The Dive Evangelist

Anna reminded me of something said the other day. Diving these caves is like exploring a fingerprint.

They are all so different. A single cave system can be night and day depending on which hole you decide to poke your head through. Today’s dives were a perfect example of the light/dark imagery there. The morning dive was like swimming under a clear, blue, spring sky. The afternoon dive was like exploring the secrets of night itself.

Mayan Blue. That’s what the American caving community calls this particular hole in the earth. The Maya have another name for it (they seem to have a different word for everything), but we figured we’d stick with what we can pronounce. I still don’t understand how a word with four Xs in it can be said without a sprained tongue.

The cenote is relatively small. The cave is big. Very, very, very big. Apparently, when the memo was sent out that caves are supposed to be little and claustrophobic, Mayan Blue was not accepting any mail. After dropping down through the somewhat crowded pool (Scott dropping the most, having launched a giant stride off of a ledge about 8 feet up from the water), yet again, we found ourselves in a cave through which we could have a four-contender dirigible race.

While there was not a great deal of decoration in the main portion of the cave, the mammoth-sized limestone rocks which have dropped from the ceiling into massive piles like the Devil’s dominoes make the swim as awe inspiring as any other cave so far. Through the blue water you can see piles and piles of them in all directions. That is only the main portion of the cave.

About ½ hour into the dive Paul showed Scott where to run a short line to a side tunnel which is, we later learned, called Death Arrow. I know, very spooky, right?

Calling that room Death Arrow is as appropriate as renaming Michelangelo’s David “Thrill Killer.” There’s some story involving an cave diving line marker that leads to the name, but Paul calls the room the Wedding Hall and I think that’s what I’m going to call it as well. Smaller than the main tunnel it is a rough, horizontal oval of a tunnel blanketed in a heavy lace of decoration. Not only is this beautiful place different from every cave we’ve seen so far, it’s completely different from the rest of the same cave.

And herein is the fingerprintiness.

Surely, when I get back, I’ll be asked better than a dozen times, “So what was the best dive?” And I will have to think of some reliable leger-de-man to avoid this question altogether.

There is no way to explain. I could type for a thousand hours. I could show you a thousand pictures. I could talk for a thousand days. There is no way to describe the way in which each of these caves stops your heart in your chest in its own way. You simply have to be there. I am sorry. I’ll keep writing and I’ll keep trying, but to really understand just how beautiful the insides of the Earth really are, you’re going to have to see it for yourself.

Not only does the hotel send us a little, Mayan tank of a dude to move all our tanks around and to pack the van (and what’s prettier than a van ready for a day’s cave diving?), they also pack us lunches on request. Today, instead, we decided to go to a little restaurant in Tulum for grub between dive sites. Dona Tina. Holy crow. Best Adobo Chicken ever, hands down. Served with this fresh, handmade, corn tortilla. I could go on for some length about the delights of true local cuisine. The short form: I would prefer a couple of tacos carnitas for a handful of pennies at a roadside shack of questionable building integrity any day of the week to any all-inclusive, all-you-can-eat buffet on the face of this Earth.

The second dive, in Naharon Cenote was the “night” portion of our day. Victor, who it now seems is with us for the whole week (and all the luckier we are for it. His knowledge and experience with these caves is interesting and makes the dives more fun. Also, Victor is the only one of us who speaks Spanish. That helped in getting my ATM card back from the bank this morning), explained that millions of years ago the decorations in the cave were as white as the limestone they filtered through. At some point the vegetal detritus created heavily tannic water which stained all the formations black.

These black formations were like something out of Giger. The darkness of the place sucked up the light from our HIDs. The other divers, who were so present in the other caves became little more than floating spotlights. The portions you could explore were only those that fit in a single circle of your light. But with portions so abundant and formations just as multitudinous and delicate or singularly immense, just as organic-seeming or obvious stone, with so much in all directions and barely enough mind-power to absorb it all… I felt like I was exploring the streets of New York on my hands and knees.

And so, popping back out to the topside world from the caves of night, another dive day is done and it is time to get back to a few of my favorite things. No, I haven’t gotten to spend near enough time at this, here beach bar. The nights have been early, but the days have been worth the sacrifice.