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Hi Trey, I was looking for any pottery or other stuff, but didn't see anything. Of course the silt on the bottom would be obscuring whatever was there. It was nice to see a cenote bottom not full of junk and garbage (broken masks, dive knives, plastic buckles, tin cans, etc.) for a change. I have been told by Suzanne, the other owner of the XTC (Xcalak to Chinchorro) Dive Shop, that some Mayan pottery and other artifacts have been found in the jungle close to this cenote. It will be interesting to see if anything else can be found on the bottom. 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. In a message dated 2/11/02 4:22:58 AM, girvine@be*.ne* writes: << Find any Mayan stuff down there? Gavin and I did a weird place where we had to get the Indians to burn the bees out before we could get through the dry cave part. It took us an hour to find an opening into the cave, but when we did it was quite big tunnel. After a couple thousand feet we noticed some faint light and investigated. It was another dry cave where the jungle had grown over the overhang so it was hidden from view at the surface. We popped up into it and shined our cave lights around - there was Mayan pottery everywhere, apparently placed there in the past as offerings to their gods. -----Original Message----- From: ScottBonis@ao*.co* [mailto:ScottBonis@ao*.co*] Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 1:02 PM To: techdiver@aquanaut.com; Cetaceans@ya*.co*; xtc@co*.co* Subject: New Cenote 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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