Map of Aerolito

The map above is a very old one of Aerolito de Paraiso dating back to 1989. To my knowledge not much exploration of Aerolito has been done since then although it is believed that there is more cave passage to be found.

I've marked the journey Glenn and I took last Saturday on this map as a thin red line, with some annotations related to my blog post (text in a darker red). In order to see the line and all detail, click on the image for a full-size copy.

Cave maps are drawn using many different styles. As with most maps, this is a fair representation of the passages one will find in Aerolito. But passage size, depth and character cannot be adequately depicted in this 2-D medium. This is why progressive penetration is the safest technique to use when exploring a cave without a local guide. Or even with a guide.

Copyright note: This map was emailed to me from a friend. I am not aware of any copyright on the map itself nor any conditions for its distribution. If you are the copyright holder and object to its being posted here, notify me and I will promptly remove it.

Eagle Rays and Moray Eels

Another glorious day on the waters of Cozumel! We were invited to spend a day with Blondie and Donna, and their son Renee. Donna is one of the manager/owners of Aqua Safari, Blondie often works as a boat captain usually for fishing charters. They own three boats of which the Belinda is one (the dive boat I most often dive from when on Cozumel). Today we went out on their largest boat "Gypsy" which is a comfortable shallow-draft boat outfit for both scuba and fishing charters. The plan was to do a one-tank dive at either Eagle Ray or Barracuda (deep diving sites, but still within recreational limits) to look for eagle rays cruising the reef.

To make a long story short: we saw 11 in total, or possibly 2 groups of five which may have been the same five twice, and one solo eagle ray. I'd been having some minor problems with the video housing but today I was able to get it working flawlessly the whole dive.




Also on this dive, Renee spotted a full-grown Green Moray Eel. I am posting this video of it specifically for Walt, because he once commented on one of my pictures "this is why I don't swim in the ocean." I'll agree that Morays look like one of the nasty monsters of the deep that you really don't want to tangle with, but so far I haven't been bitten by one. (I do know someone who has... in the neck... but she is still alive!)