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Hi Guys, I've got to tell you that sometimes this diving stuff gets to be real fun. Last week I had the chance to be the first one to dive to the bottom of a new cenote here in the Yucatan. The cenote is around 10 miles north of Xcalak. But where is Xcalak, you ask? It is in southeastern Mexico around ten miles north of the border with Belize. The bad news was that to get there required an eighth mile hike from the highway through a swamp with water and mud up to my knees. But the good news was that included in our happy little group, was Steve, my cave buddy, and Eric, the 6'3" owner of XTC (Xcalak to Chinchorro) Dive Shop, that helped me get my tanks to the water. The cenote was really picturesque, being generally circular and around 100 yards in diameter. The jungle trees came right to the edge of the water. Two of the guys in the group were thoughtful enough that while dive gear was getting readied, they walked around the circumference of the cenote looking for crocodiles. Only one 4 to 5 footer was seen so we figured they would not be too much of a problem that day. The water in the cenote was strongly tannic, but the visibility below around 70 feet was at least 20 to 30 feet with almost no suspended particles reflecting light. The portion of the cenote I explored, bottomed at around 100 feet with at least 3 feet of silt on the floor. There were several openings in the bottom through which water was entering or exiting, but none of the ones I saw were large enough for me to squeeze through. The side of the cenote where I descended had many dead trees and branches protruding from the wall. These made running a reel (which was tied to two small trees on the surface), while trying to avoid snagging any equipment, rather tricky. Fortunately my cave kit generally follows commonly accepted minimalism and streamlining guidelines, so the entanglement problem was quite manageable. And of course any time I needed to approach the wall closely to unsnag the line from some branch, my bubbles would touch the wall and loads of fluffy stuff would come tumbling down. I've suggested naming the cenote Box Ha (pronounced Bosh-ha) which in Mayan means "Dark water." I'm sure in the future there will be more dives in Box Ha to see if we can find a cave system worthy of exploration. Take care and dive safe, Scott Some weeks it's just not worth the effort to gnaw through the restraints and scramble up out of the pit. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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