Cave Diving Grand Cenote, Tux Kubaxa, Minotauro

I'm posting this on Dive Day #2, as I was so tired yesterday there was no energy to post. I had to force myself to stay awake as long as 9:30 but the battle was lost and I was down for the 10 count.

It is about this time in the blog I planned to talk about the personalities of the 9 (yes, 9 not the original 6 Connie planned on) cave divers on this trip but it has been noted to me that some individuals on this trip are actually reading my blog! So I will save my commentary on the more personal side of this trip for later.

I will say, though, that this trip has taken a heavy toll on our divers' primary lights. These lights, specially made to burn bright and burn for a very long time, are hideously expensive. For many cave divers it is the single most expensive piece of gear they will purchase for this hobby. Good lights run around $800-2000. Having one fail... well... it usually makes for a bad day and often a lost cave dive. So far this trip, not one but FOUR primary lights have died or had serious problems in just two days. Two were Salvo, two were Sartek. None of the Dive Rite lights (and there are several, including mine) have died yet. [Knocking on wood.]

In fact, I was urgently trying to buy Salvo's new 21 watt LED light specifically to have it for this trip. It seemed all fate was against me getting it while I was here in Mexico, and I ended up shrugging my shoulders and said "If it was meant to happen, I would have gotten it." Good thing I didn't as more than a few people have told me that this particular model has serious problems. One of the four that died this week was this model. BOY am I lucky I didn't end up buying it.

Anyway enough about dive lights, and not talking about the personalities of the group. Here's my (somewhat terse) run-down of the cave dives so far.

Grand Cenote

Connie has, in picking up 3 more divers for the trip, hired Lena who is a cave instructor who works with Aquatech, the diving operation here at Villas de Rosa. So we go in two smaller groups, instead of making one unmanageably long chain of divers.

I am in a smaller group led by Lena. For our first dive yesterday we entered Grand Cenote and went along the main line of Sac Aktun, towards and past Cenote Ho Tul. But instead of doing the full loop of Cuzan-nah, we take a jump to a highly decorated section which Glen and I discovered last year. I had the video camera with me and got some EXCELLENT video footage of this part of the cave. The dive was turned at 46 minutes as one of the divers hit 3rds. Total time on the dive is 94 minutes.

Second dive was also at Grand Cenote and this time we took a jump to the Paso de Lagarto line, a long jump which some of you may know that its length may have contributed to the fatality of two cave divers about four years ago. Anyway, we're going the other way on Lagarto and there's no doubt in my mind Lena knows the way. Unfortunately one of the four light failures happens not far after we get to the Lagarto line and the dive is turned at 30 minutes. Total dive time is 61 minutes.

Tux Kubaxa

If you haven't read my blog entry for this cave of last year, let me reiterate its pronunciation from the Mayan. It is like "TOOsh Kuh-BAH-shuh". This is a beautiful and highly decorated cave. Because the usual profile is to do a lenghty swim to see the mastodon bones, I opt not to take the video camera. As soon as I start the dive I regret this, as the place is so fabulously beautiful I cannot express in any words some of the grand formations here. Things like... cascading rivers of white and yellow flowstone over 20 feet tall 50 feet wide, frozen in time. Sometimes with a cap of orange tint which is either iron oxide or tannin.

Anyway. Video camera or not, the place really needs to be taken with a still camera with a very wide angle lens. Maybe next year when I have the Canon 5D Mark II.... and then I can do both video AND still. That would be great.

We get to the "T" at 29 minutes when our dive plan said 30 minutes which is pretty good. We get to the bones not long after and I enjoy some really nice close-up looks this time. Dive was turned on end-of-plan at about 45 minutes. There are many jumps on both sides of the line that I noted on the way out -- talking with Lena later on she says it is fun to go with a stage bottle and drop the stage at the "T" at 30 minutes... visit the bones... visit the other direction of the "T" to a cenote or two, then return and use the stage bottle out. I am all for it and maybe I will ask Lena to take me there on this dive plan next month.

Dive ends at around 80 minutes, with no problems and thankfully no light failures.

Minotauro

For our afternoon dive the teams are reorganized a bit, and Lena's group is now four instead of five. I am 2nd diver just after Lena. Minotauro is a very interesting cave with halocline in a long section of its big loop. By contrast to Sac Aktun and Tux Kubaixa, Minotauro is dark and brooding, ancient in its overall appearance because in so many places the decorated ceilings have broken down and fallen to the floor in huge chunks. One might look at them like enormous combs left on the ground by some careless child. I have to wonder what geologic activity would cause Minotauro to fall apart like this but not other caves in the region.

Minotauro's halocline is well defined and a lot of fun to watch. A halocline is a defined layer in the cave between fresh water and salt water. The salt water from the ocean is denser but is easily disturbed. When turbulence from a diver's passage stirs the mix, visibility goes from 100+ feet to absolute zero. We try to stay above or below the halocline whereever possible but in Minotauro it is not easy because this part of the cave is not particularly tall.

At times when the halocline was well above us, Lena's light (a Dive Rite LED type) would make the halocline shimmer in a psychedelic combination of green and purple. It was really awesome to see this! I kept my light down much of the dive, preferring to see the cave in shadows from others' dive lights.

Our dive plan was a bit more complex than the "general" plan, making a side trip to Cenote Estrella which took us through Bill's Restriction... a sandwich of cave just b-a-r-e-l-y tall enough for a diver with back-mounted tanks to squeeze through. I enjoy challenges like this, and the visit to the cenote to take a break and hear stories of "some famous cave diver who got stuck here and had to walk for 4 hours in the jungle in the middle of summer to get to civilization."

This dive was VERY enjoyable; the pace was perfect, my buoyancy in all those squeezes felt really good, and the cave has lots to see. Even though it is not as highly decorated as the other caves we will visit.


Tomorrow we go to Labna-Ha to dive a cenote called Caracol.