Cenote Ponderosa (Jardin del Eden)
Riviera Maya, June 2004
Ponderosa is an easy to access cenote popular with snorkelers and at times can be overwhelmed with busloads of tourists
We dived both upstream legs of river run separately and later Liliana did her first ever unguided and untutored cave guide with only me for company. While we were doing our thing my parents dived in with a PADI discover scuba class!
The large cavern area of Ponderosa where divers have to be careful of tourists from snorkel trips jumping off the ledge or even the tree into the water below. The anti-clockwise entrance to river run is here in the furthest corner.
About to enter. Ponderosa is now called Cenote Jardin del Eden, though still retains it's original name amongst divers.
After all that fussing over equipment its time to take a rest.
Here Liliana is building a tower of rocks with one hand to practice buoyancy skills.
This video clip is never going to make it to The discovery channel, but it does give a feel of how it is to dive inside the cave. Only I promise there is much more to see than this clip shows.
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First ever dives for my Mother and Father, while Liliana and I went off to do our cave dive...
The many algae covered rocks in Cenote Ponderosa provide perfect cover and plenty of food for the enormous numbers of fish that live there.
The southern end of Ponderosa and at the extreme right of this picture the clockwise entrance to river run. River run is a cave diving circuit consisting of two upstream legs that takes about an hour to complete
Liliana about to make a very splashy entry!
Problems with the H valve on the single Al100 that Liliana was using forced her to switch into doubles faster than she wanted.
Sorting out the trim and buoyancy control pre dive. This is the trim that is essential in cave diving. Body flat and feet up frog kicking to avoid fin blast into the silt.
This picture demonstrates Liliana's biggest problem with doubles. Though to get an idea these "lightweight" double Al80's weigh more than 100 lb!!
... a new environment that both enjoyed very much.
