Where did I go with my force fins?

[Soakedlontra]

I will never forget Cenote Angelita...

Diving cenote Angelita was an experience unlike any other.

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A fish is swimming above the cloud of hydrogen sulfide.

The layer of hydrogen sulfide that crowns cenote Angelita lay at a depth of 90 feet. During the descent I could not clear my ears so I had to hover 10 feet above it until I could equalize. After signalling the dive master that my ears were OK, he asked my buddy and I if we wanted to descend into the cloud. As soon as I signaled him that I was ready a strange feeling of awe and dread found its way into my brain. The excellent visibility rapidly deteriorated and became zero. I held my buddy's hand. We could not see the light of the dive master anymore. As far as we were concerned we could have been descending inside the atmosphere of an unborn planet. After several seconds the water cleared. I recognized dead leaves and tree branches that covered the sloping bottom. We looked around for few minutes with the cloud of hydrogen sulfide hovering above our heads, then it was time to begin our slow ascent to the surface of the cenote

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[TSandM]

Glad you had a wonderful time in Mexico. The cenotes really are a totally different world, and we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to explore them.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Glad you had a wonderful time in Mexico. The cenotes really are a totally different world, and we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to explore them.

It was great that I had the opportunity to dive in some of the cenotes. However, I feel that something must be done about the crowded conditions of the most popular ones. If the rest of the Maya coast gets developed as much as Cancun I am not sure how it is possible to preserve the beauty of the nearby cenotes for future generations. How far mass tourism can go before it destroys what, ironically, treasures so much?

 

[TSandM]

It is a real problem, and the answers are not simple.

Before the tourism came into this area, there were very few people there, and they lived at the subsistence level. Development has brought jobs and relative prosperity, and has drawn Mexican people from all over the country to this area to work. Fees paid by divers and tour operators have improved the standard of living of the families who own the land. When you look at how people there live, you can't blame them very much for focusing on improving today, without worrying too much about the long term impact of what they are doing. I'm not condoning it, but there are two sides to every story, and it's awfully easy for us first worlders to go places like this and deplore the environmental damage.

When I did the trip on the Paul Gauguin cruise ship, Jean Michele Cousteau was the featured speaker. One of the things he said (and he impressed me as a very wise man) was that you can't just wade into a place and tell the fishermen they have to stop fishing or dynamiting the reef. You have to show them how, if they change what they are doing, they can actually IMPROVE their own lives. People will not change if the change will make them hungry or cold or homeless . . . but they will change if you can help them learn how they can make positive changes that will benefit their environment AND themselves.

 

[Soakedlontra]

It is a real problem, and the answers are not simple.

Before the tourism came into this area, there were very few people there, and they lived at the subsistence level. Development has brought jobs and relative prosperity, and has drawn Mexican people from all over the country to this area to work. Fees paid by divers and tour operators have improved the standard of living of the families who own the land. When you look at how people there live, you can't blame them very much for focusing on improving today, without worrying too much about the long term impact of what they are doing. I'm not condoning it, but there are two sides to every story, and it's awfully easy for us first worlders to go places like this and deplore the environmental damage.

When I did the trip on the Paul Gauguin cruise ship, Jean Michele Cousteau was the featured speaker. One of the things he said (and he impressed me as a very wise man) was that you can't just wade into a place and tell the fishermen they have to stop fishing or dynamiting the reef. You have to show them how, if they change what they are doing, they can actually IMPROVE their own lives. People will not change if the change will make them hungry or cold or homeless . . . but they will change if you can help them learn how they can make positive changes that will benefit their environment AND themselves.

I agree. I hope that they will find a solution that would work for everybody....(Have you heard that there is a plan to scoop out a huge amount of sand from the channel between Cancun and Isla Mujeres to re-build beaches in Cancun? Anyway this is another story...)

 

[Soakedlontra]

The thousand mirrors of Gran Cenote






The only knowledge that I had about diving in confined spaces was what I acquired while diving in Roatan two years ago. I do not practice swimming through narrow spaces at home because the dive sites that I usually go to do not have the right type of geological or man-made features (I think trying to swim through a car tire is probably not ideal...Is it even possible without getting stuck?). Navigating through a cavern with the visual reference of a line and a ceiling of different heights above my head was quite something else. I thought that entering a narrow passageway like this one would have stirred up a sense of anxiety instead I was as calm as those little cute, friendly fish that kept following us during our underwater tour of Dos Ojos and Gran Cenote. Now that I look at this image I go "Wow! Is that me?" Despite being really careful about my trim and buoyancy I must confess that I brushed the rock with my fins and touched the ceiling with the top of my tank few times . Well, the fact is that keeping a constant balanced trim and buoyancy throughout those dives was not that easy, especially judging distances between the variable ceiling and the various rock formations on both sides of my body. The cavern environment was so different from what I have experienced so far that it was hard to resist the hypnotic temptation to keep looking in all directions to admire its multifaceted beauty. The ceilings were studded not just with stalactites but 'mirrors' too (trapped air bubbles that reflected the light like mirrors), the walls kept changing their shapes and thickness, the light, especially in Gran Cenote, filtering through the ceiling cracks and holes created an enchanting play between reflections and shadows.




At times I certainly felt as if I were on a conveyor belt or part of a line of underwater leaf cutter ants. In Gran Cenote the visibility varied from poor at the entrance because of the large number of snorkelers (some were like 'underwater monkeys' embracing large stalactites and standing upright on them) and divers who were struggling to keep their legs above the bottom (it was an eye opening watching a diver who could not stay horizontal and his/her dive master had to lift the bottom of his/her tank), to terrible inside a couple of cavern 'chambers' and magically good.

 

[TSandM]

Betty, come over and dive Edmonds with me -- I'll take you to some slices of culvert that are PERFECT for practicing swimming through confined spaces!

 

[Soakedlontra]

Betty, come over and dive Edmonds with me -- I'll take you to some slices of culvert that are PERFECT for practicing swimming through confined spaces!

Thanks! I won't be able to dive again until March. I am getting ready to go to work in the North Slope of Alaska for a month. I'll be in touch when I come back.

 

[Soakedlontra]

The blurry underworld of Cenote Calavera

Jumping from the 6 ft. high edge of cenote Calavera with my fins on one hand and the regulator on the other into its dark pristine water was like stepping into a primordial underworld characterized by an austere, yet imposing, rocky simplicity. Here, fresh and sea water share the same underground spaces. They create two distinctive layers that mingle when divers swim through them. I experience halocline fairly regularly at my local dive sites so this natural phenomenon was not new to me. But at Calavera it was different. The flows of light freshwater and heavy seawater are more consistent and the clarity of the water makes you feel that you are actually swimming through a tunnel made of liquefied frosted glass. At Calavera we reached a depth of 43 ft. Exiting the cenote was as challenging as entering it. I had to climb a steep and potentially slippery wooden ladder and while I was doing it I was glad that I did not have doubles behind my back!

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[TSandM]

I've never dived Calavera. I have a standing offer that I will, if one of my buddies will carry my doubles back up the ladder. No takers yet . . .