Saturday, November 14, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
" I think she went to Merida for Easter"....noooo....YES!!!
When Fernando called the owner of the Ranch today to verify we could get in....there was no answer. So we loaded up and headed over to her house. Guess what....no one was there and all the cars were gone. We thought, maybe they are at the Ranch...(hahaaaaa) and promptly headed that direction. It was locked up and no one was around. In fact, it was locked up exactly as Fernando had left it on Monday. I was kinda joking but not really when I said..." I bet she went to Merida for Easter." Last year we caught her the day before she left and we paid her and then she handed over the key....that was so convenient.
We headed back to Fernando's, and as we got out of the truck Fernando said, " I think she went to Merida for Easter...she has family there". OMG. So we did not dive today and Fernando will be tasked with pulling out the jumps and taking the stages out of the cave. He said no problem, and since she probably won't be back until after Easter, I am assuming no one will be in the cave anytime soon. They may still be there for Butch and Lynn next week!!!
John and I started packing for our return and then took a break and headed for lunch at Casa Cenote....the packing went down hill from there....naps instead. The transfers to take us to the airport were all booked up, so we rented an Atos in Tulum and will drive it to the airport tomorrow. An Atos in Tulum is $13.50 a day....the charge for dropping it off in Cancun is quite a bit more. Still way cheaper than a taxi.
This time tomorrow we should be on the plane....hope the weather in nice in Phx.
The new leads will have to remain unexplored until next time. Our time has come to an end.
Karen and John
We headed back to Fernando's, and as we got out of the truck Fernando said, " I think she went to Merida for Easter...she has family there". OMG. So we did not dive today and Fernando will be tasked with pulling out the jumps and taking the stages out of the cave. He said no problem, and since she probably won't be back until after Easter, I am assuming no one will be in the cave anytime soon. They may still be there for Butch and Lynn next week!!!
John and I started packing for our return and then took a break and headed for lunch at Casa Cenote....the packing went down hill from there....naps instead. The transfers to take us to the airport were all booked up, so we rented an Atos in Tulum and will drive it to the airport tomorrow. An Atos in Tulum is $13.50 a day....the charge for dropping it off in Cancun is quite a bit more. Still way cheaper than a taxi.
This time tomorrow we should be on the plane....hope the weather in nice in Phx.
The new leads will have to remain unexplored until next time. Our time has come to an end.
Karen and John
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Success at the immigration Office!!!
Today was the day we were to pick up John's finalized FM3 visa. We received it and now John can leave the country. (Sorry Kim, we won't need your help smuggling him across the border...but thanks for the offer.) I was getting a bit nervous listening to all the other Americans and Canadians lamenting about how they keep showing up and there documents "aren't ready yet". Followed by the statement "come back tomorrow". There is hidden meaning in the phrase, "they aren't ready yet"...it translates to...."We can't locate it right now, so we need more time to look, and we don't want you waiting around while we pilfer the place trying to locate it". They have also changed the wait in line system. Before you got a colored badge with a number, but now the electonic number counter has been fixed so you just get a ticket and watch for your number on the screen....brilliant! Once called you go up to the desk, they take your paperwork and ask you to sit back down. If you are lucky, they go find your documents and call you up 10-15 minutes later and hand over the goods. This was how it went for John. The official actually handed him the FM3 document (it looks like a passport) and said..."bye, bye". That was it...we were done.....yipppeee eeee!
On the way out I was smiling ear to ear and the security guard asked me if we would be back tomorrow....I said, "No, es finito" and did the happy dance. Once he understood he did the dance with me and laughed. I thanked him very much...even though he didn't have anything to do with it...hahaaa. So we are headed home on Thursday, the 9th.....yipeeee again.
Yesterday, John and Fernando went diving in Camilo. I stayed back because of congestion. They looked for some new leads and found some really big cave. At max penetration Fernando had a high pressure hose blow (o-ring I think) so the dive was called. No worries, because John still had a full stage he was carrying for Fernando and Fernando had not even touched any of his back gas. That is the beauty of using stages and reserving back gas for emergencies. Anyway, they did find a promising lead, going in the right direction and John thought he saw organic material...which may mean a cenote close by.....I really hope so. They exited the cave around 4 hours with no additional drama.
While they were diving, I ran into Robbie at the Gelato shop. He asked if we made the connection yet....geez, no pressure there. I brought him up to date and said, no not yet...grumble grumble.
Tomorrow John and I will do one final dive in Camilo before we head home. John had left a cookie on the new lead since Fernado reeled up the line; John and I will check that out. Hopefully lay some line, survey it and bring out the last two stage bottles that are still in the cave. We will also pull all the jumps and possibly cut back the new line. All this depends on the state of my congestion, but I am confident I am divign tomorrow.
Tonight we are turning over the data to the QRSS.....we already sent it to the Cambrian Foundation who provided us all their data....thanks to them for that. And Dave for helping us get in touch with the right people. I had fun working on the mini project they asked us if we would do. We will turn that over tonight too.
Hopefully we will have one more exciting post regarding the cave before we get home. If not we will just have to bring everyone up to date in person....over dinner or drinks.
Buenos Tardes
Karen and John
On the way out I was smiling ear to ear and the security guard asked me if we would be back tomorrow....I said, "No, es finito" and did the happy dance. Once he understood he did the dance with me and laughed. I thanked him very much...even though he didn't have anything to do with it...hahaaa. So we are headed home on Thursday, the 9th.....yipeeee again.
Yesterday, John and Fernando went diving in Camilo. I stayed back because of congestion. They looked for some new leads and found some really big cave. At max penetration Fernando had a high pressure hose blow (o-ring I think) so the dive was called. No worries, because John still had a full stage he was carrying for Fernando and Fernando had not even touched any of his back gas. That is the beauty of using stages and reserving back gas for emergencies. Anyway, they did find a promising lead, going in the right direction and John thought he saw organic material...which may mean a cenote close by.....I really hope so. They exited the cave around 4 hours with no additional drama.
While they were diving, I ran into Robbie at the Gelato shop. He asked if we made the connection yet....geez, no pressure there. I brought him up to date and said, no not yet...grumble grumble.
Tomorrow John and I will do one final dive in Camilo before we head home. John had left a cookie on the new lead since Fernado reeled up the line; John and I will check that out. Hopefully lay some line, survey it and bring out the last two stage bottles that are still in the cave. We will also pull all the jumps and possibly cut back the new line. All this depends on the state of my congestion, but I am confident I am divign tomorrow.
Tonight we are turning over the data to the QRSS.....we already sent it to the Cambrian Foundation who provided us all their data....thanks to them for that. And Dave for helping us get in touch with the right people. I had fun working on the mini project they asked us if we would do. We will turn that over tonight too.
Hopefully we will have one more exciting post regarding the cave before we get home. If not we will just have to bring everyone up to date in person....over dinner or drinks.
Buenos Tardes
Karen and John
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Dove Camilo today...looking for new leads
Fernando was going to join us on a dive today but he had business to attend too. We wanted to make sure we could dive Camilo at least 3 more times before we come home on Thursday, so we went to the owner's house in town. She did not want to charge us for 3 more times, which was very cool. Fernando was the one doing the talking but I could pick up on some of it. Anyway, they would go open the Ranch for us in about an hour...it was 9:15. We arrived at the Ranch, and OMG....3 cars of divers were waiting at the gate. They were trying to get the guys who live in the old chicken coops to open up the gate.....but they don't have a key. Anyway, I talked to them (we had seen them before) and gave them the low down. Just about that time the owner's husband showed up to open the gate....he let us through, collected money from them...(why not, they were there) and we all proceeded to dive the cave.
We were already set up so we just geared up and went in before they did....never saw them again. The good news is we had a great dive, the bad news is we didn't find any running cave where we were looking. But now wwe know where there isn't running cave. The leads kept circling back to our own line....and not just once. It was starting to get comical.
After not diving the rebreathers in a bit over a week, they take some getting used to again. I thought mine wasn't working properly, but it was...it was just harder to breathe after diving open circuit. There was no drama at the breakdown today, we made it through fine. Quite an enjoyable dive. We exited the cave right at 4 hours.
When we were getting ready to leave, we saw the owner's car drive up near the cenote. I think they wanted to see if we were still there. I spoke to her and she wanted to make sure Fernado told us she was not charging us. I thanked her very much and told her we would be back on Monday. Fernando says he is diving with us then. I sure hope so, because we set up some stages for him. That will be our last exploration type dive in Camilo this trip. The other dive will be to hopefully survey new line and clean up all the stages that are still in the cave.
After the 5 hour dive, I was hesitant to get back on the rebreathers. Glad I did because it was a really nice dive and alot of fun. It was one of those times where everything went well.
Anyway, may not dive tomorrow...or we may dive open circuit at Grand....that is my plan, although I haven't let John in on it yet. I would really like to do Kolimba!
We finished the QRSS project we were working on....that was way more than I expected, but it is done. Now we have to just turn it in to them. I learned alot about the cave mapping software.
Happy Saturday, we are heading out to have some arrachera at Buenos Aires....mmmmm.
Karen and John
We were already set up so we just geared up and went in before they did....never saw them again. The good news is we had a great dive, the bad news is we didn't find any running cave where we were looking. But now wwe know where there isn't running cave. The leads kept circling back to our own line....and not just once. It was starting to get comical.
After not diving the rebreathers in a bit over a week, they take some getting used to again. I thought mine wasn't working properly, but it was...it was just harder to breathe after diving open circuit. There was no drama at the breakdown today, we made it through fine. Quite an enjoyable dive. We exited the cave right at 4 hours.
When we were getting ready to leave, we saw the owner's car drive up near the cenote. I think they wanted to see if we were still there. I spoke to her and she wanted to make sure Fernado told us she was not charging us. I thanked her very much and told her we would be back on Monday. Fernando says he is diving with us then. I sure hope so, because we set up some stages for him. That will be our last exploration type dive in Camilo this trip. The other dive will be to hopefully survey new line and clean up all the stages that are still in the cave.
After the 5 hour dive, I was hesitant to get back on the rebreathers. Glad I did because it was a really nice dive and alot of fun. It was one of those times where everything went well.
Anyway, may not dive tomorrow...or we may dive open circuit at Grand....that is my plan, although I haven't let John in on it yet. I would really like to do Kolimba!
We finished the QRSS project we were working on....that was way more than I expected, but it is done. Now we have to just turn it in to them. I learned alot about the cave mapping software.
Happy Saturday, we are heading out to have some arrachera at Buenos Aires....mmmmm.
Karen and John
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Meanwhile back at the Ranch....
the friggin gates were locked...with an actual padlock. For the entire 2 months we have been here there has been a guard, or the gates were tied together with some twine, or they were wide open. Since we had paid in advance, we just let ourselves in. Not today....padlocked closed, with no guard and no way in. Guess our advance payment has been used up...or something. But let me go back just a bit.....
In my last post I wrote, " The air conditioning will be repaired today"...hahahhaaaaaa....good one. We were hopeful, but we forgot we are in the land of manana. When it wasn't fixed the other day, Fernando's reply was " It's Mexico". So yesterday when John hadn't slept in 4 days (so we couldn't dive), and at 3pm Fernando was holding the circuit board to our broken air conditioning....we decided we would just buy a new one. John and I beat feet to Playa Del Carmen to buy one we had seen at Soriana (a Walmart type store ). We had actually come to that conclusion over a delightful curry lunch at the ocean breezy restaurant of the Mezzanine, before we had spoken with Fernando. Best decision we ever made!
So we were well rested and ready to look for new leads in the cave. You can imagine our disappointment when the place was locked up. Now what? I was very insistant that we dive today....anywhere. We headed back to Fernando's, unloaded the rebreathers, scooters and stages and grabbed a plain 'ole set of doubles. Carwash was the new plan A. We entered at the new cenote (Luke's Hope). I can't remember what the new name is. We had an awesome dive!! Jumped over to the Room of Tears and then up to Dreamland. Dreamland is cool because it is really tannic (brown and hazy) so it has an eerie surrealnes to it....plus it is really restrictive....LOVE IT!! Our dive was a bit over an hour, but completely enjoyable. After diving the rebreathers pretty much exclusively this trip, it was a pleasure to breathe off the doubles. We also noticed that we were on top of our BC inflation for buoyancy way earlier than before. By that I mean, the buoyancy on the rebreathers is all drysuit or BC...no breathing induced or lungs for buoyancy....so it was noticeable when diving open circuit again.
Tomorrow we are headed for the Ranch again. Hopefully Fernando was able to contact the owner. If not, we will be grabbing doubles and a stage.....Minatauro, Dos Pisos, Chacmool, Dos Ojos and even Gran Cenote are all possible options for our Plan B. That is after John fixes both my wrist seals which have major leaks...oi.
Less than one week left. We plan to return next Thursday.
Karen and John
In my last post I wrote, " The air conditioning will be repaired today"...hahahhaaaaaa....good one. We were hopeful, but we forgot we are in the land of manana. When it wasn't fixed the other day, Fernando's reply was " It's Mexico". So yesterday when John hadn't slept in 4 days (so we couldn't dive), and at 3pm Fernando was holding the circuit board to our broken air conditioning....we decided we would just buy a new one. John and I beat feet to Playa Del Carmen to buy one we had seen at Soriana (a Walmart type store ). We had actually come to that conclusion over a delightful curry lunch at the ocean breezy restaurant of the Mezzanine, before we had spoken with Fernando. Best decision we ever made!
So we were well rested and ready to look for new leads in the cave. You can imagine our disappointment when the place was locked up. Now what? I was very insistant that we dive today....anywhere. We headed back to Fernando's, unloaded the rebreathers, scooters and stages and grabbed a plain 'ole set of doubles. Carwash was the new plan A. We entered at the new cenote (Luke's Hope). I can't remember what the new name is. We had an awesome dive!! Jumped over to the Room of Tears and then up to Dreamland. Dreamland is cool because it is really tannic (brown and hazy) so it has an eerie surrealnes to it....plus it is really restrictive....LOVE IT!! Our dive was a bit over an hour, but completely enjoyable. After diving the rebreathers pretty much exclusively this trip, it was a pleasure to breathe off the doubles. We also noticed that we were on top of our BC inflation for buoyancy way earlier than before. By that I mean, the buoyancy on the rebreathers is all drysuit or BC...no breathing induced or lungs for buoyancy....so it was noticeable when diving open circuit again.
Tomorrow we are headed for the Ranch again. Hopefully Fernando was able to contact the owner. If not, we will be grabbing doubles and a stage.....Minatauro, Dos Pisos, Chacmool, Dos Ojos and even Gran Cenote are all possible options for our Plan B. That is after John fixes both my wrist seals which have major leaks...oi.
Less than one week left. We plan to return next Thursday.
Karen and John
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
In the home stretch with immigration
We arrived at the immigration office this morning for John's appointment. Things went surprisingly well. There was some intial apprehension when the official informed John that they had been looking for his folder for 2 days. John produced said folder, with the explanation that the lady official handed it to him as we left last Tuesday. He was convinced it was a folder that was just copies, and not the "official" immigration office folder.....until John opened it and showed him the FM3 document. He promptly brought the lady official over to see the folder and she got a bit of talking to. He was very apolegetic and John will have his completed documents next Tuesday and we can come home. Our plan is to come home on Thursday, April 9.....yea!! Of course if by some miracle, I get called to work before then John will be on his own!
We haven't dove in 9 days....since the last really really long dive. The good news is we are feeling better and we will head back in tomorrow to check out some new leads.
We have been talking to some very helpful folks. We believe we are really close to one of the caves Robbie Schmittner is exploring so we had a chat with him yesterday. He is so nice and very helpful. I have also been working on a small project for the QRSS (Quintana Roo Speleological Survey-http://www.caves.org/project/qrss/qrss.htm ) that Bil Philips (another long time explorer) asked if we would take on. It is basically taking a copy of the survey data for Camilo, and re-entering the line names to fit the universal prefix model they have adopted. No small task as I have found out....but I hope to have it completed in a few days. We are very excited about the info we have found out and can't wait to get back into the cave to check out the leads.
The weather has completely changed this week...it is heating up and the bugs are starting to return. That would normally be no problem except our air conditioning has been out since Friday. We have a big garbage bag where it used to be and unfortunately the window slots beneath have no mesh on them. So the dilema is, if we open the slots to get a breeze in, we run the risk of all the mosquitoes coming in and biting John. They don't like me, they just go for John. And he hates their guts. It makes for some restless nights. Fernando said the air conditioning unit will be ready today....I hope he is right or we are heading to a hotel. We can't do a big dive tomorrow on the very little sleep we have been getting the last few days....I would surely run us into a wall or into some small hole from lack of focus.
The lack of sleep was also evident during the questions at the immigration office. The official asked John to write down the name of his father, mother and email. John said, "both of them are dead, they don't have email." I looked at the official and burst out laughing....he laughed a bit too....but not so much. He wanted John's email...hahaaa. No sleep makes you silly and non-functioning.
Two new restaurants opened in Tulum. One is a wine bar and restaurant two houses from Fernando's. It opened for the first time last night...tiki torches lit up the walk way. We have to try that place. And the other is on the main drag, also near Fernando's house. It is before Don Cafeto's. That opened for the first time last night also. We may have to check it out too.
That is about it. I will report tomorrow after our dive.....now back to re-entering cave line data.
Karen and John
We haven't dove in 9 days....since the last really really long dive. The good news is we are feeling better and we will head back in tomorrow to check out some new leads.
We have been talking to some very helpful folks. We believe we are really close to one of the caves Robbie Schmittner is exploring so we had a chat with him yesterday. He is so nice and very helpful. I have also been working on a small project for the QRSS (Quintana Roo Speleological Survey-http://www.caves.org/project/qrss/qrss.htm ) that Bil Philips (another long time explorer) asked if we would take on. It is basically taking a copy of the survey data for Camilo, and re-entering the line names to fit the universal prefix model they have adopted. No small task as I have found out....but I hope to have it completed in a few days. We are very excited about the info we have found out and can't wait to get back into the cave to check out the leads.
The weather has completely changed this week...it is heating up and the bugs are starting to return. That would normally be no problem except our air conditioning has been out since Friday. We have a big garbage bag where it used to be and unfortunately the window slots beneath have no mesh on them. So the dilema is, if we open the slots to get a breeze in, we run the risk of all the mosquitoes coming in and biting John. They don't like me, they just go for John. And he hates their guts. It makes for some restless nights. Fernando said the air conditioning unit will be ready today....I hope he is right or we are heading to a hotel. We can't do a big dive tomorrow on the very little sleep we have been getting the last few days....I would surely run us into a wall or into some small hole from lack of focus.
The lack of sleep was also evident during the questions at the immigration office. The official asked John to write down the name of his father, mother and email. John said, "both of them are dead, they don't have email." I looked at the official and burst out laughing....he laughed a bit too....but not so much. He wanted John's email...hahaaa. No sleep makes you silly and non-functioning.
Two new restaurants opened in Tulum. One is a wine bar and restaurant two houses from Fernando's. It opened for the first time last night...tiki torches lit up the walk way. We have to try that place. And the other is on the main drag, also near Fernando's house. It is before Don Cafeto's. That opened for the first time last night also. We may have to check it out too.
That is about it. I will report tomorrow after our dive.....now back to re-entering cave line data.
Karen and John
Friday, March 27, 2009
Random ramblings
No diving so far this week, we have been sick. Luckily with the pharmacies readily available if you know what you need you merely go get it. Z-packs (Zithromax) rock. John and I both have had what I would call bronchitis, fever and congestion, but today is our last day on the medicine and if we are feeling well enough and with any luckwe will dive on Sunday or Monday.
Fernando was supposed to go on vacation to Mexico City with his family tomorrow for 3 weeks, but he informed us today that he is not going. His wife is not up to the drive (she has been sick also...same stuff), so he will be around and wanted to know when we were going back in the cave.
It is bad when you are sick, but sick in Mexico is worse. We were feeling a bit better and wanted out of the room so we went to lunch at the Mezzanine on the beach...love that place. It makes you feel better just being there....nice waiters, good food, great music and fabulous view. We even walked on the beach yesterday and I waded in the ocean for my first time since being down here.....sad but true.
Today it was really windy (mas viento). But we headed for the beach to have lunch....at Zamas. I have discovered 2 new non-alcoholic drinks down here. Lemonada....it is fabulous and also aqua frescas. Agua frescas are fruit waters...they are lighter than juices and you can get them in a variety of fruits....mmmm. They had the canvasas down to protect you from the wind....it was funny watching people's chips blow out of the basket. We had a stategic spot, so we hardly had any of that. The sand was blasting the people laying out....not sure how they were ignoring that......maybe it was like a pumice treatment all over their body.
Bad news...the air conditioning broke in our room. Tomorrow we will figure it out, but tonight we have no air. John is doing well with it. We actually haven't had it on that much since we have not been feeling well, plus it is really nice outside and cool.
We saw Robbie at the gelato shop tomight...he and his family. His kids are getting so big. Robbie owns a dive shop in town (Xibalba) and is another primary explorer down here.
That's about it. Not alot of exciting info. Oh wait, Fernando is doing alot to his property. The shop is coming along nicely, he is also going to have a place that sells hamburgers (at least that is the plan now). The shop building is divided into 2 smaller shops. He also added a bathroom under the stairs next to his dive gear area. The wood and fixture he has installed in his shop are really nice.
No diving tomorrow....hopefully Sunday!
Karen and John
Fernando was supposed to go on vacation to Mexico City with his family tomorrow for 3 weeks, but he informed us today that he is not going. His wife is not up to the drive (she has been sick also...same stuff), so he will be around and wanted to know when we were going back in the cave.
It is bad when you are sick, but sick in Mexico is worse. We were feeling a bit better and wanted out of the room so we went to lunch at the Mezzanine on the beach...love that place. It makes you feel better just being there....nice waiters, good food, great music and fabulous view. We even walked on the beach yesterday and I waded in the ocean for my first time since being down here.....sad but true.
Today it was really windy (mas viento). But we headed for the beach to have lunch....at Zamas. I have discovered 2 new non-alcoholic drinks down here. Lemonada....it is fabulous and also aqua frescas. Agua frescas are fruit waters...they are lighter than juices and you can get them in a variety of fruits....mmmm. They had the canvasas down to protect you from the wind....it was funny watching people's chips blow out of the basket. We had a stategic spot, so we hardly had any of that. The sand was blasting the people laying out....not sure how they were ignoring that......maybe it was like a pumice treatment all over their body.
Bad news...the air conditioning broke in our room. Tomorrow we will figure it out, but tonight we have no air. John is doing well with it. We actually haven't had it on that much since we have not been feeling well, plus it is really nice outside and cool.
We saw Robbie at the gelato shop tomight...he and his family. His kids are getting so big. Robbie owns a dive shop in town (Xibalba) and is another primary explorer down here.
That's about it. Not alot of exciting info. Oh wait, Fernando is doing alot to his property. The shop is coming along nicely, he is also going to have a place that sells hamburgers (at least that is the plan now). The shop building is divided into 2 smaller shops. He also added a bathroom under the stairs next to his dive gear area. The wood and fixture he has installed in his shop are really nice.
No diving tomorrow....hopefully Sunday!
Karen and John
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