First Cave Dives in Mexico

[ScubaGypsy]

I had a conference in Cancun so added a few days up front and after the conference to cave dive in Mexico. I met Etienne Rousseau (ET) on CDF (Attchoum) and contacted him to be our dive guide. My wife was also able to take time off and join me during this trip.

My wife and I are relatively new cave divers as we completed our NSS-CDS Full Cave in January 2010 with Jim Wyatt. Since then I had only logged 11 cave dives while my wife had logged 2 though we have logged 90 and 125 dives respectively this year. Needless to say, we were abit rusty and still learning with respect to cave diving.

We met ET each day in Playa del Carmen and would then travel to the site for the day. ET provided double aluminum 80s with EAN-32 for both of us and provided sandwiches for our surface intervals.

We dove the following caves:

11.12.2010: Taj-ma Ha (two dives on two different lines)
11.13.2010: Dos Ojos (two dives on two different lines)
11.14.2010: Xunaan Ha (one dive upstream and one dive downstream)
11.15.2010: NoHotch Nah Chich (one dive to Heavens Gate and one dive on Parkers Line)
11.16.2010: Minautoro (one dive as I had to finally attend my conference!)
11.18.2010: Chac Mool (wife and ET dove as I was at the conference. They saw the 'Monster', aka Xich Ha Tunich which is the world's largest stalactite at 72' long. They also dove underneath it to 87' to a recessed cave called Monster's Liar, aka Cuac Na.)
11.19.2010: Pet Cemetery (first dive to Dark Side of the Moon, second dive to I Hop Dirty Dog cenote)
11.20.2010: Car Wash (one dive with ET and me as wife's ear was hurting. We dove to the Room of Tears)
11.20.2010: Grand Cenote (one dive with all three of us as wife's ear was miraculously feeling better! We dove to Much's Maze)

We had a truly wonderful time as the caves were highly decorated, many haloclines, relatively shallow and minimal flow. Heavens Gate is possibly my all time favorite dive as its beauty is unparalleled and mesmerizing. I also very much enjoyed our dive to the Room of Tears at Car Wash. While we didn't see any alligators, my wife did take a picture of a 4' crocodile at Car Wash while ET and I were diving.

Etienne is a wonderful (and patient!) guide who is well versed on all of the local caves. He is informative and a skilled cave diver (he was diving sidemount while we dove backmount). We both very much enjoyed his company and highly recommend him to others visiting the area.

[rongoodman]

Sounds like a really nice trip. I'm planning on staying for several days of guided dives after I finish(hopefully) Full Cave with Protec in the spring. The Room of Tears and Heaven's Gate are high on my list!

[LCF]

There are so many stunning places in the Mexican caves, it's hard to pick what you want most to see -- and as soon as you do, somebody will tell you about someplace you haven't seen that's even more astonishing! Sounds like you had a great trip. We just got home, and all I can say is that a week is too darned short!

[Attchoum]

I have to say it was a amzing week for me too. I really enjoy guiding you and showing you the reason I stay in Mexico.

See you soon hopefully

etienne
p.s. 35 watt HID is a lot of light...

[steve maiden]

a really nice representation of the caves of quintana roo...i will add a Chan Hol,Dos pisos or the Pit,and leave a Chac Mool or one in Taj Mahal for the afluence of many cavern divers but still nice caves...well done.