Campana
Guest
Last Day of Akumal 2002
Nohoch Nah Chich (Giant Birdhouse) was to be the site of the last two dives of the trip. Both dives were to be on the same set of Aluminum 80 doubles, and no fill was done between the two dives. The dives were very shallow, would present minimal nitrogen uptake, and thus were appropriate for the day before flying home.
Nohoch Nah Chich is around 5 km south of the entrance to Dos Ojos on Highway 307, the main drag between Cancun (AKA Dallas on the Beach) and Tulum. In the past, Sherpas were used to tote tanks on horses or burros, and divers had to walk. If you ever saw the excellent video of Cave Diving the Yucatan Peninsula you will remember seeing this part.
Now, however, there is a good road to the Cenote. After arriving at the parking lot for the Cenote and open air restaurant, divers walk around the Cenote and sort of spiral down into the water area, and the local boys are waked up to lower the gear and tanks down on ropes. Americans* would have installed a power elevator or at least a Warn 4500 winch, but the local boys run a rope over a branch and lower away.
(*Note on the word Americans: Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, Chileans, and Hondurans, all living on the American continent, are all Americans and I acknowledge this. However, United Statians is just too cumbersome, so please forgive my apparent cultural insensitivity).
So anyway, gear is assembled and Yayo gives the briefing with the usual excellent line drawings. During the briefing, he states that the cave system is, or at least was, considered to be the longest underwater cave in the world, and is or was listed in the Guinness book as such. It is thought to be 225,000 feet long. For the mathematically disinclined, that is longer than Hell.
Dive Numero Uno was begun at 9:53 A.M., and was an 800 psi penetration. That is, the first diver to use 800 psi turned the dive. The cave was shallow, and the dive was 29 feet maximum, for 87 minutes.
This was a cool down dive. There were no serious restrictions, the diving is easy, and the scenery is breathtaking beyond description. In the Gerrard book, there are pictures that show the type flowstone that is encountered, with stalactites that look like giant wedding cakes, humongous icicles, or piles of snot from the Jolly Green Giant himself. We proceeded up Arturos line to the Heavens Gate stone, a truly gigantic formation that is arguably the most beautiful rock in the world. Then, we entered the Disneyland section, where very little imagination will reveal all the cuddly little figures that Walt could have conjured up on his best acid trip. There are also helectites (Spelling?), which are pretty different, too. It is believed that mineral laden water, as it dripped through little soda straws, was blown by winds, or otherwise misdirected from its usual vertical path, which causes some spirally looking stalactites which sort of worm their way around in whatever direction they see fit. It creates a rather bizarre looking formation which must be seen to be understood. Off to the side, columns create forests that could never be penetrated by a swimmer, and I could not imagine what lay on their other side.
There are a couple of rather confusing spots, and I used my cave cookies to mark my way to avoid any mental discomfort later. For you non cavers, cookies are innovations that are similar to cave arrows except they are non directional. They are used to mark a spot on a line that might need to be remembered later. This could be a penetration limit for future reference, and in this case, cookies were used to mark just which line I personally wanted to follow in order to go out on the same line I followed on the entry. They look like cave arrows, except they are round. They should be marked with the cavers mark, name, or initials.
On this dive, I felt very comfortable and in the groove.
Dive number two was begun after a surface interval, at 12:51, after fortification of all hands by interesting sandwiches and the usual choco-chip snacks. It was 20 feet deep, maximum, for 75 minutes and was done on thirds from the 1800 psi I had left from the morning dive. We followed the main line, and again, there were few restrictions and almost no spots not rich with mineral formations. White flow stone was common, columns, and more helectites were also seen. I achieved Nirvana and went into a trance.
Our squad of divers was scattered high and low, in a line, and I accidentally swam under J, who was supposed to be in front of me. Since J has a really good education and is very alert, he immediately grabbed my manifold and hitched a ride for quite some time without any hint to me of his tomfoolery.
I had more than one inattentive moment that day. Earlier, I forgot my extra battery for my excellent Dive Rite Wreck Light, and had to borrow Ss Halcyon 10 watt focusable NiMh light. If you havent seen these, the NiMh batteries are much, much, smaller than the motorcycle batteries that we usually use, and look like a long flashlight with the cord to the head coming out the top as usual. I fell in love with this light, and plan on suing S for exposing me to temptation to spend $900 on another light. We could have settled out of court, if he had simply given me the light as requested, but he declined. See you in court, S.
After this dive, we all packed up. As we dried our gear, our room looked like a bomb went off in the warehouse of Leisure Pro. We planned to get drunk and raise hell that night, but somehow everyone just stared off into space and wandered around. It seemed really strange, sitting on the beach, watching the sun go down, a trickle of sweat running down my nose, and hearing Jingle Bell Rock floating through the tropical evening. Then someone said Only four shopping days left.
The Cancun airport was a zoo. The line of Gringos trying to get into the country snaked through every available space, seems like Christmas on the beach was a popular idea this year. The American Airlines plane was not half full and I spread out my stuff over three seats and read the Steve Gerrard book and looked at the pictures, between bouts of talking to a Mexican attorney, who wanted to tell me about the fact that he owned a Harley Davidson AND a Honda Goldwing, the fact that his wife would never learn English and if he moved to the States, and how she would be an even more vivid pain in the ass than she is now, and the fact that Fidel Castro lied about the President of Mexico when he said he left Mexico only when forced to do so.
Back at DFW, my honey was waiting. I ran to her and kissed her, and boy was I glad to see her. Driving through Dallas with smooth pavement, high-rise offices with all their lights on, crowded shopping malls, passing 25 year old blonds in their new Hummer H2s, on my way back to our home in the woods, I was in shock after the peace, tranquility, and beauty of the caves of the Maya Riviera.
Im going back next year.
Nohoch Nah Chich (Giant Birdhouse) was to be the site of the last two dives of the trip. Both dives were to be on the same set of Aluminum 80 doubles, and no fill was done between the two dives. The dives were very shallow, would present minimal nitrogen uptake, and thus were appropriate for the day before flying home.
Nohoch Nah Chich is around 5 km south of the entrance to Dos Ojos on Highway 307, the main drag between Cancun (AKA Dallas on the Beach) and Tulum. In the past, Sherpas were used to tote tanks on horses or burros, and divers had to walk. If you ever saw the excellent video of Cave Diving the Yucatan Peninsula you will remember seeing this part.
Now, however, there is a good road to the Cenote. After arriving at the parking lot for the Cenote and open air restaurant, divers walk around the Cenote and sort of spiral down into the water area, and the local boys are waked up to lower the gear and tanks down on ropes. Americans* would have installed a power elevator or at least a Warn 4500 winch, but the local boys run a rope over a branch and lower away.
(*Note on the word Americans: Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, Chileans, and Hondurans, all living on the American continent, are all Americans and I acknowledge this. However, United Statians is just too cumbersome, so please forgive my apparent cultural insensitivity).
So anyway, gear is assembled and Yayo gives the briefing with the usual excellent line drawings. During the briefing, he states that the cave system is, or at least was, considered to be the longest underwater cave in the world, and is or was listed in the Guinness book as such. It is thought to be 225,000 feet long. For the mathematically disinclined, that is longer than Hell.
Dive Numero Uno was begun at 9:53 A.M., and was an 800 psi penetration. That is, the first diver to use 800 psi turned the dive. The cave was shallow, and the dive was 29 feet maximum, for 87 minutes.
This was a cool down dive. There were no serious restrictions, the diving is easy, and the scenery is breathtaking beyond description. In the Gerrard book, there are pictures that show the type flowstone that is encountered, with stalactites that look like giant wedding cakes, humongous icicles, or piles of snot from the Jolly Green Giant himself. We proceeded up Arturos line to the Heavens Gate stone, a truly gigantic formation that is arguably the most beautiful rock in the world. Then, we entered the Disneyland section, where very little imagination will reveal all the cuddly little figures that Walt could have conjured up on his best acid trip. There are also helectites (Spelling?), which are pretty different, too. It is believed that mineral laden water, as it dripped through little soda straws, was blown by winds, or otherwise misdirected from its usual vertical path, which causes some spirally looking stalactites which sort of worm their way around in whatever direction they see fit. It creates a rather bizarre looking formation which must be seen to be understood. Off to the side, columns create forests that could never be penetrated by a swimmer, and I could not imagine what lay on their other side.
There are a couple of rather confusing spots, and I used my cave cookies to mark my way to avoid any mental discomfort later. For you non cavers, cookies are innovations that are similar to cave arrows except they are non directional. They are used to mark a spot on a line that might need to be remembered later. This could be a penetration limit for future reference, and in this case, cookies were used to mark just which line I personally wanted to follow in order to go out on the same line I followed on the entry. They look like cave arrows, except they are round. They should be marked with the cavers mark, name, or initials.
On this dive, I felt very comfortable and in the groove.
Dive number two was begun after a surface interval, at 12:51, after fortification of all hands by interesting sandwiches and the usual choco-chip snacks. It was 20 feet deep, maximum, for 75 minutes and was done on thirds from the 1800 psi I had left from the morning dive. We followed the main line, and again, there were few restrictions and almost no spots not rich with mineral formations. White flow stone was common, columns, and more helectites were also seen. I achieved Nirvana and went into a trance.
Our squad of divers was scattered high and low, in a line, and I accidentally swam under J, who was supposed to be in front of me. Since J has a really good education and is very alert, he immediately grabbed my manifold and hitched a ride for quite some time without any hint to me of his tomfoolery.
I had more than one inattentive moment that day. Earlier, I forgot my extra battery for my excellent Dive Rite Wreck Light, and had to borrow Ss Halcyon 10 watt focusable NiMh light. If you havent seen these, the NiMh batteries are much, much, smaller than the motorcycle batteries that we usually use, and look like a long flashlight with the cord to the head coming out the top as usual. I fell in love with this light, and plan on suing S for exposing me to temptation to spend $900 on another light. We could have settled out of court, if he had simply given me the light as requested, but he declined. See you in court, S.
After this dive, we all packed up. As we dried our gear, our room looked like a bomb went off in the warehouse of Leisure Pro. We planned to get drunk and raise hell that night, but somehow everyone just stared off into space and wandered around. It seemed really strange, sitting on the beach, watching the sun go down, a trickle of sweat running down my nose, and hearing Jingle Bell Rock floating through the tropical evening. Then someone said Only four shopping days left.
The Cancun airport was a zoo. The line of Gringos trying to get into the country snaked through every available space, seems like Christmas on the beach was a popular idea this year. The American Airlines plane was not half full and I spread out my stuff over three seats and read the Steve Gerrard book and looked at the pictures, between bouts of talking to a Mexican attorney, who wanted to tell me about the fact that he owned a Harley Davidson AND a Honda Goldwing, the fact that his wife would never learn English and if he moved to the States, and how she would be an even more vivid pain in the ass than she is now, and the fact that Fidel Castro lied about the President of Mexico when he said he left Mexico only when forced to do so.
Back at DFW, my honey was waiting. I ran to her and kissed her, and boy was I glad to see her. Driving through Dallas with smooth pavement, high-rise offices with all their lights on, crowded shopping malls, passing 25 year old blonds in their new Hummer H2s, on my way back to our home in the woods, I was in shock after the peace, tranquility, and beauty of the caves of the Maya Riviera.
Im going back next year.
