As a treat for myself, I booked a trip to Mexico over my birthday. It was intended to focus mostly on taking GUE Cave 1 training. We started the trip off by taking Luna down to Melody’s parents on Saturday 12/9/06. We then hustled back up to Seattle, finished our packing and hopped a 23:30 red-eye to Chicago. When I made the reservations in July I was pretty bummed that the only flight I could get with mileage was through Chicago. This turned out to be a blessing.
After arriving in Chicago we had a couple hours to change planes for Cancun (tired). We arrived in Cancun rather uneventfully at 13:30 to a raging downpour. The last tropical depression of the year had just blown into town. The water was 8 inches deep in the parking lot of the rental car place – almost high enough to flood the car!

We discovered the first peculiarity about MX right off the bat. Rental cars may or may not come with gas. My Nissan POS had ½ a tank. Trying to fill up outside the airport we discovered the gas stations don’t take credit cards . Good thing they take dollars.

We drove south and decided to stop for groceries in Playa Del Carmen, since we had heard that groceries were a bit hard to get in Akumal. It took a bit of driving around but eventually we found “Mega” foods which was a abundantly stocked grocery store that conveniently took credit cards. Their pastries were quite tasty.

Another 45 minutes of driving in the downpour and we were in Akumal. Fortunately the hotel/condo I had rented for the week gave some directions on how to turn left off the highway (to turn left you pull onto the right shoulder and wait until the way is clear – then turn). Vista Del Mar was clean and pretty well kept. The only issue on night 1 was the incessant driving rain. Tropical places often have louvered windows and these didn’t close very well. It felt like an ultra-fine mist was permeating the bedroom. I doubt any other place on the bay was faring any better that night.

Cave Class Day 1
We woke up to 100+% humidity, got ourselves over to the dive shop by 08:00, where we met Chris our instructor. Chris is very French, a super nice guy and obviously passionate about caves and cave diving. We met our 3rd teammate for the class at this time too. JM was not quite as “French” as Chris was despite his passport. He’s a PADI Open Water instructor at a hotel in the Philippines. Apparently none of JM’s bags had arrived yet .

So we began, on my birthday, with about 4 hours of lectures on class limits, teamwork, active and passive communication, and dive sequences and planning. We then left for Systema Ponderosa, aka Cenotes Eden and Corral. Here we did land drills running the reel. About 15:30 we tried to get in the water for a “demonstration dive”. But alas, we discovered that Melody’s drysuit undergarment were not with us?? So we jump in and knocked off the swim test, 400 yards in no more than 12 minutes and a 60 ft breathhold. The fun thing about swimming in the cenote was the little fishes, which enjoyed picking the dead skin off my toes . It felt like I had my own team of cleaner Wrasses.

We returned to the dive shop for more lecture on cave formation, water types and properties, and sediment types and properties. Unlike my Tech 1 class, Chris doesn’t go late into the evening, we finished by about 18:00.

Cave Class Day 2
We started Tuesday off with a demo dive at Ponderosa. Chris led us to the cavern line between Cenote Eden and Cenote Corral. He tied off and we followed this “mainline” about 300-400 ft through the cevern zone to Cenote Corral. This was all in about 25ft of water. Here we turned and descended to about 35ft. Well within the daylight zone, Chris demonstrated the five kicks and we followed suit. Frog, modified frog, modified flutter, helicopter turn, and backwards kick. We then departed and debriefed on the surface, depth 35ft, time 60 mins.

Dive 2 was basically a repeat, except we were expected to run the line, enter the cavern zone, turn the dive on gas or time and exit. It is understood that various “issues” would crop up during the exits of all of our training dives. This is what GUE training is all about – giving you the skills through practical supervised exposure to “scenarios” to manage problems in overhead or technical environments.

I can’t remember exactly what went “wrong” first, but we ended up exiting with Melody on a backup light, JM on a backup light, and me out-of-gas (OOA) sharing with JM. We left the reel in place and Chris retrieved it for us. Depth 32 ft time, 30 mins. At this point Melody had to get out of her drysuit to answer the call of nature. I was happy to be in a wetsuit. 7/5mm with a 3mm hooded vest.

“Dive 3” was a line following exercise in the cenote. We did this under touch contact with eyes closed, and a variety of other configurations. Buoyancy was a pain on this exercise since it went from 5 to 12 ft. Blind, those changes are difficult. Depth 12 ft, time 60 mins.

Dive 4 was to be our first cave dive. We went upstream from Cenote Eden as shown in the following sketch from my wetnotes.


My sketch of Ponderosa

I don’t exactly recall the failures form this dive, but I believe it was “only” our three primary lights. Depth 43 ft, time 32 mins. Total in-water time for our first day of diving was about 3 hours.

Cave Class Day 3
Day 3 started with some final soul searching by Melody. She was just too agitated being in a dark overhead and decided to bow out. Chris was totally cool with this and supported her decision immensely. Her raging headache disappeared shortly thereafter. So Melody would participate in all of our predive s-drills, valve drills, dive briefings and debriefings, but would just skip the actual cave dives.

Systeme Chikin Ha was about 0.5 miles off the main highway, over one of the worst dirt roads the rental car was forced to navigate. Here we were to do a short 400 psi downstream penetration towards the “Wizard’s Den”. The mainline started in 30ft and fairly soon thereafter dropped through the halocline to a max depth of 42ft. Time 35 mins.



Chikin Ha entrance



Chikin Ha pools


Sketch of downstream penetration towards Wizard's Den

The halocline is the boundary between salt and fresh water. Because the limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula is so porous, the fresh water only exists as a lens on top of the deeper, denser salt water. The depth to the halocline varies depending on your distance from the ocean.

I forget the exact failures JM and I experienced on this dive, although I suspect they were relatively minor light failures and some gas sharing.

Dive 2 was a longer penetration to just past the Wizard’s Den. The Den itself was pretty interesting, lots of speleotherms (definition/formation – image) have broken off in huge chunks from the ceiling and they litter the floor at all sorts of strange angles. I imagined that Harry Potter and Voldermort had a fight in there. Depth 42, time 40 mins.


After a dive, Chris (L) and Richard (R)

Dive 3 was another line following exercise. As before we did this under touch contact with eyes closed, and a variety of other configurations. However, Chris also added an OOA diver to the mix this time. Depth 15 ft, time 35 mins.

Dive 4 was with fresh double AL80s and we were to penetrate past the Wizard’s Den to beyond the mid-point of the mainline. This is the point at which directional arrows start pointing to another – theoretically closer – cenote. So to reinforce our way out, we were to place non-directional markers next to the permanent line arrows.

If I recall correctly, this was also a “setup dive” rather than a “scenario dive”. In a setup dive, Chris explains all of the problems you are to encounter ahead of time. He then allows you to get yourself situated prior to initiating the issues. We were “setup” to have an OOA exit in complete darkness. I had a hard time communicating to JM that we needed to be on the left side of the line for the exit. JM was a bit spacey and unfocused in general. Anyway, we completed this without incident, exiting faster than we entered. Depth 42 ft, 40 mins.

Thursday night was our final lecture about navigation and emergency “proscheedures” (I told you Chris was very French ).

Cave Class Day 4
We went to Tajma Ha today. This day started with more dry land drills, this time practicing the lost buddy searches. Our first penetration dive was downstream for 400 psi. This mainline was scarily small, #18 twisted nylon. It was the original survey line too and that didn’t inspire much of my confidence if we were blind on it either. You’re not supposed to pull on the line, but when there’s zero light some sawing action is inevitable. I didn’t want to do that with this line, that’s for sure. This mainline was also a bit harder to find since it was 90 degrees to the cave warning sign, then about 150 ft back, just at the halocline. This dive was our first one with manifold/regulator failures; as I recall JM had a non-fixable right post failure. Depth 40ft, time 35 min.

Dive 2 was a longer 500 psi penetration, also downstream. Depth 40ft, time 45 min.


Sketch of downstream penetrations

Dive 3, After switching cylinders we did a short 300 psi upstream penetration towards DCS dome.


Sketch of upstream penetrations towards DCS dome

DCS dome is a breakdown pile that didn’t collapse through to the surface above. But the pile does force you to swim upwards from ~35ft to about the 4-5ft depth and then back down again. We didn’t surface in DCS dome although the atmosphere in there is supposedly breathable. Many air pockets in caves don’t contain enough oxygen or have toxic gases in them. But seeing the tree roots hanging down was kinda interesting. We went through the lost buddy search procedures on the way out. Depth 40ft, 40 mins.

Dive 4 was a 500 psi penetration past DCS dome. This time JM had a left manifold failure followed by an OOA. Eventually all our lights failed and we exited in the total dark sharing gas, from over 1000 ft back. That was pretty confidence inspiring that we could manage that level of problems, make it out almost as fast as we entered, and still have over 1000 psi (50 cf, ~30mins worth) of gas left in my double AL80s.

Cave Class Day 5
Today we drove a bit further from the shop, to Cenote Carwash.


Carwash entrance

I’d heard of this place before – if only because the locals used to wash there taxis there. This cenote was pretty different from the previous 4, if only from the massive quantities of organic matter in the basin. It was like piles of feathers everywhere that the slightest current would stir up.


The toilets were one of the most interesting features of Carwash, 2 story outhouses!

We began with our usual valve and s-drills (air sharing) which were getting much better by now. I then led a 400 psi downstream penetration.


Sketch of Carwash downstream penetration along backwards G shape

My secondary tieoff was a big stick shoved into the organic mung at the bottom of the breakdown pile. It felt really long, there’s been a lot of growth the form all that organic detritus. I don’t know the name of the room, but it had a very low ceiling at first and many round flowstone features. The line curved around gradually opening up with more and more stalactites. JM had a right manifold failure on the way out, and still didn’t manage to shut off his own valves (I had to close his isolator). Chris was getting a tad frustrated that his fellow Frenchman was flaky. Depth 60ft, time 40 min

Dive 2 was the lost line drill. The cavern zone on the upstream side of Carwash goes way, way back. So JM ran the reel in about 275 ft and left it tied to a rock. Chris then took us off this line and we were expected to systematically find our way back. I went first.

I managed to establish a primary tieoff that was good, but my secondary was on just a tiny little rock, maybe baseball sized. No matter the relationship between the 2 still gave me some sort of bearing about where I’d been. So I turned around and set off in the direction I thought the main line was. No luck. Apparently I was about 6 ft shy of it when I turned around. On my 2nd try, I vowed to go further than I suspected I needed to, poof there was the main line we laid. Total time according to Chris – 8 mins.

JM went next while I waited on the line, in the total darkness. We were supposed to be in the cavern zone but so little light made it in it was basically the cave. The first couple minutes were ok. Then I started losing my spatial orientation, so I put my right hand down on a handy rock (left was on the line). That helped for another 3 or 4 minutes. Then I had the vaguest of notions that my feet were way high. Guess its time to reorient! I turned on my backup light and got my gauge to glow. That helped for awhile too, at least keeping my mind occupied. Every once in awhile Chris would flash his backup light on and check on JM. Eventually, after 18 minutes, Chris called it quits for JM. We left the reel in place for the next dive and exited uneventfully for our debrief. Depth 38ft, time 53 min.

Dive 3 was a unconscious diver towing exercise in the Cenote. It was easier in my opinion than the unconscious diver ascents we did in Tech1, at least once you got your mutual buoyancy right.

Dive 4 was the final dive of the class, a 500 psi penetration upstream into Carwash to just past Cenote Luc’s Hope. Upper right on previous sketch.

It was really hard for us to find the mainline, even with our since its like 400 ft in there. We had somewhat of a confusing time tying off due to the angles and lack of convenient tie-offs. After about 6 minutes runtime we were off. The substrate of this section is vastly different than any other, big calcite flakes. JM finally turned this dive (I had turned every previous dive, not because I was so much worse on gas, but JM just didn’t check his gauge much –much to Chris’ dismay.) We had no failures on the way out! JM retried the lost line drill on the way out and eventually got the line. Depth 44ft, time 50 min.

We were done, yeah! We returned to the shop for the test. While I passed, JM was told to return for 2 more days with the next class. I don’t know how that worked out for him.

Tourist Day 1
Saturday was a “day off” for us. We drove 45 minutes down to Tulum.


Tulum, a tourist mecca



Tulum on the Ocean


Tulum, c. 1500 years old

This is an ancient Mayan City built on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The humidity was >100% and it was hot, over 90F by 10:30. It was somewhat interesting, but there were lots and lots of tourists and most of the ruins were only visible from a short distance (i.e. access was restricted). We stayed on the paths and sweated.

Cave Experience Day
Sunday was an experience day for both Melody and myself. We met Chris at 08:00 and he told us we were to do 5 dives today, 3 cave and 2 cavern. So we set off to Systeme Sac Aktun (aka the “white cave”) which we entered via Grand Cenote.

Grand Cenote is one of the most popular tourist snorkeling and swimming holes. Unlike many of the other cenotes which basically just provide toilets for their small fee, this one had snorkeling gear rental and 2 vicious weiner dogs.

Chris and I did a 500 psi upstream penetration first. This was along a hefty white #42 mainline. Wow that looked beefy after the tiny little #18 twisted we had to follow in Tajma Ha. Chris led and we had to drop cookies (non-directional markers) along the way to reinforce our exit. We also did a ~80 ft gap near Cenote Hotul. I turned the dive on gas just before the restriction beyond Hotul where we would have turned anyway. Depth 40ft, 60 mins.


Sketch of upstream penetration of Grand Cenote. Our penetration was just past the gap at Cenote Hotul. Yellow line is cavern line seen in photo 2 below.

Melody, Chris and I did a second cavern dive at Grand Cenote; Melody led. This is the only dive where I brought our camera. Mostly I didn’t want to task load myself with it in a cave – I’m not ready for that yet. My pictures don’t do it justice.


Melody doing a primary tie


Speleotherms in Grand Cenote, Chris ahead and Melody's tanks are just left of the pillar


Pillar and shelf speleotherms in Grand Cenote


More Grand Cenote stalactites


Grand Cenote stalactites and small pillars


Larger Grand Cenote pillar

This dive was pretty uneventful, although Chris had a real primary light failure about ½ of the way back along the cavern line. 30 ft, 48 mins.

Some other open water divers were in Grand Cenote’s cavern with a guide and that really illustrated for us the variability in instruction quality in Mexico. This guide had no primary light, was taking her clients way off the line – damaging cave formations in the process. Her clients also had a total fubar gear configuration with an octo stuck behind their head – a consequence of having no pre-dive checks. Scary stuff.


Temple of Doom. Dive 1 was a counterclockwise penetration to the second T, dive 2 was a clockwise penetration, also to the second T.

Dive 3 was a 400 psi penetration at Temple of Doom, aka Cenote Calavera. Calavera is a 5 minutes hike through a steamy jungle from the road. Then it’s a 10 ft drop to the water - a real giant stride! There a rickety old steel ladder tied to a stump on the surface to get out. We started with Chris leading “The Canyons” passage. This was pretty cool to me. We were way below the halocline, down around 60ft. The tunnel was just a bit wider than 2 people and was just deep blue with a swiss cheese look to the limestone where the salt water had eroded it. We navigated one T and turned the dive just as we arrived at the second (as a Cave1 diver I am limited to one T anyway.) Off in the distance (150 ft away) you could see a huge stalactite hanging 15 ft down from the ceiling. Depth 60 ft, 38 mins

We returned to the cavern zone and recalculated our turn pressures underwater. This time I led down the “Madonna Passage”. This passage has lots of interesting formations. Many of them have specific names, although I didn’t know this until I checked the book afterwards. We navigated one T again and then arrived at the 2nd T – the same place we had turned before – man that’s a big fang in the distance! Depth 55 ft, 38 mins.

Our last dive was a cavern tour of Calavera – Temple of Doom. Melody led and really enjoyed it, despite the lots of ups and downs. Borrowing a 40 lb wing helped with all the buoyancy changes. This was her 2nd experience with a halocline. Its weird having to vent gas from your wing as you descend into the denser salt water. Depth 50 ft, 45 mins.

Tourist Day 2
Our last full day in Mexico we drove to Coba. Now this was quite a drive. The road to Coba leaves Tulum and travels northwest. Its well paved for a few miles then the construction starts. The locals have also added their own homegrown speed bumps in places. In Spanish these are “Topes” which loosely translates to “dead people”. I never thought a piece of rope across the highway could rattle you so much! Eventually the road narrows to about 20 ft wide. There are busses and taxis speeding everywhere, while some ancient trucks lumber along at 30 mph. Yikes!

Eventually we arrived at Coba and paid our admission fees. Coba is a much larger Mayan city than Tulum. Its about ¾ of a mile walk along the “white roads” around the various structures and back to the tallest Mayan pyramid.

They rent bikes and have bike taxis there, but we walked. The cool thing is they let you climb onto many of the buildings. It was hot here, but not as sunny as at Tulum. I much preferred to be cave diving over sightseeing.

That afternoon we spent snorkeling in the bay by the hotel. It was very nice. In addition to a variety of tangs, we saw a Moray eel and 2 cuttlefish, that was pretty special for 5 ft deep water.

The following day we departed the hotel and got to the airport way too early (~3 hours). We were forced to repack our checked bags to get them under 50 lbs each, what a pain. We boarded the plane on-time and taxied out to… wait. After hanging around for 2 hours with a broken engine, they brought us to another plane also flying to Chicago. We got to Chicago with 65 mins to spare before our flight to Seattle. So we hustled through customs and took the tram to another terminal and discovered… the next flight was overbooked and our seats had been given away. We managed to get them back. We arrived home to news of the big windstorm, although all our clocks were still set. We also heard then Denver was closing, boy was I glad we squeaked through Chicago!

A I write this in early January 2007, its 39F outside and I sure wish I could hope down to Akumal for a cave dive! We’re ready to return for more.


Self portrait at Coba