Trip Report: Mexico and Xoc-Ha

[IowaCaveDiver]

Trip Report: A Stay at ?Xoc-Ha? (Mexico Cave Diving)

Long overdue, my wife and I decided a week in Mexico was good way to spend a week?s vacation. Having stumbled across a report of a visit to Xoc-Ha, we were hooked, booked and waiting to leave. We invited 2 of our dive friends (Bob and Amy Ferguson) who also booked at Xoc-Ha.

So the details?
Staying at Xoc-Ha:
Many of you Know Roger and Nelly Williams, formerly of North Florida Cave Country, who moved down to Mexico this past year and bought a property about 30 minutes north of Tulum just off the main highway (super close to Taj-Maha Cenote). The property was perfect for our needs. 2 separate ?guest houses? available for daily/weekly rental, one is slightly larger than the other, but both ?casas? will sleep 2, have a kitchenette (fridge, microwave, cook top, etc.), bathroom/shower and sitting area and a nice outdoor patio area with covered table area. The property is a few acres which includes the 2 guest houses, the main house, swimming pool (excellent!!), pool house (screened in 4 season area with ping pong, dive briefing area, etc.), there is a dive shrine in the property (seriously), and the whole thing is surrounded by a very secure wall topped with barbed wire and security cameras?. Nobody is getting in here without permission 😉
What was most appealing to us with this lodging option was that we could simply stay there and come and go as we please or we have the option of taking advantages of services such as 3 meals a day (all vegan and freakin? fantastic? I?m a beef/chicken guy, but this food was totally awesome), guided dives, dive training, rentals, fills, etc.) Our dive friends took advantage of Roger?s guiding services but my wife, Tammy,and I just did our own thing. Roger would point us towards a couple of different caves and provide us detailed briefings on the sites we choose. Finding the site, parking, locating the mainline and even planning out more complex dives with multiple jumps/circuits was a non-issue (I?ll take more about the differences with Mexican cave navigation in a minute). We took advantage of Nelly?s gourmet breakfasts every day, delivered to our patio, a few days we took Nelly?s lunches to go and other days we ate out on our way back from the dive sites.
Our little house was only $60/night, meals were $8 each (and worth it!), bailout rentals (2 AL80?s) were $10 day, and we had our CCR 0xygen bottles filled daily for $15 per fill.

The Diving:
We had always heard, ?you MUST have a guide in Mexico? but chose to ignore this advice for a couple reasons. 1. We like to do our own thing. We are trained cave divers, we can run reels, perform complex navigation, read/understand maps, and progressively learn a dive site over repetitive dives. We rely on our training to have a continuous guideline, mark all navigational hazards/obstacles, and be overly observant in new cave environments. 2. We like the adventure of ?discovering? on our own. It is great if we can be pointed to a ?neat room? or ?beautiful passage?, however just being taken there by a guide is not nearly as rewarding as finding it for yourself. Sometimes just finding the dive site is an adventure itself! (cenote Outland for example). 3. We are cheap. Guides are not free and I?m on a budget, people!!

Day 1- Cenote Carwash
Tammy and I took our Kiss Sidewinder CCR?s with us, unfortunately Tammy did not get the ?pre-travel gear prep/tweak day? that the rest of us had, so we dedicated the first day to get the aluminum bailouts dialed in/adjusted, weighting correct and make a few other gear adjustments. We started late and really just spent the time getting squared away and exploring the cavern zone.

Day 2- Cenote Carwash- Room of Tears and ?cell block?
Roger gave us fantastic directions to dump us right onto the mainline, only about a 200+ foot run of the reel from open water through the cavern zone. We swam up past the first cenote (I forget the name) and then jumped off the mainline onto a zig zaggy tunnel that took us into the ?room of tears?? AWESOME! Highly decorated and BIG! We back tracked out of the room and took a quick jump on the way which took us into another smaller room (no idea the name) of tannic water and brown stained decoration? kind of spooky. At this point we were in for about :60, got back on the mainline and headed further upstream (roger recommended not going much further than the room of tears without a guide). Heading up the mainline we made it to ?Adrianna?s Room? another large room with big columns and decoration everywhere you looked. We were also advised that going beyond this room might not be a great idea, but we decided to slowly proceed past the room into some fairly low passage referred to as ?the cell block?. This area was about 2-3? tall with a maze of floor to ceiling thin columns? to enter this maze you squeezed through a wall of these columns that appeared had been removed to further exploration some time ago. We proceeded as far as I felt we could safely turn around and then headed out. Average depth was around 30-40?. We slowly worked our way back towards the main cenote but stopped at the jump to the room of tears and decided to go back for a final look. After enjoying the room for a few minutes we decided to proceed past the room through a twisting, winding passage that dumped us into a larger tunnel approximately 10? tall by 20-30? wide? the water got even clearer and everything (floor/ceiling/walls) were stark white. We started hitting ?T?s and started checking out each leg and then back tracking? each one unique and prettier than the previous one. This is where I learned to love REM?s. We ended our dive in the cavern with about 5 minutes of deco after 3+ hours of bottom time.
Day 3- Cenote Mayan Blue
With all the gear dialed in and feeling good, we headed to Mayan Blue. Roger was guiding our friends at the same site and was able to give Tammy and I a detailed briefing regarding access to the ?B tunnel?, while they were going to be entering and headed up the ?A tunnel?. A good friend (Patrick &#128521 gave us the advice, ?do the ?B tunnel? because it is ?B-eautiful?)? he was right. We swam up the B-tunnel for about 30 minutes and crossed paths with Roger and our friends who were doing the A/B tunnel circuit? stopped for a brief photo shoot and then we proceeded on. Tammy and I back tracked and took the first jump from the B-tunnel into a low/rocky side mount passage that averaged about 24-30? tall and had some spots of decoration along the way. We turned after I got stuck trying to pass a restriction and we headed back to the mainline. We then proceeded up the mainline to the jump that took us into the ?E tunnel?? it just kept getting better!! The tunnels were HUGE and would end in a wall of decoration/stalactites/mites, the line would zig zag through some restrictions and then dump into another large/long room, several times! According to the map we made it nearly all the way to the A-tunnel connection, but didn?t know it at the time (I?m guessing around 2000? penetration). We were planning bailout based on time/swim speed, so we were pretty much at our maximum penetration at just over an hour swim into the system. We shot a bunch of video along the way and stopped for some photo opps in certain areas.
This was by far our favorite dive of the week. Total dive time was just over 3.5 hours and resulted in about 15 minutes of deco.
Day 4: no diving? we did tourist stuff (ruins, the beach? boring!) We did randomly run into a couple of North Florida cave friends at a StreetSide burrito stand? small world!
Day 5: Cenote Mayan Blue
We had such a great dive here 2 days earlier, we went back for more. Roger recommended we head in a direction most people don?t go to an area of the cave called ?the dead zone?. This is a different entry from our previous dive, at the opposite end of the cenote. The name is very appropriate, as once you get back around 800-1,000? penetration the cave does look dead? all the decoration is brown/black, visibility is a little murky (60-70?) and the constant halocline really messes with you (or maybe your dive buddy if they are following close behind you). The navigation in this area was a little tricky as at about 800? in we ran into back to back arrows that switched direction and I nearly missed this marker if my wife hadn?t caught it (thank you, dear!). From there we ran across several ?T?s and all arrows pointing in the direction we were heading. We marked everything with REMs to give me a warm fuzzy feeling for the exit. We turned the dive after hitting a very large room that must have spanned over 100? in multiple directions and had about 30? of relief. This whole dive was very delicate and the silt on the bottom was pretty nasty and it took great care and a very slow speed to avoid stirring it up. Even with good buoyancy control and slow movements in many of the narrow passages the 2nd diver had extremely limited visibility due to the stirring of the halocline. Tammy didn?t enjoy it very much.
I figured after the dive (2 hours and no deco) we?d just go do another dive in the A-tunnel but Tammy had a She-P malfunction and was rather unpleasant, so we bagged it. 😉
Day 6: Cenote Outland
Seeking a unique experience for our last day of diving before heading home, Nelly made a recommendation for us to visit Cenote Outland. This one was not easy to find? we got directions to head to Cenote Na-Hoch Na-chich (spelling?) and had to check in with one of the Mayan village people to request permission to dive this site. They collected some peso?s and gave us a key. If you?ve ever been to Na-Hoch, you know the 10 minute drive at 5mph down the bumpiest road imaginable is nothing compared to continuing another 20 minutes past Na-Hoch to a split in the road which eventually took us past an obscure clearing large enough for one vehicle in front of a iron gate decorated with barbed wire. Entering through the gate we entered into a very large (4 acres?) depression/sink with a limestone ledge/walls around a beautiful oasis. At the far end was the cenote entrance with crystal clear water and a nice wood deck near the water to gear up at. We entered and found the mainline run into open water and descended to 30? where there was a ?T?, left was down stream and right was upstream. We headed slowly upstream (first cenote dive I actually felt flow). Depth was fairly consistent between 30-35ft. We were swimming along marking several locations we wanted to take pictures at on our way out when we hit about 1 hour of penetration. I was leading and all of a sudden heard a burst of air/bubbles coming from under my right armpit. At first I thought my bailout reg was free flowing but learned quickly the 360 degree swivel had burst! I shut the valve down with in 5-10 seconds and found myself resting against the ceiling? wheeew! I?m very glad we added QC6 connections on our left bottles so I switched over my DILL supply to that bottle through my DILL MAV and we turned to swim out. Since the dive was toast due to this equipment failure, we spent another 30 minutes in the cavern zone shooting some photos/video before getting out.
2 changes I?ll be making based on this dive: 1. Goodbye 360 swivels 2. I?m getting one of the flat multi tool things you can carry in your note book. If I had one of these I could have removed the swivel at max penetration, reassembled the regulator/hose and continued on. OH well.
*A note on Mexican Cave Navigation- some systems are more complex than others, having someone at a minimum give a you a little pre-dive briefing is super helpful. Follow your training. There are typically ?gold line? caverns circuits in many of the popular caves, but these are not what you?re looking for. Typically the mainline is tucked back beyond the light zone so that open water cenote tours don?t loose divers to these side passages. You need a full size primary reel (400?). Arrows are less frequent and can often change direction. Be observative and vigilant on knowing your direction and marking any T?s or navigational hazards is extremely helpful and makes you feel warm and fuzzy when you?re on exit. Guides are very nice to have and can take you on amazing dives and help increase your level of safety while minimizing navigational error risk. Diving on your own should be considered ?advanced cave diving?.
Overall had a fantastic experience and would/will do it all over again! Thank you to Roger and Nelly who were fantastic hosts, guides, chef?s and friends!

A few key learnings from our ?first real Mexican cave diving? trip:
1. Flight- we flew from Jacksonville with 1 stop to Cancun via southwest airlines? tickets were about $400, no charge for bags (2 each, 50lbs each) and a carry on and personal item (roller bag for the overhead with our CCR/delicates and backpack with regs/laptop).
2. Rental Car: We rented through Dollar Rent a Car, small SUV (jeep renegade) and it was perfect for the 2 of us and all our gear. With insurance we paid about $350 for the week. FYI- the insurance you can purchase through Expedia was not honored by the Mexican Dollar Rent A Car place. WE opted for the ?liability only? policy for $21/day and then kept the $88 policy of full coverage from expedia. This way we were able to rent the car but had additional US coverage if we needed it. Per advice we had read online about renting cars in Mexico, we did a thorough evaluation of the car for damage before taking it? we photographed everything and they were well aware we were on it! Ironically when we turned the car in we got a rash of crap about the car key missing a little plastic piece of trim on the key fob. We were held up for :45 minutes and had to argue to not be charged to replace the key, even though it was in the same condition when we go it.
3. Gear?
a. We dove our Sidewinder CCR units? they breakdown and fit in a carry-on in addition to our canister lights, chargers, computers, camera, etc.? no problem!
b. Paper work- I printed off the travel documents from Light Monkey, Underwater Light dude and the sorb, just in case? they came in handy with the TSA!
c. Sorb? a keg of sorb is about $300 in Mexico. My kegs cost me about $98 so I took the risk to bring a keg as one of our checked bags and it paid off! Here are my key points for traveling with sorb:
i. Print of the MSDS (material safety data sheet) from the manufacturer?s website. Although this same info is on the label, the MSDS is about 20 pages and has a lot more info about the ?stuff?. I was sure to highlight the page that said ?this material will not burn, combust or explode?. The lady at the check in counter, and the lady at customs in Mexico (who spoke almost no English) were both very thankful to have this document. I put one of those clear packing list sleeves on the side of the keg and slid the MSDS inside. You can get these for free at the Post office.
ii. I took the advice of one website that said, ?create a print out that says a little about yourself and that you?re a diver going on a trip and will be scuba diving and using this absorbent material in your scuba unit.? I included pictures of my wife and I in our scuba stuff so people could see we were not bomb makers. This actually helped when we were trying to explain to the Mexican customs lady what the stuff was as she did not understand ?scuba diver?.
iii. Make sure the keg is still factory sealed
iv. AL13?s? they did not have 2LTR bottles available or AL13?s, which is what we prefer to dive. So we brought our own, valves removed and packed in our dry suit bags. NO problems at all.
1. I?d actually like to take 2 per diver next trip? Roger would drop them off at the fill station in the evening and then pick them up the next morning and bring them back to us at the house.
d. Money? bring pesos. We bank with Bank of America and we actually ordered $300 in pesos online and it was delivered to our house 2 days later by FedEx! Of course we hit the ATM 2 times during the trip? minimal fees.
e. Take your cert cards? several sites asked to see them.
f. Spare parts kit? bring a small bag/dry box of spares, especially if you have unique equipment. Thankfully we didn?t need much more than a couple of O-rings and a bunch of zip ties.

Yes, this was a super long trip report, but hopefully there are some nuggets of info that will help you on your first trip to Mexico!

-The Myers