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Mexico Mayhem in Multiple parts. Part IV: Day 1 Dos OjosI have always heard awesome things about Dos Ojos, mainly about the cavern lines, but also that the cave lines there are fantastic.Andy was keen too, as we'd gotten an open-water teaser back in Jan 2007 when we did a quick weighting and skills dive there in prep for cave 1. There was some confusion at the gate, as someone from the dive store was trying to insist we needed a guide. However, on production of cave1 cards, they were finally convinced we would be allowed to dive. So we hauled the "Super minivan" down the dirt road, cringing the entire way as it sounded like we were dragging the thing by its suspension (more on this later!) I half expected a trail of torn-off undercarriage parts to be strewn down the road (but the times I dared to look, didn't see anything) We had heard that the parking situation at Dos Ojos had changed, with all parking moved further back from the cenotes due to fears of a collapse. The change is far less drastic than I was thinking, and it's at most 100 feet more to walk in my opinion. The only plan we had to go on were some vague recollections of a map Danny had drawn for us in May, including us going along the Barbie line, back-tracking to open water, then running our reel in parallel to the cavern line (since we are cave1 and cannot do the 30-foot or so jump off the mainline). The only problem was where the heck is the barbie line? We asked around and were told it was in "Ojo dos" -- ulp, the steps are way harder to navigate there than uno. We were resigned to the hike, when I happened to spot a guy gearing up in a drysuit and DC 200G thinsulate. I had been in contact with Kevin (KMD) and we planned to meet up at No Hoch the next day (Sunday). However, I figured "how many other crazies are in drysuits and brought their thinsulate" so on a hunch I yelled out to him "Hey, Kevin" And indeed it was KMD and Don/Elissa. Perfect, they showed us how we could get to Barbie from Ojo uno, and helped us pick out the right line (which we still almost managed to screw up) Huge thanks to Kevin, Don and Elissa (Hope I am spelling that approximately right) as they shared their knowledge of all the systems, including maps etc. completely freely and this really allowed us to set out on our own on this trip and find almost every single lines without having to pay for guiding. We dropped into the cenote, located what we thought was the correct Barbie line (and it kind of was, but we got the "long" way around). If you go on the Right-side (looking at Ojo uno) then it takes about 400 psi to get to Barbie (we turned it just short as a train of 6 cavern divers was approaching). The left side of the "U"-shaped line will take about 150-200 psi (for us -- less for others) I do admit, I was not as blown away by the cavern line as I was expecting. However, the mixtures of brown and white rocks are definitely very cool. Also, I think this line is stretching the definition of "cavern" somewhat ... but maybe that's just me ... Descending down onto the Barbie line, you can already see the whiteness of the rocks. This line was the first where I had felt actual flow in Mx -- at first I just thought I was out of shape, but after the free drift dive on the way out, realized what was going on ...  Dos Ojos has a lot of *really big* boulders littered everywhere in spots.  But also a lot of delicate structure.   I will never understand how certain formations could even come to be ...  The whiteness is startling...  And somehow these patches of brown rock show up mixed in with the white...    Poor barbie, looks like she is in bad shape...   Again, the brown and white rock all mixed in -- how does it know to do that ?  Columns are one of my favorite things to look at ..   This looks like some kind of christmas-tree scene just waiting for the tree to be put up...   All in all, two very nice dives here, and we will definitely come back. Maybe my expectations were a bit too high though (and lugging the camera in the flow didn't help matters) Video: http://www.nickambrose.com/diving/movies/dos-ojos-november-2007.mov 10:43 AM - 12/9/2007 - post comment
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