I did my first cenote!

[DandyDon]

I've only done a few, but The Pit was a hoot: 30 ft drop into the water, decline thru Hydrogen sulfide layer, descend to 130 ft to see the bones at 140, etc - then use hoists to pull gear out after the first two climb out with the assist of a rope. Good thread and video at http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-videography/377269-pit-cenote.html

After lunch, we did Eden which was fun with more purple layers of Hydrogen sulfide.

 

[TSandM]

BTW, the dive shop that was worried about Angelita had reason to be that way -- there had been armed robberies at that site.

Some of the less frequented cenote sites have periodic problems with crime. When that is occurring at a site, many of the local guides and shops will avoid that place until the problem subsides. I, personally, would not try to call around to find a shop that would take me somewhere that someone has refused to visit because it is currently not safe.

 

[FlyingPig]

That's scary. So much for all the policia by the roadblocks.

 

[DandyDon]

Aren't most of the cenotes on private land owned by the Mayan tribal society, however Mexico recognizes them? They don't seem to do much other than collect entry fees, judging from the roads & facilities on Dos Ojos.

 

[TSandM]

Most of the land is owned by "ejidos", which are associations of family groups. How much is done at any given site depends on the owners. Grand Cenote, for example, has nice tables, multiple bathrooms with flush toilets and sinks, changing rooms, sturdy stairs (and awful ladders). Other sites may have much less or nothing at all.

A couple of years ago, when Mayan Blue had developed a bad reputation for car break-ins, the owners hired a man to supervise the site during the day. It was very nice for us, and I think for him (I, at least, tipped him well). But they're no longer doing that, and now the break-ins have started again. When you leave a car with expensive or valuable things in it locked at a remote site in the jungle, in an area of severe poverty, I guess it's not surprising that things happen. After all, we've had at least three car break-ins with dive gear stolen in the last couple of months, here in Seattle, and the cars in question weren't in remote jungle sites.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Ouch, that sucks.....perhaps you should let us know about the shop to avoid:-D

the only reason I went to that shop was I had all the addresses of the shop(s) that I needed but once in Playa, could not figure out the scheme of the street thus could not find the shops. I just drove around until I found a diveshop and inquired about all the dives. All the shops that I eventually went to subcontracts the DM (not sure if it is because it is a low season or what) but they went back and forth on Angelita. It might have been the DM being hesitant to go there, or wanting an extra guard to come with us. But that DM was cool, he had the HID with the last of the 250w bulbs. It was cool in the low season. It was just 2 of us w/the guide on practically every dive, including in the cenotes.

I've only done a few, but The Pit was a hoot: 30 ft drop into the water, decline thru Hydrogen sulfide layer, descend to 130 ft to see the bones at 140, etc - then use hoists to pull gear out after the first two climb out with the assist of a rope. Good thread and video at http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-videography/377269-pit-cenote.html

That might have been what they wanted me to do. But with a deeper hydrogen sulfide layer, and was told of the big jump. Didn't want my camera equipment smashed to bits on the landing. There was a big jump at Angelita too, my wife did it but I took the long route to the little bit of shoreline it had.

Did you do a circular swimup around the Pit? That's what was done on Angelita and they had interesting bit of cavern/stalactite formations along the side of the pit. There is a resident crocodile that was not there when we were there.

 

[DandyDon]

That might have been what they wanted me to do. But with a deeper hydrogen sulfide layer, and was told of the big jump. Didn't want my camera equipment smashed to bits on the landing. There was a big jump at Angelita too, my wife did it but I took the long route to the little bit of shoreline it had.

Did you do a circular swimup around the Pit? That's what was done on Angelita and they had interesting bit of cavern/stalactite formations along the side of the pit. There is a resident crocodile that was not there when we were there.

There was a smaller line pulley for our cameras. I can't imagine anyone jumping in that far holding one. Did you check out the video? The guy did a great job on it but they spent more time in the cloud than we.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Probably is Tajma Ha, since everything there ends in Ha.

I had trouble getting the dive shop I was using to take me to Angelita. Something about bandits and robbing the guy in the shack and all the equipments on the truck. They kept wanting to take me to some other sinkhole with the sulfur cloud, but at 130ft. At that depth, I would have been spending alot less time at the bottom. I went to another shop that was glad to take me. Also did a combo Dos Ojos/Grand Cenote as a second dive.

The only thing with cenote diving is we have to follow cave diving rules with the rule of thirds. You come out with 1000 psi and you think, we could have gone a bit more with the air left. Good thing with Angelita is that since it is not cave or cavern diving, we didn't have to follow that rule.

If you really think "we could have gone a bit more" then you don't understand the rules. That's sort of scary...

 

[Dirty-Dog]

That might have been what they wanted me to do. But with a deeper hydrogen sulfide layer, and was told of the big jump. Didn't want my camera equipment smashed to bits on the landing. There was a big jump at Angelita too, my wife did it but I took the long route to the little bit of shoreline it had.

Did you do a circular swimup around the Pit? That's what was done on Angelita and they had interesting bit of cavern/stalactite formations along the side of the pit. There is a resident crocodile that was not there when we were there.

The jump at Angelita is only about 8 feet or so. At The Pit, you don't jump geared (well, most people don't; there are always lunatics...). Your gear goes down on ropes and pullies, and then you jump.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

There was a smaller line pulley for our cameras. I can't imagine anyone jumping in that far holding one. Did you check out the video? The guy did a great job on it but they spent more time in the cloud than we.

I saw part of the video from my phone. Seems like the cloud has been quite disturbed already. When I did angelita, we were the only people diving for that day. The cloud layer was like a dense layer that one can't see past a few inches.

The jump at Angelita is only about 8 feet or so. At The Pit, you don't jump geared (well, most people don't; there are always lunatics...). Your gear goes down on ropes and pullies, and then you jump.

I think it is much more than 8 ft. 8ft is not much higher than some people and it definitely looked more than that. I don't remember a rope at Angelita. that place looks like somebody's cesspool from above.

If you really think "we could have gone a bit more" then you don't understand the rules. That's sort of scary...

Of course I understand. But that's cave diving rules, this is cavern, where if suddenly find out your are low on air, you could always swim to the lighted opening. We all come back with 1000psi or more.