Oooops, I will do it again...

Decided to use this blog for the next and upcoming dive trips again!
Stay tuned, there will be more, starting again March 18th, 2018

See you under water

Day 100-101 / Tag 100-101 June 20-21 Berlin, Finish, and Thank You all

💯

This is the last post. 

I finish this blog with Day 101, though it's called 111, simply because the trip is over.

 100 days and 128 dives later, once around the world, full of impressions, smells, feelings, tastes: I am back.

I started this trip with 90 dives ( certified with 11 dives in March 2014, 79 dives from March 2015 til March 2017). Now it's 218 in the logbook...
Had all kinds of boat diving, liveaboards, Dinghis, Longtails, small diveboats, some shore dives, many nightdives, all kinds of entry, near out of air, drift dives, currents, cenotes, caverns, caves, deep dives, in waters around the world, and not a single minute in the pool:
I declare myself an experienced Advanced Open Water Diver now

In the end I realize I did it almost exactly as I initially planned...:

Still wearing one of my dive t-shirts (The Junk June Hong Chian Lee, actually) for days now, dive leg and boat shorts, they feel so familiar and homy, cannot get used to long pants, socks and shirts with collar yet...;-)

Day 98-99 / Tag 98-99 Going home

I don't feel like leaving here at all.

A last shower before the long ride over the Atlantic ocean later today. I am clever enough to take a
second T-shirt with me in the cabin luggage. Heartwarming good bye from the girl at the Art Hotel,

a last Cortado at Ki'Bok, and then to the ruins of Tulum. Bad idea, it is sunday morning, 10 am. I had better done that on a weekday, uh, wait, I was diving the last five mornings...
Waiting in line to buy a ticket in the blazing sun, Mexicans dressed up as ancient Mayas stand ready for fotos with their snake and tourists, you have to pay for every foto, even from far, waiting in another line to the entrance, and pushing myself through the ruins with the tourists, the sun knows no mercy. I only wanted to take some shots of the ruins by the sea, I sweat like a pig, no shadow anywhere. My T-shirt is soaking wet.
I take some shots and flee this place.

Seems he doesn't enjoy it too much, either

Day 97 / Tag 97 Sat June 17 Dreamgate and Tajma Ha. Diving Cenotes in Tulum

Uuh oh, I think the last but one mojito wasn't good...
Anyway, I am here to dive!

Get up at 7, coffee at Ki'Bok, meet Rubi at the dive center, we both were not expecting to dive together one more time, but we are both happy to do so!

Dreamgate is close to Dos Ojos, Tajma Ha is about 30 kilometers from Tulum.
Dreamgate is famous for its relatively young stalaktites and stalagmites, that means only a handful of millions of years, not hundreds...
Therefor extra good buoyancy skills are required, some of these stalaktites are thin as a straw and very, very fragile.
Tajma Ha has been discovered only recently, 2008 I think, was originally named Taj Mahal and then "mayanized" to Tajma Ha, with Ha being the Maya word for water. It is supposed to have spectacular natural light, so I bring two batteries for the camera, hoping to take some good pictures.
Unfortunately, most of them are not sharp, here is what I could salvage.

We  start with Dreamgate, an experienced team by now, Rubi gives me a dive site briefing, short this time, because the mosquitos are eating us alive here, we put on wetsuits as soon as possible. The equipment is lowered to the entrance with a rope, the stair is very steep.

part of the Sac Ak tun system of Dos Ojos

Day 96 / Tag 96 Fri June 16 MUSA, underwater museum

After six Cenote dives, I will go into the ocean for the last dives on this trip today...

130 kilometers north of Tulum is the city of Cancun and the island Isla Mujeres, the latter hosts the underwater museum MUSA.
For more background information, you can visit their site here (opens in new window).

I got aware of this, when the latest installation with contributions by Jason deCaires Taylor was opened to the public near Lanzarote, Canary Island, in january (Click. Opens in new window)

I had researched some possibilities to visit this site and booked a dive with Manta Divers Cancun, 81US$ for two dives, 7 US$ for a wetsuit, dive time limited to 45 minutes.
Meeting point is 12 o'clock at their dive shop, so I started at 10am, after a coffee at Art Hotel Tulum and a short breakfast at Ki'Bok.

Passing the tourist trap of Playa del Carmen, I arrive at the dive shop in Cancun, Zona Hotelera, a high class tourist ghetto with big hotel complexes and heavily armed police, at 11:35. The two ladies in the shop seem to be surprised I am early, we do the paperwork, liability waiver, check my certifications, and find a wetsuit for me.
I ask my usual questions when coming to a new dive site, currents, reef hook necessary, should I bring my smb, is it ok to use a pointer stick, maximum depth and dive time, who is the guide, how many divers in the group, open water or advanced and so on.
No currents, maybe some surge, don't need an smb, the guide has her own, only one other diver.
The guide is a girl in her mid-twenties, Ellie, and the other diver is an Open Water Student, they will do some skills underwater for five minutes and then visit the museum. OK for me, I am not in a hurry.

One dive goes to the museum, one is a reef dive nearby. It takes a 40 minutes boat ride from the shop at Marina del Rey to the dive site.

Day 95 / Tag 95 Thu June 15 El Pit y Casa Cenote. Diving in Tulum

More Cenote Diving in Tulum, Yucatan.
Today on the menu: famous El Pit in the jungle, and Casa Cenote close to the sea.

El Pit is, as the name suggests, a hole in the ground, similar to Angelita yesterday, but way bigger and spacious, also the light is different, because you have clear water from the surface down to the bottom. Creepiness is similar, though, at the Pit the bottom looks like a forest, where you feel like little Red Riding Hood waiting for the wolf to come around the bend.

Casa, on the opposite side of the spectrum, is a very shallow site, filled with daylight, and mangrove roots reaching down into the water from the surface.

So let's do it again!

As always, dive site briefing.

This is your entry point, simply walk down the stairs with all your equipment on, and jump from the platform...;-)

Day 94 / Tag 94 June 14 Angelita y la Calavera

More Cenote Diving today!

This dive is going to be completely different to yesterday's.
Angelita (little angel) is a deep pit, with an "island" sticking out from the bottom, and a halocline at around 28 meters depth. Another specialty of this little angel is the visibility between 3 to 17 meters depth during descent and ascent, where the water gets milky and green, you have no visual reference at all, except your dive buddy.
At 28 meters the island sticks out of a layer of hydrogenic sulfate, that looks like solid fog.

There are no other divers in our group, actually from now on for all the following dives I have a private guide in Rubi, and we get along with each other very well.

As always he gives me an extensive briefing on the dive site, then we set up our equipment at the truck on the parking place and walk to the entrance point with it.