Cenote Ketan

LABNA HA MICRO-EXPEDICIO'N KETAN (WILD PIG) 09

01 NOV 2009

Sunday morning Sergio picked me up at my hotel in Playa Del Carmen around 10 AM. We then met Pep at a nearby parking lot and all got into his Cherokee. We headed south to the Labna Ha palapa located along Hwy 307, near Tulum.

We assembled a climbing harness, ascenders, and ropes for the entry and exit from the cenote. We then proceeded back into the jungle to their park. Filled our doubles, and loaded up the rest of our scuba equipment. Having just finished my full cave course with Sergio the previous day, I was very much looking forward to the chance to dive a virgin cenote.

We loaded into Pep's truck with the Labna Ha truck following us and headed towards Rancho San Felipe. Cenote Ketan is on Labna Ha property, but is across the road from the rest of the park. As such the cenote is actually part of Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich. However it is some distance upstream from the main entry and is seldom seen by divers as it would take stages, or a DPV to get that far up the line.

Access into the cenote was by foot approximately 1 km. Our best access was from Rancho San Felipe and walking in past Cenote Dreamgate along an existing path. Mayan sherpas carried in our tanks and other assorted equipment.

On the way in we talked about the fact that as far as anyone knew, no person had dove from this site, as it is a fairly small opening approximate 20-25 feet down to the water. When we arrived to the site I was actually unable to see the water in the bottom without leaning over the hole and holding on to a nearby tree. I thought to myself... this is why nobody has been here before to dive.

We assembled our gear, and put on our wetsuits. We then secured the lifeline to a nearby tree trunk. A separate rope was used for lowering the tanks. Pep went down into the cenote first. Sergio and I then lowered each of the 3 sets of double tanks down one at a time. I then rappeled down in, followed closely by Sergio.

We put on our gear in the water, helping each other as need. We quickly reviewed our dive plan and submerged. At the base of the cenote is a sediment mound, on which are bones from a wild pig. Including an almost a perfect set of teeth. There is a short line already in place heading to the mainline. I led the dive and secured my jump reel to the mainline.

We headed upstream towards Cenote Dinner Hole. The passage is huge aka the name in Mayan Nohoch (Giant). Sometimes it was 50-60 feet across and 30-40 feet from floor to ceiling. Few divers get this far into the cave, so it is pristine. In fact the cave line is the original knotted exploration line from 1989. The arrows still have M. Madden on them from the original explorer Mike Madden. When he explored this vast system he used styrofoam coffee cups to easily mark hundred feet intervals, many of the cups are still in place.
During the dive we saw blind cave fish swimming among tree roots, cave shrimp scurrying across the cave floor, and more speleothems that I could possibly write about. We continued until I hit 1/3's and turned the dive.

On the exit I noticed Pep about 20 feet above me looking around, he then signaled us to come up. Sergio secured an arrow and a jump reel, we swam up into an enormous airdome. We surfaced inside to find it was 100- 120 feet across covered with soda straw stalagtites. It was amazing. We took several pictures there and talked about what an amazing place this was. After about 10 minutes we submerged, and continued our exit.

Upon arrival back at Cenote Ketan, we exited in opposite order. Sergio went up first, followed by me. I quickly learned ascending out of a hole 25 feet after a dive is serious work. Sergio and I then lifted the gear out one set of double’s at a time while Pep remained down in the water. This also took more work than I would have expected. Everytime we would lift them up a bit, they would get stuck on a rock projection and we would have to lower them and try again. After some trial and error they were all up on dry land. Pep then climbed up out of the cenote and we undressed. The sherpas would come back tomorrow to get our tanks, but we needed to carry all of our personal gear out.

After the walk back to the truck, we were invited to have a cerveza with the Mayan owners of Cenote Nohoch as they are friends of both Pep and Sergio. I later found out this was quite an honor as Mayans are very private people who do not usually social outside of their culture. We took a couple of pictures, thanked them for the beers and returned to Labna Ha. I feel truly lucky to have been a part of this adventure.

A huge thanks to Sergio and Pep, as well as all of the support staff (sherpas ) involved in making this happen. I cannot wait to return to repeat a similar adventure in the future.

Sincerely, Brad Bremer