An Important Message from my friend in Cozumel

[Kelly Jessop]

I am. Also see www.hartspringsguide.com. We got em in all shapes and sizes! Cindy

Will be there Friday.

[Webmaster]

Florida caves are nice too - just not as easy as Mexico. Deeper, colder, more flow. The nice places a fewer and farther. And of course the caves themselves don't have speliothems so you've got to get an appriciation for the local formations (varieties of slit, clay rock and goethite). I'm afriad very few places in Florida come anywhere close to the vizibilty of any of theMexican caves.

On the plus side the caves are lined much more reasonably. Lines lead from the entrances IN not from going in random directions and short spurts radiating from the cavern line.

Now if only we didn't have the front 1000' of every cave torn up by multitudes of incompetent divers.

Gee that sounds like Tennessee caves, a little colder, not as much vis., interesting geomorphology. Of course that's compared to FL. You can run the line any way you like since chances are it's never been dove. Same applies to 'multitudes' of divers of any type.

[Gary]

Same applies to 'multitudes' of divers of any type.

No, 'multitudes' of properly trainned and apropritely careful cave divers would not leave hand prints and gouges in the floor and chew up the floor of the roller coaster passage so bad there is hardly any sign of the orignal floor shape and consistancy - and not dig out the far side of the passage 3 times as deep and wide from from kicking and scootering through a restriction.

The list could go on forever.

Only poorly trainned, careless and/or incopetent 'multitudes' do that.

[Cindy]

Too many cave divers, low training standards, too many people trying to make a living off the cave divers...the list could go on and on. Cindy

[Cindy]

Also, not wanting to harp on the Cave Diving in Mexico thing but I would NOT go ever again during Hurricane season. Their Hurricane season lasts until Dec 15th! My trip which was terrible cost me $700 in extra plane fare and now I just got a bill for four times the amount that was agreed on for the car rental and I have to fight that. So $950 for car rental. Not to mention extra cash. The VISA people tell me it's not unusual to have problems with a Mexican car rental company.
If you do go be sure and take lots of cash. Also please remember that the caves down there are even more fragile than Florida caves and many of them are becoming trashed in the first few hundred feet. What we do as cave divers not only reflects on our training but leaves a message about our skills to all the future divers, if we get allowed in caves that is. Cindy

[Mart]

Sorry to hear you had a hard time in Mexico Cindy.
Was it your first trip?
We always try to go in jan-march, but last year we had to go during Christmas. Even in this busy season we were the only divers on site most of the time, except of course at places like Ponderosa where a lot of training is going on.
For me Quintana Roo is a home away from home, even though it is 12 hours flying. We even have our own tanks there
Endless diving, mostly shallow and very beautiful.
But I agree, a lot is getting banged up by inexperienced divers. I guess you heard about the accident last year where a guide took 8 divers into Calimba, but I also saw video of divers with stages in this part. Totally unneccesary, as you can do 1,5 hour dives on a set of 80s.
The nice part is these divers don't get very far, so if you go in for more than say 2000 ft a lot of places are still pristine. Last year we did the traverse from Grand Cenote to Pabillany, good example of this.
Maybe we will meet somwhere when I am in Florida next week.

ciao, mart

[Cindy]

Hey Mart, It was my third trip. I enjoyed my other trips and I am sure this one would have been OK if not for the Hurricane. It was my own fault for trying to get a super saver air fare. I'm just mad over the car rental rip off. I'll go take a nap, maybe I'll wake up happy. Give me a call while you are here and I can take you to a "interesting" cave. Cindy