Does anyone know of any cave diving or cave divers in Cuba?
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Does anyone know of any cave diving or cave divers in Cuba?
There is a lot of nice cave diving in Cuba. Travel restrictions on US citizens keeps most of us from going there. You might stand a better chance.Quote:
Originally Posted by phillip1
are there any specific areas that you know about there? I was thinking of starting to dig around Playa Giron it seems like there are a bunch of interesting looking sinks?
There is some scuba diving to be found in Cuba, with reefs, wrecks and caves.
We were able to travel there in the mid 1990s flying from Toronto to Varadero. At the time, these were weekly flights and there was no problem whatsoever for US citizens to do this. (Just not doing it officially.)
We were journalists at the time so I told the US we were going there as photojournalists and we told the Cuban authorities we were there for vacation. (This was true as we were vacationing photojournalists.)
We had no problems crossing the US border in upstate New York and I even got my US passport stamped when entering Cuba. (I would assume that things have been made much tighter since 9-11 though.)
We found the water and beaches down there to be equivalent to other Caribbean islands, and although we did not dive we snorkeled.
I did hear of a sink near Varadero Beach as well as other caves. I've also heard that the dive gear is somewhat out of date and I wouldn't expect any nitrox of helium unless things have changed.
There have been a lot of European (and Canadian) tourists traveling there for years so there's not really a reason why there can't be a somewhat modern dive facility down there.
It should be interesting when the politics change and it opens up to the US again....
I just looked up this link and found the cave near Varadero:
http://www.cuba-diving.de/DIVE-CUBA/...e_saturno.html
cool thanks for the info.
Kate Lewis organised a training trip to Cuba around 2000. She volunteered her time to train those Cubans who were already cave diving, and organised a gear donation drive to try to make sure they at least had access to some modern equipment.
The caves sound great but I never got over there myself. I could look into getting some contact info if you're interested.
I was going to mention something else with my previous post but didn't get to it.
Besides US citizens getting to Cuba "covertly" from another country we can also travel there legitimately by (as I recall) declaring your trip to be educational, science, religious or artistic. (For example I know some documentary film makers were able to travel there.)
And there used to be a weekly flight out of Miami -- but again this was years ago.
But, for sure I can say where there's a will...there's a way!
It would be really interesting if the NSS CDS did a issue featuring the caves of cuba!!
We would be glad to include one, if someone went over, and wrote one!Quote:
Originally Posted by CaverCraig
At one time, a member had a scientific permit to dive there. I will try to bug them into writing something. but it will be pretty dated. Mike Bruic, the former owner of Madison Blue, was planning on setting up a tourist guide system in Cuba, but I never heard if he followed through.
We are planning a trip there in March and I could write something if it turns out to be cool, looks like there are a bunch of caves in two regions mainly and most of them seem to have water from what I can gather.
A very long time ago I did a cave dive in Cozumel at a system by the name of Aerolito de Paraiso. I chartered the dive out with yucatech expeditions. After the dive the owner of the shop told me he was about to go on a expedition to Cuba. If somebody knows him, he may be an invaluable source of Cuban cave diving information.Quote:
Originally Posted by phillip1
As for your trip, you really should right out something about the the caves over there and if you have a camera take some nice shots for the rest of us. I hope you have a good trip and find some really nice ones!
Craig
I definitely plan on writing something and I will also take my video cam with me and also hopefully film the caves we find too.
I was in Cuba a couple of years ago vacationing in Veradaro and just asked around at the couple of dive shops about caves. I knew of a couple that are even in guide books but they are now off limits. I was quickly directed to a couple of local cave divers/ open water instructors in Veradaro that make regular trips into the middle of the country diving sink holes in farmers fields to see if they go. In some cases they definately do. My brother in-law and I made a good trip with them into a couple of caves that had had less than ten dives before. While we were at one cave enterance a local boy came up to the group and told us of another cave opening on a farm that none of the divers had heard of. There clearly is a lot of exploration potential.
It is easy to find out what shops have active cave divers in Veradero as everyone will gladly direct you down the road to the "other guy" as no one is really in any competition with each other. As for equipment, in Veradero there are no double tanks and the local guys were really jealous of my backplate. They do, however, have lots of large steel tanks with H-valves. In fact that is all the one shop with nitrox uses for all dives. They just cap the h for recreational dives. If I can find the name of the place the cave divers worked at I will repost. I would love to get back to Cuba to do some more poking around but it is difficult now that I live in the US.
hope this helps,
shaun
Went there 3 years ago. We were cave divers but did not think there could be caves there so we did not bring any cave gear. We had a contact to dive outside a organize tour... so the guy took us at ''Pig Bay'' for some wall diving. BTW, at PIG Bay, how deep do you want to go the guide asked us, we said how deep are you willing to go? He said I will follow you, the wall become with a angle around 310'... he said.
But, if we come back to the caves, when he knew we were cave divers, he bring us just the other side of the road. He showed us 3 different cave entrances. He wanted to bring us but we were with single tanks, SL4 as light and no real... so we said no!
If you get someone to bring you, you probably wont have doubles, so if you bring a sidemount rig, would br the best. Or dive one tank + stages as if you were sidemount. The other thing in Cuba, dont ask when was the last VIP on the tank!
Phil
A few weeks ago I was with German, the owner of Yucatech expeditions in Cozumel and he told me about the caves in Cuba, apparently they have a very similar Geological structure a the Cenotes that we have here, but with a lot of quartz in them, reflecting the light in an amazing way, I'll try to go next year.
Contact German, he was exploring and training guides there, I'm sure that he will give you all the insights, http://www.yucatech.net/contactus.htm
A lot of americans fly through Cancun, is very cheap and there are like 3 flights a day to la Habana.
If you get to dive there don't forget to post some pics.
Hope this helps, cheers,
Ernesto.
That sounds kind of weird that their would be any sort of quarts in a lime stone cave. Quartz is igneous in nature while limestone is a sedimentary rock. I bet that who ever made that observation had mistaken it for Dogtooth spar a calcite crystal which is common in caves. Or the other possible canidate would be argonite a polymorph of Calcite caused by Magnesium poisening it is other wise meta stable at surface pressue temprature gradients. It sounds like the Glory hole cave but flooded.Quote:
Originally Posted by ergray
hi Phillip,
I knew it would take a while and I had to dig deep but finally found it.
A German cave diver is frequently in Cuba and explored some really nice caves there.
He wrote a little booklet and I made a file from the map he draw.
It´s attached together with the content and in the booklet there is information like maps and "facilities" with phone numbers.
Let me know if this is where you will be going and if you need more information
Hi again,
I just found pictures of 2 caves entrances in Cuba in the Pig bay area (just on the other side of the road, a little walk in the jungle...).
Here to enjoy (hope it will work!).
Attachment 783
Attachment 784
Phil
I've met a mexican cave instructor (iantd, cds) who said he'd been cavediving in cuba a lot and had contacts there. You could contact him for more info. He was even willing to arrange training there.
Juan Carlos Carrillo
cmascaves@yahoo.com.mx, undergrounddiving@gmail.com
(52) 55 5554 2645
(This is then my first post, I hope it's at least a little useful)
-Aleksi
Cool thanks for all the info, from looking at google & the posted map it seems that the bay of pig/playa giron has the most visible sinks we will probably start there and hopefully be able to wander around and dive the various sinks and caves without too much access problems.
I know this thread is quite old but I have been doing some research into Cuban Caves and did find that in Volume 27, No. 6 of Underwater Speleology there was a pretty extensive article on cave diving in Cuba as well as the Dominican Republic.Quote:
Originally Posted by CaverCraig
There is a lot of cavediving potential on the island of Cuba. Comparable to the cenotes of Mexico as was stated previously. My parents are from there and my father says he spent many days hanging out , swimming in clear spring pools. He also mentioned going dry caving with candles. Its my goal to definitely explore Cuba's caves in the future, lets pray travel restrictions end and a better opportunity at life for the citizens of one of the Pearls of the Antilles.
p.s. just a note its pronounced KOO-BAH not Q-BAH.
hope to get more information soon.
I met Peter Diez, the guy who wrote the book about cuban caves from which I posted some information on this thread last year.
A crazy (German) cavediver like me and he wrote a book like me. One thing lead to another, he showed me some pics which looked very promising and finally we started planning an expedition to check out cuban underground.
He has good contacts to officials over there and so we got permission to explore and even support from them.
There are a lot of caves in the province Matanzas, but we are heading to Holguin. The "Tanque del Azul" is one of the caves we´re interested in. Looks like there are a lot of sinkholes in a line from there to the ocean (about 2 miles) and we will try to connect them.
The Cuban officials are interested in mapping "El Baga" and this is task No 2.
He will be there all January and February but the rest of the team and me join him for just two weeks.
Looks like there are a couple of problems to be solved. He´s going to bring 10-12 tanks from Matanzas which is about 450mls away, so we will have about 25 tanks with DIN valves alltogether.
The cave entrances to both are a little bit remote so we get a military transporter to come close and will have to do the rest with horses and mules.
No glue yet how to get to the other (virgin) cenotes and I can´t wait to find out.
Wow, exciting stuff, Tom! I do hope you'll keep us updated with regular trip reports and photos!
Dive safe and have fun!
Shirley
When talking with German about cave diving in cuba he said the Cuban government may be interesting to deal with. They did not have a relaxed attitude regarding foreigners in their caves.
Apparently they are very sensitive about caves as they feel they are a good place to escape if attacked by the U.S. Not sure how to request government approval...but i can bet it'd be far better than surprising them...
I was organizing my trip to Cuba just before I messed up my knee and had to postpone.
I found out that cave diving is officially banned due to numerous accidents there and you have to go on the DL to dive.
Also I found out from divers in Germany that the longest flooded cave there discovered so far was 1600 meters in Varadero, they also told me there are numerous Cenotes but most of them don't go and are deep pits similar to what is found around Merida in Mexico.
I was told that on the North coast around Varadero and just east of Varadero is were there appears to be more horizontal flooded caves as opposed to pits and is the area with the most potential discovered so far.
Planing on going there early in November for three weeks, would have already been there but I got in a fight with my ACL and could not go...Arrrgh!
I was there with Juan Carlos Carrillo in 2005 as part of a knowledge exchange between Mexico and Cuba. An amazing time in an incredible country. Definitely tread carefully. Caves are strategic and as mentioned before, the Cuban government are sensitive about this. Actually I heard something similar about Mexico when it comes to surveying. I am not sure how true that is, but it seems on the likely side of possible.
We´ll be there this friday for a two weeks trip to find out.
There´s a good chance to get some pictures you might be interested in.
Das ist prima gut Tom! Bitte mach viele foto. Wann komt du nach Florida weider?Quote:
Originally Posted by Taucher-Tom
thanks Gene, I´ll try to, but it´s impossible to compete with you.
Unfortunately I´m not sure about the next visit to Florida yet. Hopefully by the end of the year, but first you have to come to Germany my friend!
Where abouts are you headed to? Matanzas? Bay of pigs?
I had a couple of request concerning our trip to Cuba but no time to post yet.
It was a very interesting trip, pretty different from everything I did before. We had the chance to dive five different caves, one of them a virgin, layed line and did some surveying and documentation in El Baga and Tanque Azul
Attachment 4689Attachment 4690Attachment 4687Attachment 4691Attachment 4688
These pictures show us on the way to El Baga and the first plunge.
awesome.
after some cuban divers died in a cave.Quote:
Originally Posted by bahamaben
Holler if you need any scientific GIS support. ;)
Hi Taucher-TomQuote:
Originally Posted by Taucher-Tom
I'm very interested in getting a copy of this booklet. I'm taking a Intro to Cave Course and due my little experience in cave diving and I'm trying to find as much information as possible about the cable conditions, locations and contacts in order to decide where I should or if I should cave diving around there. I will arrive in Cuba in December and I want to write an article about Cave Diving in Cuba to a Brazilian Diving Magazine telling the our community about the exploration potential, even if I do not dive there. I'm sure this booklet would help me a lot.
Thanks
I noticed in the pics that the divers were using single tanks, how far penetration wise do people explore with single tanks in Cuba, seems dangerous
I did one cave dive in Cuba last week. Zapata Penincula was the name I believe.
It was between Playa Larga and Playa Giron.
It was not planned so I had no tech gear with me.
They make big money by taking tourist in the cavern zone.
No formations really - just a long, vertical deep crack.
They want to see you in the sea first, then take you in the cave.
Max depth 77m (supposedly)
Steel Single tanks only Din or Yoke, sidemount possible, air only
Line runs at around 34 m
The guide was amazed by my little Sola video light I had with me.
The rental lights they had was a joke ;)
I will post a video some time soon.
I want to go!!!!
Sounds interesting and no travel restrictions as a UK passport holder :)
Andrew
There was an article in UWS last year that highlighted some caves in Cuba. Have a look in the archives, but I think it was the fall issue.
Here is a link to the FB page of "Support for Grupo Carsico in Cuba". You may find some more leads there.Quote:
Originally Posted by phillip1
JJ
https://www.facebook.com/groups/197782033691565/
Instead of starting a new thread I thought I'd re-use this one.
Wondering if anyone has any info on Saturn Cave near Varadero, Cuba. Is there a dive shop on site or another place near by to rent gear? Also, best way to get from Havana to Saturn without renting a car?
Gracias...
I was in Matanzas and Varadero last summer on a church mission trip. Didnt see any dive shops in either place but there may be one somewhere. I dont know of a way to get from Havana to Varadero other than renting a car or taking a bus - there are a lot of buses that the locals use to get around. Another option would be to fly directly to the airport in Varadero. It would be much more convenient as Varadero is probably a 1.5 hour drive from the Havana airport.
I don't know if you have been to Cuba before but it is like stepping back in time. It is a beautiful place but they dont have many of the amenities that we take for granted. Be sure to take your own toilet paper!
I wish I knew more to tell you about the diving situation there as it looked like good cave diving territorry - lots of limestone everywhere. I will be interested to find out if there is a dive shop nearby as our church sends a team there every year and I can basically go whenever I want.
If you have any general questions about travelling in Cuba PM me and I will be happy to help any way I can.
PSAI had a teaching/mapping Expedition planned. Don't think it happened, but the researcher was done. Check in there.
I've been in three real caves and several cenotes one of which may extend further.
Along the Bay of Pigs eastern shore is a fault crack where several fissures are diveable. The common one is Cueva de los Pesces. This connects easily to an entrance called Cueva Dagmar about 1500 ft to the north, it goes on farther than that opening too. Depth is about 90 ft with one area 120 ft. Avg dive depth was 63 ft. I've done this two times and both trips the guides had slight difficulty finding the path to get into Dagmar. It's not dived often, but the cave is lined.
There are several openings up and down the coast including 35th Anniversary which is about 1000 ft long and easily 180 ft deep (but the ceiling is far higher.) There is Cueva el Brinco, which is maybe 300 ft long cavern-wise and it may go farther to the south. This cave is best dived about noon when the sun shines an awesome beam from the entrance down to the floor.
There is a sea cave that leads inland to fresh water. It's at El Ebano just a bit south of the entrance. We tried diving it last trip and the outflow was too strong for our guide (who was poorly equipped.) Visibility was horrible because of fresh/sea water mix.
Inland we've done one good cave and a great sinkhole. Cueva Chicharron, what we call the bat cave, requires a horse cart to get to, and has lots of bat guano on the floor. The cave is slightly decorated. there is a tunnel at about 90 ft that we've taken about 600 ft in before turning due to deco. The guide wouldn't take us any farther.
About 10 minutes from there there is a sinkhole in a farm field that is pleasantly misleading. From a small hole the cavern bells out to about 120 ft deep and easily 200 ft wide. Inside are the bones of unlucky animals and the wreckage of at least two trucks. We didn't dive it last trip because a cow carcass was bloated and floating on the surface.
The manager of Octopus dive centre in Playa Larga has been our guide. He's encouraging us to return and spend a few days diving the Holguin area where he promises better caves. He can't really be contacted unless you know someone else in Playa Larga to talk to him. He'll make a party as small as 3 into a separate dive group away from the Scuba Experience divers.
try http://yellowsharkdiving.de/Quote:
Originally Posted by phillip1
Peter has a great book about cave diving in Cuba. From the index, the most sites seem to be in Artemisa - Las Cana - Ashton (Provincia Habana)