Queen of the Grotto

Barbecued Iguana 2 Sistema Dos Ojos We spent 3 days diving the Dos Ojos system. First from the Dos Ojos cenote, then from Hidden worlds, and a special trip to The Pit. The first day, it's Gary, Isaac, Mike and I on our own. I regret not joining the other group to look where the movie was filmed. And I'm really sorry I missed the Barbie in the Gator. I know we went on a more challenging dive and its silly, but I really wanted to see the Barbie doll!! We had been sent on a wild goose chase. We followed a left cavern line & surfaced at another cavern opening according to plan. A few minutes later, an air bell with bats. Then we expected to take the first jump. We found an arrow to jump from, but no line. We searched for a bit, finding no reasonable place to jump to. Our group split up at this point, and I spent too much time sniffing out a spot that COULD be our jump. This brought me to a place no backmounter should ever try to enter. I gave up and headed back. Mike was waiting for me on the line, we found the rest of our team up the line a bit at Motmot Cenote. We discussed the lost jump and came up with a new plan. We continued on through the maze and then Gary took another jump. This cave was super, super silty and viz was horrible for photos. Everything was orange and dark. Its amazing that Isaac got a few cool shots even through the halocline at 30'. Isaac led us through a really tight restriction and I saw another line below us. I dropped to peek at it and it was very porcelain looking, much like the Taj Mahal "broken china" room. Gary turned us around and we headed out. On the way out, I saw an air bell with hundreds of hanging bats. Later that day, we did a traverse from Orquideas to Hilario's Well. Meaning orchids, the cenotes were at Hidden Worlds, and we got to meet Buddy Quattlebaum. The walk down wasn't too bad and we had to do a giant stride in pretty shallow water. Paul led us upstream to show where they filed the scooter crash scene in "The Cave." We turned back after 15 min and drifted down to Hilario's Well. This is another dark cave with giant columns. Often the main line split in two and Mike took the "second story" while I stayed on the "first floor." This dive had a hysterical moment when Paul made an interesting gesture for our amusement. I almost choked, I was laughing so hard! The following day, we headed out for the most special dive - The Pit! The climb down was intimidating. A long, long hike over rocks and a steep climb in which we had to hold onto tree braches. You'd have to seek out a foothold, then as you'd shift your body weight to that foot, the ground would give way. Thank God for Ruben and his team of sherpas!! Mike and I drop down quickly (Yeah ears!), we reach 200 by 7 min, we onl stayed at that depth for 3 min. Its funny because no one wanted to go deep, but when we got back up to about 180', it seemed like everyone was there!! The nice part was doing a nice cave penetration during deco, instead of just hanging on a line or hugging a tree…Mexico spoils us!! We returned to the Dos Ojos system two days later, and Paul took Mike and I to see the Barbie doll! I was terribly excited about this, and when we were done manipulating the position of her legs, Barbie was excited too. This was followed by the "Mile Run" which is a 6000' traverse from Dos Ojos to Monolito. This place is like a medieval castle because the walls are so dark. Paul carried the slave and got some good shots with Isaac as the photographer. We passed a few other cenotes to get here. The sequence is: Doss Ojos--> Dos Palmas -->High Voltage --> Tapir's End --> Monolito. Recalculated thirds at each opening. In one of the cenotes (maybe High Voltage) along the way, where were a bunch of plastic hibiscus on the ground. Mike picked one up and handed it to me. The exit was steep and treacherous. It was a mudhole - like Buford coming out. After the dive, we all went tot he Tulum to see the Mayan Ruins.