Dos Ojos and the Dos Ojos-Monolito traverse

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Campana

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Messages
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Location
Wills Point, Texas
# of dives
500 - 999
Akumal Day 5: The Grand Traverse

Dive 1: Dos Ojos. South from our place of residence for the week at Aquatech, we went south on 307 for about 7 km to an entrance on the west side of the highway. Then it’s around 3 km to the Dos Ojos Cenote. We passed Monolito along the way, but that’s later. There is a 120 meter hike to the Cenote from the parking area. The Cavern zone is very beautiful and is truly huge. Snorkeling is excellent here, and snorkel folks can get a really good view of the openings to the caves, cave divers exiting, etc. I would think that if a snorkeler was going to get interested in cave diving, this would be the place. The cavern line goes on and on and on, and we swam for about 25 minutes just to get to the cave. There is air overhead much or all the way. After tying off, we began to pass a plethora of beautiful decorations. Then, the cave gives way to a flat bedding plane. Sometimes bedding planes are cool for a while. The ceiling and floor are very flat, and very, very, wide. This part is called the cellar or the basement, I don’t remember which. There is perhaps 4-6’ of space from floor to ceiling, and after a while, my back started to hurt, as there is no relief from the flat, head cranked up to see, posture. M called the dive during this part, and I found out later that his back was killing him and he couldn’t go on. I literally felt his pain. Naturally, we found out that we were “almost” out of the cellar, and that the cave allegedly opens up to some beautiful scenery later on. Well, next year……

Dive statistics were: 25 feet for 83 minutes, begun at 9:41 A.M. After the dive, Roger and I practiced the same valve drills and safety drills that we had done much of the week.


Dive 2: The Grand Traverse.

Same entrance, new tanks. This was to be one of the highlights of the trip. It is a traverse through 5 cenotes. They are: Dos Ojos-Dos Palmas-High Voltage-Tapir’s end-Monolito. The procedure was totally different in that after reaching each way station of a new Cenote, thirds are recalculated. In effect, a new goal is set at each potential exit point. If thirds were reached before the goal, then turning back would be called for.

This dive is shallow and very, very long. Yayo predicted 120 minutes and hit the nail on the head as usual. He told us that the distance was to be 6630 feet, or a mile and a quarter. The first leg was characterized by decorations galore. It is impossible to pass through some of the restrictions without touching. I learned that if I put my hand gently on the exact stalagmite that held the turn in the line, I could guide myself through with minimal contact. In my head, I called this “pull and guide” though there is no pulling. For you non-cavers, this is a lousy pun on “pull and glide”, a technique of using handholds to fight the current, which is of questionable ethics in a lot of caves because it does involve contact with cave structures. After 60 minutes I believe, I saw the most welcome green glow of an upcoming Cenote, which would be Dos Palmas. It was most eerie, and we passed on by, thirds not having been reached. I recalculated thirds, thinking how scary it was that I was doing fractions in my head. Around 20 minutes later, Cenote High Voltage made itself known with another green glow. Then, they popped up regularly, and each time, I did the fraction thing. I was somewhat tense with the idea of the constant swimming, multiple calculations, and the fact that I had never, ever, been here before. This detracted from the enjoyment of the dive. I tend to get a little mental in some places, and this was one. Restrictions continued, and finally, the last glow appeared. It became very shallow, and we basically waded out into a somewhat sulphurous muck, up a very steep hill on foot, to the van and the waiting huge bag of chocolate chip cookies, the staple of this trip.

S picked up a red pop from the cooler, and regarded it skeptically. He said “Whas zis?” I said “It is probably strawberry or cherry, it looks like a Big Red”. Being from Michigan, he might not be familiar with Big Red, and after a sip, he says “Dave, you want this?” I said “sure” and took a sip. Yep, Big Red, Mexican style. I guzzled it down. It was really good.

A word about the personnel on this trip feels appropriate. In the “B” team (named by me, because I always am on the “A” team), were S, J, L, and M. They all knew each other before the trip and called each other “Bubba” all the time. Even Yayo started calling them Bubba after a while, it was just easier. Of course, it’s not highly descriptive of any particular individual, and causes a bit of confusion at times, as in “Who has my defog?” which is answered, of course, “Bubba”. On the A team were me, L, K, and Roger. I knew Roger a bit from correspondence, but didn’t know K and L. I had my doubts, since they’re all Yankees except me, I’m from Texas, and Roger is from Colorado, which is a sort of Yankee too in my opinion. As a Texan, everyone not from Texas is a Yankee, except people from Louisiana, and they know what they are.

When in the Cancun airport at the beginning of the trip, I doubted my own sanity, and remember, I’m an expert on sanity. I thought I must have smoked too much crack; going cave diving with a bunch of Yankee strangers.

However, I can fairly say that this was one of the most able and nicest groups of people I have ever met. Our air consumption was incredibly consistent and uniform, which is always nice because no one has to be the Hoover in the group. A couple of the folks were ladies, using the term loosely, and they toted their own weight, and only shopped a little.

I fully plan to try to return to the same place, dive the same dives, with the same people. I guess Yankees are pretty cool. Some of them, anyway. Enough about that.

Next report: The last day……
 
Dave,

Thanks again for all your great reports. I'm saving them for future reference.

DSAO,
Larry
 
Hmmmm. I guess that's okay. And I only shopped one day, for about 20 minutes to get the pre-requisite souvs for the people at home......unless you count the stops at the "mini-super" for staples like chips, cookies and chocolate. (only twice)

Lori aka "A" Team "L"
 
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