Category — Cenote Dream Gate

I just finished up a great week with Wayne who came down for his third time in an effort to satisfy his cave diving addiction…

The entire week was dedicated to sidemount diving. The first three days we spent setting up Wayne’s rig ensuring that he felt comfortable and that it works for the environment he will dive.   He had done a bunch of research before the course which really gave us a great head start and brought us into the cave quickly.

We started the morning with theory and an equipment workshop.  After having lunch, we jumped in the water to see how everything looks.  A lot of great ideas on the surface turn out to be total failures below the surface, therefore I believe this is a critical part of any course and devote ample time focused on getting the student comfortable with his equipment.  I pay special attention to head to toe trim, lateral trim and proper weighting. My goal is to make the equipment an extension of the body, thereby removing a major distraction allowing for more awareness of the cave, the line and the team.

We spent quite some time fine tuning and adjusting.  After that we ran through various drills and exercises.  By the time we left the cenote we had a great foundation.

The dives lengthened over the next two days as we refreshed line laying skills, marking protocols, and touch and go exit drills in zero visibility. We dived a lot in low bedding plains which would have been difficult for backmount divers to pass, especially if performing touch contact exit.  The conditions were ideal for illustrating the advantages of sidemount.

After that we had four super great days of guided cave diving in Tulum. We started with Dream Gate just south of Chemuyil. Dream Gate is a really awesome cave with shallow depths which make for long dives through the intensely decorated passages. I was stoked to dive the downstream section to show Wayne all of the recently explored lines bearing line arrows marked with 09 for last year. I find it very exciting to dive in places that are still being explored or have been recently explored.  It gives me a feeling of being one of the first to see them.

Unfortunately, to my frustration, we discovered the explorer’s line arrows had been replaced by generic orange arrows with the name of a dive center which had nothing to do with the exploration of these lines.   I felt a range of emotions starting with anger and frustration, then sadness and finally pity for the person who feels the urge to go through the trouble of replacing all these arrows out of envy. Even here in paradise we have some sad stories.

Never the less the dive was awesome!  I was super excited to see the Mayan pottery for the first time.  It is just sitting there next to the line after the T in front of a debris cone which is under a tiny cenote. Our second dive was upstream checking out the many T intersections.

The next day we went to Dos Pisos south of Tulum. It is one of the most amazing caves I know. It has an average depth of less than 20ft, so we decided to do one loooong dive and really swim some distance and enjoy this marvelous cave. The bright white color and the density and variety of the decorations makes this a cave diver’s Mecca. I especially love the beginning as you pass a shallow bedding plain and then a small winding tunnel with crystal white calcite on the floor looking like powder snow. Then the cave opens up in ever larger rooms with breathtaking formations all around. Wayne clearly found his favorite spot and was still smiling hours after we had surfaced.

Wayne on the back of the truck

Next we dove another cenote south of Tulum, Regina.  Regina couldn’t be any more different from Dos Pisos. It is darker and deeper.  With its ever changing shape and depth I can use only one word to describe it, intriguing.  Lots of tannin in the water makes for interesting colors and a generally spooky feeling.  With the numerous transitions from salt water to fresh water and back and an average depth of 50ft it is a great place to accumulate experience for a newly certified sidemount diver. It definitely takes more awareness of tank alignment and gas management.

On the last day we went to Cenote Muchachos and Cenote Mud. These dives were a great finish to the week. Wayne really enjoyed both cenotes and the adventure of getting into Cenote Mud.   Cenote Muchachos and Cenote Mud, although close in proximity have completely different personalities.  In Cenote Muchachos we went up the Black Forrest line and enjoyed the huge passages and incredible ceiling.

In Cenote Mud we swam a white passage with massive decoration that leads you to another cenote with bright green and cold tannic water. There we took the T down which leads you what looks like a dungeon, a really bizarre place where one can see the forces of water shaping our planet.

This was a really cool week with some of my favorite dives here in the Riviera Maya and all of that back to back. I really love it when I come home from diving already looking forward to the next day and the dives I am going to do…

Now I am on vacation and am going cave diving of course =)

Cheers
P

We started of with the caves in the north diving in Ponderosa in the River Run and Little Joe Line as well as Taj Maha where we visited the Chinese Garden Line and the Twin Cenotes. Very nice dives to get to know each other without breaking distance records or squeezing through the tightest restrictions. It also gave Marc the possibility to fine tune his gear since it was the first time back in sidemount configuration after his course with Brian Kakuk in the Bahamas. The main difference being that here we mainly use aluminium tanks and not steel like he had used before.

After that we moved further south to dive in Nohoch Nah Chich where we made a first dive on the main upstream line enjoying the massive decorations and wide rooms. Second dive was downstream which is somewhat darker and smaller but with its dark silted floors and white decorations definitely one of my favourites! I also just have to admit that I like smaller cave.
Next stop was Cenote Dreamgate were we did two dives on the upstream side. Both really fantastic dives filled with beautiful decorations and lots of ups and downs and some nice restrictions and generally lots of nice small cave a bit further back. A very unique Cenote with fragile flow riffled sediment beds, bizarre dense roots and highly decorated passage ways. Once you are a bit further in, there are lines all over the place and all around. Some very narrow angled T intersections without permanent marker and lines literally leading into every little crack around. It is not a big deal but proper marking and focus on navigation is a must. Also keeping track of your comfort zone is important as you move through ever smaller and siltier cave.

After that we went down to Tulum on the Coba Road to dive out of Lukes Hope Cenote. On the first dive we passed through the room of tears to check out the Ts in the back. I always like the combination of the breath taking decorations and nice restricted tunnels. It must have been an amazing thrill for the explorer to find that beautiful section of the cave right behind that little narrow passage. Second dive was done to adrianas room which is really nice too especially in sidemount gear since it allows you to venture passed the mayor restrictions that limit the “general” dive traffic and therefore impact to the cave.

The Last day we spent in Pet Cemetary Cenote. One of my favourite places since Hans first showed it to me, hands down. First dive was towards Cenote I hop and the jump to the right which leads through some insane awesome sidemount passage that just keeps on going. A couple restrictions force you to at least super man one cylinder but due to the very small amount of silt and hard rock definitely doable. It is really a great line that keeps you busy every second of every minute. Second dive was done on the X-Line which is equally a great dive. There is just a crazy amount of pristine cave there which is not only beautiful for its crystal white formations but also super fun to dive due to the ups and downs and tight restrictions.

All in all I had a great week with awesome sidemount diving as well as nice chats in between dives and cool stories about Brian and the caves on the Bahamas.

I just returned from an awesome dive in Sistema Dream Gate which is located a little bit south of the main entrance to  Sistema Dos Ojos.

It was a super sweet dive with my buddies Alex and Ross. The road to the Cenote is a bit bumpy but once you are there it is 100% worth it. The Cenote is wonderful and the installed platforms and pulley system makes tank handling super easy plus you are parked right on top of the water.

The line for both up and downstream start right in the open water and are used as well for Cavern Tours.

We dove the downstream section since that heads towards another system that I know already and I was curious to see similarities. We started of following the cavern line until we reached the first jump that was heading in eastern direction (and later turned south). The Cave is exactly the way I like it, shallow, not too big, some ups and downs and lefts and rights and breathtaking decorations.

I really enjoyed every single second of this dive. Flow is very minor but on the 50min swim out we definitely felt it. Another interesting aspect of this cave is the complexity of the system. In the round 80min in we encountered several Ts and Jumps together 21 to be precise, which means one can spend quite some time diving in this place without having seen even half of what this system has to offer.

Although we choose to dive all three of us in sidemount configuration, the cave is definitely easily accessible in back mount, at least the first 40-50min in on the main line, after that it pinches down into a bedding plane type cave with plenty of horizontal space but low ceiling floor height.

The Cave has incredible nice colors and formation which are in many ways similar to Dos Ojos and on the way you encounter several air domes and a surreal tannic acid dome.

On the floor are clear defined flow riffles that bare witness to the huge amount of water which used to flow through these passages thousands of years ago. I can’t avoid this feeling of being a time traveller looking into the long gone and forgotten past.

Another feature that took my attention was a thin crack in the ceiling reminding me of an earthquake line also filled with this bizarre looking greenish tannic water.

I can definitely recommend anyone to go and check this place out, you will not regret it. A little warning though, there is almost no rock floor but generally thick sediment and quiet low ceiling, so good bouncy skills and good trim is an essential to dive this place.

If you are intersted to dive there or have any further questions about the system or this dive in particular please don’t hesitate to contact me at patrick@protecplaya.com

Dive Safe

Patrick