Room of Tears

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Mako Mark

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Seven years and ten days ago, I arrived in Mexico. I knew that there were caves and cave diving here and that was a driving reason for me to come.

I had heard of two caves in particular, Angelita (which has appeared frequently on this board and I wont discuss it now) and The Room of Tears in Aktun Ha also known as Carwash Cenote.

Yesterday I finally made it to the Room of Tears.

Candy (one of my cave diving buddies) an I had tried to reach it about a month ago as she had dived it before and thought she could find the jump. What happened is that we saw the entrance and dismissed it as not being the right tunnel and continued along the main line, through Adriannas room, and into a tight area called the cell block.

The cell block narrows down to a size more apt for sidemount so we turned around having reached thirds anyhow. On the way out through the restrictions we crashed into two other divers on the line that had been following us, for some reason this took away my tranquility about the dive and I exited fast, trying to put distance between us and the other divers. On the way back I double checked the small side passage we had dismissed, and decided that that was the entrance to the Room of Tears, and it deserved further investigation on a subsequent dive. I would be back at the first opportunity.

On exiting the cave, Bill and Bob Redneck, the other team from Nowhereville Illinois, said they had been following us and thought they had jumped onto our line from the main line. I felt rather vindicated that their presence had made me nervous, we had never left the main line at all, what had happened was the gold Kremantle line had changed into normal cave line. This lack of observation skills reinforces my dislike of being in close proximity to unknown teams of cave divers while I am underwater underground.

Two weeks went by, the repeat trip to carwash was cancelled for various reasons. I started teaching an instructor course and didn’t think I would get down there this week. My other cave dive buddy (Alex) rocked up on Monday and convinced me to give my students an extra half day of homework so we could jump in the truck and finally reach the Room of Tears.

It didn’t take much arm twisting.

We arrived at the cenote at about 2 pm and geared up. I had a minor problem with the backplate not fitting over my ingot tank weight. I had changed to my second set of wings and some of the grommets were in different places. We fixed the problem eventually. We entered the water and I had a second gear problem, a leaking left post reg, so exiting the water, sweating like a pig in my drysuit, swearing like a sailor in frustration, I fixed the leak and re-entered the water.

This didn’t bode well and perhaps I should have taken more notice of my mood. We did s-drills and equipment matching, then descended to lay the line. The visibility in the cenote was pea soup, but cleared at about three meters underwater. I tied off the primary, then the secondary then entered the cave. I entered far too far to the right and made a big swing through the cave entrance and the monster room until I found the main passage then continued to the main line.

Anyone familiar with this cave knows that the main line starts way back, and it took me thirteen minutes to reach it and tie off. This added to my lack of calmness and I noticed an abnormally high air consumption rate. We continued and swam rapidly past Luke’s hope cenote and the restriction just before it. I found the jump and tied off a spool.

Alex was looking around for the passage and couldn’t see it as it is very small. I laughed at his expression and dropped through the small hole in the wall. The passage became a tight restriction that didn’t have the dark staining of the main passage, and noticed the beautiful flowstones and rimstones on the floor. I had trouble tying off on the fixed line as it was so tight I could hardly get the second loop round the clip on my spool.

We entered the Chamber of Crystals and then the Room of Tears.

Large creamy columns about 30 centimeters in diameter and three to four meters high appeared like massive alter candles with blobs of melted wax dripping down their sides. The ceiling was covered with delicate straws, thousands of them and the line disappeared between more columns towards the back of the room. I checked time and air. It was time to go, but the line enticed me to poke my head round the corner. The passage narrowed through a small but highly decorated tunnel that leads on to the basement area.

Thankfully it was time to go. Not because I didn’t want to follow the line, but it was so beautiful, delicate and narrow, that it would be a section that a diver in a hurry could create havoc and destruction that would last for ever. I will return when I have more gas and time.

The exit was uneventful except for Alex wanting to take photos. He managed to snap off about forty shots while I was retrieving line, some of them good enough to print, but we really need a large slave strobe mounted between my doubles to illuminate this type of place and do it justice.

We exited the cave and swam around the cenote during the safety stop. I showed Alex the downstream entrance then swam back to the ladder and surfaced. A group of very excited tourists were hollering and hooting that they had thought we were crocodiles coming to attack them as they were swimming. They had seen the bubbles coming towards them across the cenote and assumed the worst. In the post dive glow, I kinda wished I was a crocodile then I would have a valid reason for attacking them, unfortunately, disturbing my post dive peace wasn’t sufficient cause.

We packed away the gear, I repaired the flat tire on the jeep, we took back the rented light that had failed on Alex, and drove home in the rainy gloom of the evening.

I reflected on a successful dive that had not gone perfectly. I had entered more stressed than I should have. The equipment problems may have contributed to the stress, squeezing a dive in during an afternoon playing hooky added to the rush. These are good lessons learned and noted for next time.

I just got the prints back from the photo store. A couple will go on the wall for those days that I cant play hooky, to remind me of the warm feeling of my day to day stresses and problems melting away during the drive home from a great days cave diving.

I wanted to share this with the board.
 
nice story ,it will remind me why I want to be cave certified
 
Hi Mark:

I know your post is months old, but it has only now become relevant to me!!

I was in Cozumel doing my cave course these past two weeks. As usual, I tend to do dives BEFORE understanding their significance.

I was able to do one of my Full cave dives in the "Carwash". If my Instructors Myan is correct Aktun Ha mean "Rock Water".

I relived my dive while reading your post. We managed to get just the other side of the Room of Tears (And getting a little tighter too). If my account is correct, we're talking approx 1200ft of penetration?

I too noticed just how far back the main line starts. I have to admit I would never find it without help, again. It was comforting to see Lukes Hope Cenote, as my brief glimpse of a poor map at least helped to form in my mind just where we were.

I'm already looking forward to another trip to Mexico :D

Steve
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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