Yucatan Cenote Diving - Dec 2004
Kankirixche, Kambul and Sabak Ha
After 3 weeks dossing around Playa del Carmen, a little persuasion in Lilianas direction resulted in a cavern and intro to cave diving course in what is probably my favourite place in all of the world. The jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula around the city of Merida.
Of course if Liliana was to be occupied learning the finer details of cave diving, then that would leave a little time for me to get a few cave dives in myself.
A saphire in the jungle. Maximum depth 53m. Kankirixche apparently means "yellow fruit tree" in Maya. It is a fantastic cavern dive and also worth seeing just for the amazing light beams that enter the cenote just after mid day
Cave diving Instructor, Juan Carlos Carrillo sets up line drills in Abala, a typical small town of Yucatan State clsoe by a number of cenotes.
This is the first day of diving in the cavern class. Lots of equipment to adjust and configure on the circular rim of cenote Kankirixche.
Compared to most cave diving sites in Yucatan state, cenote Kankirixche has pretty easy access! Here there is the luxury of a fairly steady fixed ladder.
With the cavern class started, Merida cave guide, Tony and I slipped away to get our own dive in.
Next stop for the cavern students is Cenote Kambul. The proximity of Kambul to Merida makes it a popular swimming hole for locals. Unfortunately the cenote, famous for its fossils and sixty million year old sharks teeth is also something of a local rubbish dump.
Juan Carlos and I with the already configured and tested equipment, ready to dive.
Even with a ladder though, a rope was fixed to allow heavy equipment to be safely lowered the 15m to the water surface below. Kankirixche. The cavern area is one of the largest in Mexico with a diameter of aprox 90m
Dive over and what a dive! We planned a deep dive to 150' which required a lot of deco due to us diving air. Obtaining trimix or even pure oxygen for deco is very difficult and usually needs to be shipped in from Playa Del Carmen (5 hours away).
The local kids are not particularly phased by the divers and pretty much ignore them. Some are definitely more curious than others, though even with the proximity to Merida I doubt this site is dived so often.
Two Mayan farmers popped into the cenote to see what all the fuss was about. The spot of light at the back is the cenote entrance
While the cavern class were running reels, running out of air and having lights fail in dark places, I took the oppurtunity to visit and dive Sabak Ha, the deepest known cenote in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Tony told me that Sabak Ha is a 'must dive' in the Yucatan. Though not a cave dive(though there are passages starting very deep) it is an incredible experience. Tony was right. This is an important dive though it is very dificult to explain why. Its certainly more than just because its deep or because of the 60 ft cap of turbid water above the crystal clear water. Maybe it's the way that your light fades into nothingness that is so humbling. Regardless Sabak Ha is truely a special dive.
Dionisio, a very well known Mayan surface guide can be seen in this picture lowering gear from the top of Sabakha
My partner for this dive, receiving the lowered equipment. We dived to 40m on this dive for a total of 30minutes + deco.
