Day 9: swimming 9000 feet in 1 day!

Location: Mexico
Date: May 12, 2012   


Day 9

Kim's army style setup

Today is the last day of my certification. Sad cuz it is going to be over and I had soooo much fun. Happy cuz now I can attack these mental caves myself ( sorry mom). So funny to think that dad would probably be thrilled to read all of this and mom would think "what did I do to make her like this???" . 


Today we spoke about Traverses and Circuits. A circuit is.. well a circuit ;) Traverse is basically one way in and coming out another Cenote. The later is something were planning on doing. In order to do a full traverse you need at least 2 dives. The plan was to go in Dive 1 ( also called the setup dive) at the Gran cenote side. We choose that because it needed more works ( 2 jumps including reel work) so it would cost more time and thus more air). We would than swim as far in the caves as our "thirds" would allow us as deco time was not an issue during this dive. Once we would hit our thirds ( basically means you have the same third to swim back and an extra third to,cover any emergencies), we would place a marker on which we wrote "Traverse 12/05/12 K & M" and turn around to exit at Gran cenote. We would get out of the water drive to the other cenote and enter from there and see if we would reach the marker within our thirds. Alrighty then, "game face on" as Kim would say.

the guys looking at the plan.

Calimba cenote at the top and gran cenote at the bottom

So we hit the water and started swimming down the lines. After placing the reels and markers we continued along the cave line. Lots of droopy stalagmites and tites, lots of flat surfaces and different colours in the formations. Flaky salty looking flakes on the bottom made you think you were on a glacier but then you look to another point and you are back in the cave. Amaazing! the inspiration I get from diving in caves is just insane. We had some restrictions but not real bad so we did not have to pull and push to much. There were a couple of jumps to other lines but we did ot take them since we wanted to connect to the Calimba Cenote. I could see loads of tunnels and interesting tubes where you could swim and I was thinking about those guys exploring the caves on their own. That must be such an adrenaline rush. Both Frank and Kim are part of exploring teams and it is really cool to listen to their stories and how passionate they are about it. 


Once we reached our thirds we turned around and swam back. I did achieve the name "tortuga" during my course here since I am just slower than slow however for this dive I picked it up a little bit knowing that at my original pace there was no way in hell we would be able to connect. haha Swimming back we would normally pick up the markers and reels but not this time as we will need them for dive 2. Coming back into the Gran Cenote cavern is just amazing and the light is sooo beautiful. I had to stop to take it in and I was praying that on the next dive I would be able to see this again. At this point i was slightly freezing as well... hey I just spend 100 minutes underwater in 25 degrees. Give me a break!!!!


Once we were out of the water we stowed our kit in the car and drove to the other cenote named Calimba. Calimba is basically a muddy-ish small hole in the ground which is very shallow. you can't see shit, and you literally have to dive under some stalactites to get into the cave where it is super duper clear again. This cenote as a completely different look and feel. It feels a bit more Dracula where Gran Cenote feels more fairytale. I actually preferred this end of the cenote, mainly because of the restrictions - SMILE - . Trying as hard as I could not to bang to much into the formations but I am still getting used to my new "dive size" having tanks dangling from the right.  I saw some funny little white/see through creatures one could resemble a little teeny tine lobster and some crabby-ish things. all not bigger than maybe 5 cm. Bear in mind that these guys have not ever experienced day light. Even the silt on the bottom has its own texture and looks so you don't want to disturb it that much. We reached a T and I knew that the marker was coming up soon and I wasn't even close to my thirds. My heart did a little jump of joy YEY I made it. Once I saw the little Swedish flag reflecting in my light ( Kim's markers are marked in a very swedish way ;) )I knew i was going to exit at the Gran cenote side again. WHOOP WHOOP.


we discussed in our briefing that at "turn around" point Kim would go in-front and I would go in the back which would mean I would stay the leader and pick up the markers and reels. Normally e.g. I would lead in and Kim would be behind me and than when turning around Kim would be in front and I would behind, that is how you would normally lead in and out.
 So now we are doing something I had never done before. Instead of turning around we actually went deeper in the cave to exit. Knowing very well we had more than enough air to do so but the feeling is kind of exiting ;). My awareness has improved lots and i immediately knew where I was and started recognizing when sharp angles to the left or right or even up or down were coming. Yey me! 
The boys heard a lot of Oooohh and Ahhhh's and even some giggles coming from me ( something that will probably follow me the rest of my cave diving career! hahaha) whilst admiring the cave formations. 


After 78 minutes we were back at the entrance of Gran Cenote and boy was it a beautiful sight. At this point the snorklers had gone and the light was slightly blue-er. Wow.. mesmerizing indeed! The feeling of accomplishment hit me as well as sadness cuz it was done now..... at the safety stop Kim held up his wetnotes that said: "Congratulations you are now a cave diver ".. Oh Yeah SWEEEEEEET.


Once we gave each other the "up"signal I let the boys pass me so I could just take it all in. 9 days of sweating, frustration but overall one of the best experiences i have had was over. I made it. It was an overwhelming feeling. I am now a good confident cave diver ( well I hope hahaha) thanks to a very tall Sweed and a crazy Guatemalan. Lucky Me :) Thanks guys!


Just today I spend 3 hours underwater and swimming a whopping distance of 9000 feet (2.7 km). Not even talking about the other days. Me carib "tortuga" girl is now Full Cave certified ( sorry mom). 

XOXO