Tulum, Mx: The Pit (shallow) and Dos Palmas (08-SEP-2012 & 09-SEP-2012)

[whodunit68]

I flew into Cancun and used USA Transfers (I almost always do) to and from Tulum. It was $145 round trip and they now accept PayPal and credit cards to pre-pay. As always, I had a flawless experience.
I arrive in Tulum at Cave Heaven and as promised, Adam and Gracie were waiting for me to let me in and show me to my quarters, where to store my gear, etc. I had to do a couple of final work calls before calling it quits for the week but then wrapped up. The room is very nicely done and comes with refrigerator, fan, A/C with remote, TV, and 2 beds. It's right inside their facility. The storage locker is private for my gear, also inside the facility.

Saturday, 08-SEP-2012
I roll out of bed to join Adam at iTour for a coffee and some emails. The folks @ iTour are a trip. We make our way to The Pit (after discussions) and I pay the $150,00 MXN entrance fee. The Pit entrance is reached via the Dos Ojos entrance, very close to Cave Heaven (more or less 4-5 miles). Adam leads the dive and I call about 200 psi before thirds (no flow and about a 45 minute swim back without flow!). The beautiful upstream dive was chock full of decorations and interesting cave. We stayed mainline just because. We discussed the various options and I made this choice for various reasons. It was crystal clear Mexico cave and highly enjoyable. The downstream was also quite well decorated and had some twists and turns. I forget which dive but we did a beautiful jump, saw some animal bones, and headed back to shower then go grab some dinner. Unfortunately my Hollis 16W (LM) light crapped out on dive 2 after about a total of 3 hours burn time. I switch to my DRIS 1000 lumen backup and it took us out.
We ate at the Italian place 100 meters away. The owner (Tony?) was very accomodating to my choices and served a great meal. The 2 old men then called it a great relaxing day 1.

Dive 1, Upstream The Pit:
Max Depth: 47'
Avg Depth: 33'
Run time: 97 minutes
Bottles: AL80s, sidemount config
Breathing gas: 32% EANx
Deco: ha ha, nope

Sunday, 09-SEP-2012
I roll out of bed to join Adam at iTour for a coffee and some emails again. The folks @ iTour are still a trip. We discussed again trying to hit a site I haven't been (did my full cave with Cave Heaven and have done several guided trips with them). They're actually building a database to keep such records - a nice thing to have.
We make our way to Dos Ojos again to enter the Dos Palmas area. I pay the $50,00 MXN entrance fee. What a deal! Clean, new bathrooms, easy entrance, and a friendly bunch of folks make this a bargain. The dives made it a better bargain. They have a monkey on a chain which didn't make me very happy but it probably is good for most tourists.
Adam again leads the dive. This time we're fighting Telford-ish flow. Huh??? Yup, it was there. I even got a little tired at one point. The upstream dive was much roomier cave as we headed towards the main Dos Ojos entrance. I called at 51 minutes knowing we were both approaching thirds and it was time to turn around and enjoy the ride out. I really enjoyed the downstream part of the dive. It was much smaller cave with more decorations and tighter passage. There was nothing tight, just tighter than upstream. Our plan was to call @ 45' due to us essentially diving with the flow on penetration. We did a jump that took us against the flow and after 11 minutes from hitting the arrow, we saw gold line so we turned and picked up our jump and continued on into the cave. We reached another cenote (High Voltage) and surfaced. Stunning. Really pretty place. Ok, time to go. We fight the flow on the way out and see some crystal clear cave just like we saw on the way in. My primary light failed again, this time after only about 2.5 hours of total burn time. The DRIS light again took us out. After the dive I made my way to the men's room and upon leaving, walking down the stairs, my feet slipped out from under me and I landed horizontal on my back on the stairs. I saw serious stars and it took me almost a full 2 minutes to get up. I'm in a lot of pain now. Point of telling you this? BE CAREFUL on those stairs. A special thanks to Adam for helping with gear, etc, after that.
USA Transfers was great. Adam provided yet another great experience. My trip to MC after was fine (oh those seats )....

Dive 2, Downstream The Pit:
Max Depth: 49'
Avg Depth: 36'
Run time: 85 minutes
Bottles: AL80s, sidemount config
Breathing gas: 32% EANx
Deco: ha ha, nope

References
http://www.usa-transfers.com/
http://www.caveheaven.com/
I could get used to living this way.

[rddvet]

Hey Steve. Nice write up. We've been talking about doing a short trip to Mexico, and the transfers info is helpful. We were trying to figure all of that out.

[LCF]

Steve, glad you enjoyed Dos Palmas! I never understand why nobody goes there . . . the entrance price is low, the amenities are very nice, and the cave is great in both directions, and good for a whole day of diving.

[WFLS]

The Pit has the most spectacular cavern exit, right? Every time I reach the penetration reel, I always take the opporunity to stop and burn 100 psi just gazing up into that light! Almost makes me wish a had a rebreather ... almost

[Cameron_R]

On the topic or airport transfers, you can get a taxi from the Cancun airport and you will pay less than half the amount you quote above.

[Cameron_R]

Nice write up by the way. I am a huge fan of the Pit.

[curtschu]

I love Google maps i always find the strangest things. Does anyone know what this picture is? It is about 15 KM south of Tulum on 307

[bherman]

I love Google maps i always find the strangest things. Does anyone know what this picture is? It is about 15 KM south of Tulum on 307

It's a lagoon, can't remember the name of it now. Friends of mine have used it for deep diving courses, i don't think there's much cave there, but i could be wrong

[MichaelBaranowski]

I have always like Dos Palmas. There used to be two monkeys but notice last year they only had one. I haven't done many dives there since I have been full cave. There are so many jumps up stream that I would like to check out. Could probably spend a whole week there just checking out jumps.

[curtschu]

It's a lagoon, can't remember the name of it now. Friends of mine have used it for deep diving courses, i don't think there's much cave there, but i could be wrong

There is three or four similar features south of Tulum on 307 I was thinking they might be tidal influenced on of the bigger ones looks like it has some type of building by it.