride down into the cool water.
We donned our rigs, did a bubble check, then slowly descended into another world. <I'll have to describe it the best I can, as I don't have a camera housing yet>.The base of the rubble cone was mainly sandy gravel, probably due to currents moving the silt away. I had been looking toward the wall on my descent, then at 95 feet I glanced over to my right and caught my first glimpse of a huge domed cavern. The lower part looked like it had been built out of large cobbles, with a defined strata layer from the various stages of water levels, and the coral-based rock layers between. As my eyes rose, I saw the ceiling, decorated with stalactites disappearing into shadows high above my head. Dennis had also briefed us on another phenomenon in The Pit - there's a layer of wispy milky-white clouds that are the result of some type of organic off-gassing. As we proceeded around the base of the pit, we descended into this wispy swirl of water and clouds, leveling off at about 130 feet. From there we circumnavigated the base. As we reached the furthest part of the base from the sheer wall of the cenote, we looked back through the haze and saw a huge, brilliant azure blue shaft of light descending from the surface. I knew I was close to heaven on earth. We navigated past the Carde Passage, shining our lights longingly at the crystal clear water disappearing though the shaft.
We gradually descended back through the milky layer, and around 50 feet we encountered the halocline, where salt water and fresh water mix. This was unlike any halocline I had seen before, as there was about a 10 foot layer of blurry water that was sandwiched both above and below by clear fresh water. As we reached 40 feet, we were at prime viewing depth to check out the stalactites that covered the ceiling like icicles. Dennis also pointed out some fossils imbedded in the walls, and we did another longing look down into the shaft leading to the Tikim Ich passage.
We ended the dive with a brief safety stop, then proceeded to doff our gear and tie it off to a rope, which Dennis retrieved as we were each climbing out, avoiding the bees and the trees. The hike back to the truck was a bit cooler, although my paper-thin booties were not the best choice for walking on hard coral.
Our second dive was at Taj Mahal. We walked down the steps
and ate lunch next to the cool blue water
while Dennis briefed us on the dive, the protocols, and the rule-of-thirds.
We geared up and giant-strode into the water, did our bubble check, and set out for the points of light room. The sun was working its magic, shining laser beams of blue-white light into the room. We proceeded further through waxy white speleotherms, into the sugar bowl, which was aptly named for the piles of white grains flowing down around the debris. Some where between the two rooms we encountered a more traditional halocline, and we spread out a bit to enjoy the view of the "false surface" that it created when viewed from below. We continued to the third room, named after someone whose name I can't remember, and returned on a different line, surfaced for a few minutes in a room with a large opening, then submerged through the sugar bowl again and approached the points of light from the other direction. I noticed that the shaft of light took a sharp angle above the surface, almost like an elbow, from the refraction. Along our way back we noticed the collapsed sections of ceiling that had stalactites hanging off at odd angles, and I hoped that the gods were pleased with my visit.
The interesting thing about these two dives was that while Taj Mahal is more beautifully decorated that the Pit, I found the Pit to be a more fascinating dive, with the eerie layer of clouds at depth, and the fantastic view looking back at the opening.
I found this little fella at the water's edge,
and Dennis pointed out the mot mot birds that live in the cenotes, noting that the ancient Mayans used to follow the calls of the mot mot to find cenotes deep in the jungle.
We stopped by the shop again on our return, and we wandered around Puerto Aventuras, checking out all the captive sealife such as this poor fella:
Dennis dropped us at our hotel in PDC, and we said our goodbyes, promising to do it again next year. Until then, the next time someone says "this place is the pits" - I'll be dreaming...
