Tux Kubaxa and Minotauro

Originally Connie planned for us to go to Tux Kubaxa for two dives, the most remote cenote of all the sites she normally visits during her cave weeks. Tux Kubaxa is what she calls a Power Cave which I think means a cave with very large and highly decorated passageways. Two dives would mean we spend the day in heavily mosquito infested jungle, but we'd only have to do one long van ride. A ride so punishing that I now pad my seat with my two wetsuits and a towel to reduce the jarring impact on my glutenus maximus when we visit this cave.

A poll taken the night before showed most divers would rather do two different caves instead of two dives at Tux Kubaxa. I was in favour of two different systems, mostly because I'd done Tux Kubaxa several times before and didn't see getting two dives with enough variation to keep it interesting. However I loved Jim's answer to her poll most: "I just wanna dive." Connie suggested Minotauro for the afternoon dive which was immediately met with enthusiastic approval.

On to the cave dive report!

Tux Kubaxa

Mosquitoes were particularly bad at this site, as I expected. In anticipation of this, I had taken off my T-shirt back in the hotel room and sprayed the back of it with Ben's 100 DEET, as well as hitting my legs and arms thoroughly with the stuff. Compulsive application paid off for me, but everyone else on the tour were madly swatting skeeters as soon as they got out of the van.

One of the feature attractions of Tux Kubaxa are piles of prehistoric animal bones, in varying states of completeness and condition. I'd seen the mastodon bones every other trip so I was hoping to do something different. Fortunately, my dive partner Sandra was up for splitting off from the main group, and I wanted to see the sloth bones found in another passage. We made a team of 2 and were last into the cave system. Sandra ran reels because she'd been there before. So... Left at the "T" intersection, then two righthand jumps just past the first cenote we encountered (beautiful azure light streaming through a large breakdown area) and a mere 200 feet later through surprisingly small (for Tux Kubaxa) and HIGHLY decorated passageway and there was the pile of sloth bones! They seemed rather big for a sloth, at least judging by the vertebrae. Or maybe it's that "Objects appear closer in water than they actually are" phenomenon. I tried to see a jawbone or skull but it looked like those could have been removed. All the ribs, vertebrae and other bits seemed to be there though. I hear rumors that cave divers are becoming more brazen about taking "trophies" from caves for their personal museums and mantles. What was funny about the sloth bone site is that I did not see any of the Mexican INAH preservation/identifier cones.

The passageway was so entrancingly beautiful! After gawking at the bones for several minutes I checked my time (52 minutes) and air (300 psi above turn point) and showed Sandra my gauge, with a question as to whether we could continue down the line. She indicated she was cold (her semi-drysuit had been leaking progressively worse as the week went on) so we turned the dive and were out of the cave again at exactly 100 minutes. I *loved* the tour and these new passageways are another place I will have to take my camera with a wide-angle lens. And lots of strobe power.

Minotauro

This cave is often on Connie's tour weeks because it has a little bit of everything: halocline, restrictions, speleothems, breakdown rooms, solution cave,... everything except big rooms. The first 10 minutes of passageway you traverse from the cenote are a nightmare for anyone who doesn't have their buoyancy down to experienced cave diver standards. Or any cave diver who might get claustrophobic. If it's not narrow vertically, then it bends or squeezes horizontally.

Minotauro's main line is a circuit, ending back on itself pretty much where that narrow entrance passage ends. Connie likes to close the gap to complete the circuit, then proceed on the main line counter-clockwise. There are many side passages that radiate outwards from the circle made by the main line. Connie's team of 5 divers went ahead of ours but took a different jump to cenote Escalera which was before our jump to cenote Estrella. Because of this, our team entered the deeper part of the cave with the halocline first. As 3rd diver on the team I didn't get the best view of the halocline, but in some of the wider sections I was able to move a bit left or right of the other divers' wake and get the full effect. As a test, I pulled out my Dive Rite LED 500 lumen alternate primary to see the difference of colour temperature between LED and HID. (I had Sandra's 21 Watt Sartek HID for this dive.) Hands down, the HID pierces both fresh and salt water better, and the HID renders prettier (truer?) colours in the salt water layer. LED's still have a way to go before I will want to replace my HID primary.

About 200-300 feet before one reaches cenote Estrella, there is a bedding plane restriction that is a mere 18-20 inches tall and maybe 30 feet long. It is not difficult for an average sized diver in back-mounted doubles to negotiate. But it does take patience, proper trim, good technique and shallow breaths! It's probably a good place for a valve roll-off too, if you're not paying attention to your tanks. On my way to Estrella I tried to do a clever sideways traverse thru the bedding plane. That sort of worked but it wasn't smooth. On my way back, I paid much more attention to where the plane seemed thickest. I was lining myself up both mentally and physically, by stretching my arms out in front of me and dropping my heels. Then I start hearing someone singing the Mighty Mouse theme! It was Jim, right behind me commenting on my simulated-Superman pose.

Anyway, the way back was easier, and it wasn't long before we were back on the main line looking at the white mouse, the black mouse and the plastic skeleton that one of Connie's group members from years ago left on a stalagmite. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it.)

Total time in Minotauro: 84 minutes not including the minutes spent relaxing in cenonte Estrella. Water temperature: 77 degrees F.

Kicked Off the Team

I am rarely pushed to such measures, but where safety is concerned such actions are necessary. One of the divers with us this week is what I'd call "below par." Not in terms of equipment or fitness or even training... but in technique and safety awareness. I was not the only one with this feeling, but I was "voted" to be the Bad Cop: the one to talk to Connie about it.

And so it was. Connie traded the team members a bit for our two dives today and it made a difference in terms of our comfort and enjoyment. Sorry if I seem an ass, but when safety is in question I don't cut corners... or take unwarranted risks. If those unwarranted risks come in the form of a diver who doesn't know what he/she is doing, then I'm not diving with them. Simple as that.

We make it to... Cenote Princessa!!!

We were privileged to have the opportunity for a second dive from Pet Cemetery, because Aquatech had enough doubles available. I think everyone went on the second dive except Connie, who took a well deserved break from the rest of us "customers."

The dive plan this time was to go about 50-60 minutes from Pet Cemetery to a small infrequently visited cenote called "Princessa," not so much to see the cenote but to see the amazingly decorated passageways near it. I still count reaching the cenote as my goal for success, though.

One of the dive shop owners near Dos Ojos who leads tours of the Pet Cemetery cenote and cave system is Luis Leal. He led our group of four (myself, Sandra, Jim and Doug) and gave us quite a briefing before we went. "Keep line awareness - there are a lot of side passage lines and they terminate very close to the main line." "Watch for my cookies on the way out, we will also be doing several jumps." "On the way back if you are in passage where there is clear water, you probably made a wrong turn."
This last comment is with respect to how the cave reacts to the passage of divers. Our air bubbles rise up and hit the ceiling. Not gently as you might think, but abruptly and turbulently. The ceiling (which hasn't been dry in over 10,000 years) gets hit with the rush of air and particles break off and fall in our passing. This is called "percolation." Depending on the composition of the cave and how often divers pass it (along with some other factors) the return through a passage where percolation occurs can be minuscule to totally blinding. In this case the passage we were taking is not often dove, but the percolation will be just enough to see the entire way back. So if I take a wrong turn, the clear water will be a very clear indication I'd done so.

I mention all of this because the responsibility of going back the right way... was on my shoulders. I was caboose again the way in, so I'd lead the way back out. Let me just say that although my line awareness was spot-on, having the percolation always in front of me was comforting.

Getting to the Cenote Princessa was straight-forward. Well, not really. There were three or four spools and three "T" intersections, if I recall correctly. That's quite a few by the way - lots of opportunities for a wrong turn. We got to Princessa in 47 minutes. The best part of the dive was about 100 foot of passageway not far from Princessa, a most incredibly decorated room absolutely filled with stalactites, elephant ears and pillars in pristine condition!!! It was so beautiful it puts Room of Tears in Car Wash and the Cuzan Nah loop to shame! It may have been the most beautiful section of cave passage I have ever seen in my life. There was one formation which looked like a huge chandelier made up of evenly sized elephant ear stalactites. Oh, I wish I had a camera with me... still or video, I'd have used it there. Next time, next time.

The only problem on this dive... my ears! No surprise. After forcing an equalize in Blue Abyss they were naturally cranky about doing another dive with rollercoaster depth changes. Well, the pain was mild and tolerable but it did make me concerned about diving the rest of the week. (Two more days of cave dives, by the way.) I wasn't the only one with ear problems, two others suffered in varying degrees. As I write this, four hours after exiting the water, my ears seem fine so I am optimistic about tomorrow.

Luis is a great cave diver and leader. I look forward to diving with him again at this site someday.

We make it to... BLUE ABYSS!!

Today, ah, today was the big day. I had posted a request months ago to (re)visit the famed Blue Abyss, a huge underwater vertically cylindrical cave that has a ceiling at 15 feet and goes down to about 236 feet. To get there is a long 45-50 minute swim from Cenote Pet Cemetery, and is often done as a stage dive due to the depth at Blue Abyss. Not everyone does a "depth charge drop" to the bottom, but having the stage bottle in the dive plan makes the option very easy.

My last visit here in February of this year was successful, and I hit 113 feet on my drop. That depth was a conservative calculation based on the fact that I had nitrox in my back gas with a M.O.D. of about 138 feet. Today my plan was to have a stage bottle filled with 32% nitrox, but only 21% air in the back gas. Maximum planned depth was, oh, whatever I felt like doing when I got there.

I was in Team #2, led by Connie. I was, as they say, the "caboose" or the last diver in the team. And the last diver to enter Blue Abyss of a total of 10 divers. To put it simply, everything went well. Very well. Until I reached the Abyss itself. There I was, getting really excited the last 200 feet of line or so, recognizing all the turns and restrictions and knowing I was really close. I pass the precipice, and... BLAM! Ear squeeze supreme! Totally unexpected. I'm screaming in my regulator "SHIT! SHIT FUCK!" as I'm trying every trick in the scuba diving handbook to get my left ear to equalize. I can't pass 35 feet... let alone drop to below 100 feet like I planned. At the same time one hemisphere of my brain is trying to deal with the problem, the other hemisphere is going "WOOOOWWW! Look at all the divers below me!" It was an amazing repeat of last year, with that beautiful almost cobalt-blue shine of the divers' lights as they tooled around the Blue Abyss. I wanted to join them in the depths... and couldn't.

Finally after about two or three minutes, I got it cleared up enough to descend. DEPTH CHARGE away! Down, down down down... down... I am watching my gauge, watching the walls slip past me... I hit 120, then 130, then 135. Then an interesting discussion started happening in my brain between the superego and the id. One side said "I feel great! Let's keep going." The other side said something like "don't be a risk taker. Put some air in that BC before you hit the bottom at 236 feet." I do some simple tests to see if I'm narced - I check my pressure gauge to see what it reads and see if I understand the number. 2500 psi. I check my pulse. Sort of racing, but I know that's from the excitement of being in Blue Abyss. I check my breathing rate. Slow, very normal. Certainly not fast enough to use up anywhere near the enormous amount of gas I've got. I check my ears and hearing. Yep, still good and I still know what that means. Very few, if any, signs that I'm getting effects from nitrogen narcosis. But common sense kicks in (darn that common sense!) and I start popping air in the BC. I hit 143 feet, and take a moment to look up at all the divers lights. Up, this time, not down!!!! Wow. I'd made it.

The trip back up Blue Abyss was uneventful, though I did get flagged for a deco obligation and did a required stop at 34 feet for a few minutes. For this dive I was using a Suunto HelO2 as my primary computer, which handles up to 8 gas mixes. I also had a Suunto Vyper set only to standard air (it won't switch mix during a dive). By the time I'd gotten back to cenote Pet Cemetery I expected the Vyper to be in error lockout, but I guess the combination of deco stop and the long 30' average depth of the passageway leading to Blue Abyss satisfied its deco algorithms.

I could've gone down further. Thinking back to it now, I wish I did. But I am here to tell the tale so I guess that is best.

To hear this tale you might think that Blue Abyss is the only thing worth seeing on this dive. That's far from the truth. The passageway is well decorated as are most of the permanent lines in the Nohoch system. Beautiful stalactite columns, pillars of rosettes scattered about. Great stuff to look at.

We don't make it to....

(post for Tuesday, Oct. 6)
Today was a disappointing day for cave diving, but having said that "disappointing" is a little too strong a word. The dives were both enjoyable in their own ways but I did not get that sense of Accomplishment that comes from a successful cave dive. What is "successful?" To me, in cave diving, it means that if you have a destination as a goal for the dive you actually reach it. Today's dives I did not reach the planned destination on either one. On previous trips, I had seen these places so it is not like I am still waiting to see them.

Our first dive was in Dos Ojos, to do the l-o-n-g stage dive from the west eye of Dos Ojos all the way (4,500 feet) to cenote Tikim Chih. I'd done this dive last year so I remembered most of the markings and turns. Because of this (I guess) Connie put me as lead diver of Team #2... laying reels, markers, etc. It was our same team of four, Sandra J, Sandra H, and Dave. We make it to the air dome in approx. 45 minutes into the dive, right on time. A brief pause to drop stage tanks, and some grouping changes. Our two teams are split up into four, to account for different air consumption rates. The plan now is to do the 2,000 feet to Tikim Chih in pairs and turn (as a pair, not the 4-team) if thirds are hit. My partner typically has as good air consumption as I do, so I was uber confident we'd make it. But...

The dive continued from the air dome and within the first three minutes the other pair of our 4-team calls it and returns to the air dome. I think there was an issue with a gas leak or ear problem... can't remember which. So the two of us continue on. 15 mintes later we pass the half-way marker. We pass another half-way marker 150 feet later (there's a story there, I'm sure!!) At 28 minutes into the dive, another dive pair ahead of us calls on 3rds and turns around... this didn't surprise me as I knew their consumption was higher. But two minutes later, my partner calls the dive which was a surprise as I didn't suspect anything could be wrong. Well, the golden rule of cave diving applies here as it does any other time: "Anyone can call the dive at any time for any reason." Turned out that her inflator hose had been leaking and she'd lost a few hundred PSI over the course of the dive. We were just four minutes short of the goal, but calling the dive is irrefutable. Connie was surprised, as her mini-team of 3 were the only ones to make it to Tikim Chih. Se la vie.

Second dive was at Calimba, a very small (and murky) cenote right on the main highway out of Tulum. One of the things I love about Calimba is the landowner's welcoming attitude towards the divers. He will light a candle for us in the shrine entrance of the cenote, as a blessing to wish us safe passage. I think Simone Lipscomb posted a picture of the candle-lit shrine on her blog last year, if you want to see a picture. To pass by all the idols while wearing scuba gear, and then to see the candle lit for us... well, for some reason it feels humbling.

My dive team this time included Sandra and Tommy, one of the divemasters(?) working at Aquatech. Our plan: follow Connie's team as they wind their way to Bosh Chen cenote. The best parts of the cave are in the large highly decorated rooms leading up to the cenote exit. I have nice video of this dive from last year, a snippet of which I posted on this blog back then.

I won't go much into diving Calimba itself, as I've posted about it at least once before. But I will mention that it is narrow most of the time, and has more minor restrictions (tight spaces) per kilometer than other parts of the Sistema Sac Aktun I have visited. Not that this is a deterrent... not in the least! I enjoy the challenge of restrictions whenever I encounter them. The Calimba line has the world famous "Boa Constriction" minor restriction. You don't remove gear to navigate it, but it is pretty bendy.

Well... as the title of this blog goes, We Don't Reach Bosh Chen. On this dive, Tommy was leading and though we reached the Bosh Chen line, he called the dive only a few minutes onto it. Problem with his inflator valve or so he said. Great disappointment as the best and most beautiful passageways were just ahead. We were nowhere near Bosh Chen.

All in all, a fun day, but disappointing because the goals I set weren't met.

Labna-Ha, yay!

Another beautiful (though mosquito infested) day at Labna-Ha, diving Sistema Caracol. Both Pep and Sergio were on hand to welcome our group of eight cave divers with open arms and T-shirts to buy. The mosquitoes have been bad at most places, it is apparently their last big-bang before winter hits so they want to get all the human blood they can, while they can. Labna-ha is not better or worse than other sites. But boy, they are bad! I came prepared this year with two bottles of 100% DEET, a head net, and a bed canopy net. The latter I haven't had to use yet, thankfully.

This being my fourth visit to Labna-Ha, I wore for the first time a Labna-Ha T-shirt which I bought on my third visit. Pep was quick to say "Oh! You have the old design. You need to get the new one now!!"

On to the cave dives.

First dive my team consisting of myself, Sandra, Sandra and Dave, went with Connie up the main line. We went up exactly 60 minutes before the dive was turned on 3rds. I'd been this way twice before, so it was nice but not noteworthy.

Second dive we were allowed (*gasp*) to take teams in by ourselves! No guides! This I thought was unheard-of. So was taking cameras inside the cave, but one of our team had a camera on the first dive and Pep only gave some extra cautions in its use. I guess that Labna-Ha is relaxing their very strict rules on cave divers. Or maybe it was because all of us had dove there before at one time or another.

Sandra and I went by ourselves, one of only two pairs to go back into the cave. Two people just did the cavern dive, and two others didn't dive at all. Our plan was to find the side passage at the 3rd jump to the right, and follow it until we either hit the main line or 3rds or until the time seemed to be getting late. I'd been up this passageway too, last year with Sergio and Michael M. So it was also nothing new. But being in a team of only the two of us (and no guide!) made it seem much more intimate. We had a little trouble (6 minutes' worth) finding the side passage but once on it the way was easy going. Sandra was lead diver. I found the tiny cenote that Sergio pointed out last year, at about the 30 minute mark. At 46 minutes Sandra called the dive on time, since she didn't want the dive to run longer than a total of an hour and a half.

Our total time that dive was 87 minutes, and very enjoyable. I discovered we were the last out of the cave system... by a long shot. I tried not to think that the other divers were not giving us evil looks because they were being eaten alive by the skeeters. At least no one said anything about it, so I feel no guilt. It was an excellent day of cave diving!

Thanks again to Sergio and Pep for being excellent hosts, and making this beautiful cave system available to us.

Ponderosa and Gran(d) Cenote

Hello again, I'm back in Aventuras Akumal staying in Villas de Rosa on another of Connie LoRe's cave diving weeks. This is a larger group (9 divers total, split into two teams) and competence level on both teams appear to be pretty good.

Our first dive this morning was at Ponderosa (as cave divers call it, or "Garden of Eden" as it is marked on the signs) which is a relatively large cenote and a rather plain cave. There are virtually no formations along today's route, but our destination which is called "The Chapel" made up for that, and more! The Chapel is an air dome formed from a breakdown. The water is about 20 feet deep, and the dome itself is a mere 3-4 feet above the waterline. The roof is totally coated with stalactites! Thousands and thousands of them. And they are still growing. It was an awesome experience to lie on my back in the water and float around, watching a whole carpet of stalactites drifting past my field of view. Connie said that the cave diver legend is that if you catch a drop of water in your mouth as it drips off the end of a stalactite, you'll be blessed with long life. I was able to get drops to fall, but only by blowing on them to agitate them. That may have been cheating, I dunno.

Our dive time at Ponderosa was 86 minutes, almost exactly 43 minutes in and 43 minutes out. With a 20 minute break inside the air dome. Dive was called on end of plan, and thirds. One of the most memorable aspects of this dive was the water temperature! The salt water layer, which starts at -38 feet, was measured at a scorching 84 F ! That may be the warmest water I've ever experienced in a cave. There was not a well defined halocline in this cave. I don't know if it was because of all the divers agitating it, or if the freshwater flow is just stronger in this cave.


The afternoon dive was at Gran (or Grand) Cenote. Here the two teams went mostly the same plan: Gran Cenote, past Ho Tul Cenote and then around Cuzan Ha Loop. Both teams were supposed to go up the line in the middle of the Loop, but since we were the first team in the water and the last out, I didn't see Connie's group. Our team also did a jump up the La Boca line (which the other team didn't plan to do), to go until 3rds were called. We made it maybe 500 feet along the line before 3rds, which is respectable considering the distance and tight passageways. We did the Cuzan Ha loop clockwise this time, which was maybe only the 2nd time I'd gone that direction. I have to say that going counter-clockwise is more dramatic.

Tomorrow is Labna Ha day. More later!