James W., Jason H., Steve Z., Geoff B., Shawn B., Diane B., Dave H., Andrea S., Klaus and Claus from Germany, special guest "Grace" and of course ourself as hosts (Ela & Adam).
The previous week James, Jason and Shawn attended UTD cave diver training with EB as instructor , the class went well and we had good time (report of the class will be published shortly).
We started Cave week with a huge rib eye BBQ @ Cave Heaven, Adam was on the grill and Ela in charge of the Margarita mix.
The following day we started with an all-time classic dive @ Sac Actun, Cuzan Nah loop and Paso Del Lagarto jump to Much's maze; so that the cave was not too full of divers at the same time in fact we did 2 groups, one of 3 divers and one of 2 divers, same organization for the following days. Shawn and Diane wished to dive the cavern of Dos Ojos together as it was the first time for Diane in the Cenotes and he wanted to be there with her (nice couple eh?).
Day 2 we start "breaking the ice" with halocline and entry kind of 0 viz in Jailhouse, what better then White River and Yaxbe tunnel to look at some bones as second dive, we squeezed in some cool video too.
Jailhouse is interesting to dive in as it is a "black cave" in the fresh water passage and a "white super decorated cave" into the salt water passage, very similar to Cristal and Mayan Blue as they are all connected together, last year the whole Naranjal system was connected to Ox Bel Ha and made the biggest underwater system in the world.
Day 3 time to another classic @ Carwash Room of Tears passing through Luke's Hope Cenote and the other dive downstream passing through Satan's Silt Hole into the basement T's.
Day 4 we decided to go to Pet Cemetery and have a nice shallow relaxing dives, or at least it was the first one to Dark Side of the Moon and a bit more entertaining the one passing tank on tank off restriction on the way to the Blue Abyss via the X line.
As last day we choose the Pit shallow dives upstream to see the bones and the amazing downstream passage toward Dos Ojos, also we enjoyed dropping down after the first dive at 100 ft to check the fog of hydrogen sulfide at the bottom.
Day 6 started with AK presentation on Cenote formation and as it was an extra day, we did a fun single dive in Kalimba, jumping to the Bosh Chen line, again another classic of the Riviera Maya.
Dave H. (UTD instructor) joined us as in the previous few days he was teaching Diane B. UTD Essential of Rec, which she enjoyed very much.
Last night was BBQ time again and we organized a super burger night which we enjoyed and had some good stories around the table.
I also have to mention that our driver Manuel did an outstanding job on driving divers around the Cenotes but also preparing lunches, water and ice for the day, not to forget his help on pulling double tanks at the Pit .....thanks Manuel!!!
I have to admit this was a fantastic cave week, we enjoyed the company of those guys and it was a pleasure to be their hosts for the week, we are sure to see them again very soon in the caves in MX !!!
Dive safe & have fun
Ela & Adam
and TAcos DIaz !
ReplyDeleteA big thanks to Adam and Ela. That was a great week of diving and I can't wait to come back. Great people, great dives and great food! Perfect vacation.
ReplyDeleteSteve