BRUCE O´CONNELL & DENIS BURLAGE
Bruce O’Connell successfully picked up Denis Burlage at the airport Thursday afternoon, January 18th and we met that evening as both Bruce and Denis were renting their own Condo suite in my building at Puerto Aventuras. Denis had recently retired as a Wall Street broker in New York City and Bruce owns and manages for 26 years a very successful 55 room hotel with restaurant that seats 200 people located on the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina. Bruce grew up in Tampa, Florida and attended Florida State University for two years before he embarked into the hotel business. I have known both guys for the eleven years. They were here for fourteen days and had asked me six months in advanced to dive with them exclusively. I get these requests many times during the year as cave divers love my style of taking them to places most others would not. Twenty-one years diving in the area and I am still learning new places but I know most of the great places to cave dive.
Friday, January 19th
We decided to dive Cenote Chan Hol as it is located at the Rancho Loma Linda owned Don Lieberato Tun and is located at the KM 215.5 marker on the west side of Highway 307 south of Tulum. Our goal was to dive the main line and allow Dennis to get him get back into the saddle. Our dive was enjoyable and both Denis and Bruce were super impressed with the cave. It is regarded as the longest cave system in the Riviera Maya with only one entrance.
We returned to Puerto Aventuras to have the world’s best cheeseburgers at Richard’s Steakhouse and we made our late afternoon dive at Cenote Chac Mool diving the upstream gold line swimming 2000 feet/606 meters upstream.
Both Bruce and Denis have dived Chac Mool several times before but always downstream to the Monster Room. The guys were impressed with the power size of the upstream passage and we discussed returning next week with the SUBMERGE DPVs as Bruce had recently bought the new Apollo Nickel Hydride battery DPV and Denis owns a GAVIN DPV. He wants to sell it as he is very impressed with Rodney & Suzie Nairne´s SUBMERGE DPV machines.
Saturday, January 20th
Lena Ericson asked me to take her Austrian cave diving group with NACD Cave Instructor Hors Schmid and IANTD Cave Instructor Arnold Gerstl. They wanted my help with shooting video in the Cuzan Nah area. My guys wanted to dive CENOTE VACA HA and CENOTE CARWASH, so we traded. My dive with Hors´s group was extremely smooth as I dived with the videographer and two members of their group. Arnold and his beautiful wife were a separate team and another couple did their thing as a third team. Hors chose not to dive as they were flying home the next day. The group was staying at Villas DeRosa. That night Denis, Bruce and I joined Lena, Nancy DeRosa and Rob Nelson we drove down to Tulum to listen to a great Mexicana band playing at the ACABAR night club on the main street. The music was fun; I danced with Lena Ericson a few times and danced with Lena Wagner as she was there too. Everyone had a great time!
SUNDAY, January 21st.
As agreed by everyone the day before we took the day off to relax and enjoy the weather.
MONDAY, January 22nd.
With a full days rest I decided today was the day we would dive CENOTE I-HOP. Our plan was to dive the Blue Abyss Room and ¨The Dark Side of the Moon¨. We paid our entrance fee at the Cenote Dos Ojos gate and we drove way west stopping to look at the CENOTE THE PIT. After viewing that cenote we drove further and explained that in the past I parked at the furthest point that I could reasonably take my truck. However, I spoke with Alex Alvarez a few days earlier and he managed to get his 4-wheel Jeep Cherokee to the CENOTE I-HOP path, which eliminated about a 150 meter hike. I decided I could take my Ford Ranger 4 door truck as it really behaves like a tank. With Bruce and Denis clearing certain rocks and woods debris I was able to get the truck with in 40 meters of the path thus erasing 110 meters of humping double tanks and a stage bottle. I was one happy puppy as my truck continues to prove it is a champ. Our first dive would to be the Blue Abyss as I had already proven a month earlier that you can dive one stage bottle almost all the way and have plenty of air or gas to dive the deep room. The trick was explaining the KING PONG restriction to my guys. It is about as tight a restriction one could ask for wearing double tanks. We entered the water, performed our pre-dive safety checks we swam the 1300 feet/394 meters to the KING PONG restriction. I removed my stage bottle and got myself through. Damn it is a tight mofo. Denis and Bruce passed me three stage bottles and Denis made his way through the restriction with me giving him a little boost. With Bruce’s turn he made attempt #1 with no success. I kept signaling to turn his body a certain way. Bruce’s attempt #2 was a failure and he gave me the look that he could not do it. I gave him my dead serious concentrated look and with my hands showed him exactly how to fit the square through the square. Attempt #3 was a big success and I was really relieved because I wanted these guys to see this fabulous room. It took us 53 minutes to get the Blue Abyss. I am confident that twelve minutes can be trimmed off that time. Bruce and Denis were super stoked diving the Blue Abyss Room. On our return swim we had no problems negotiating the KING PONG restriction as it is easier as the angle is from top to bottom as with swimming in bottom to top angle. We stopped at an air dome 150 feet/45 meters after the restriction and Bruce and Denis really expressed their appreciation and their amazement in the spectacular room. It made all the effort and logistics that much more rewarding as I love turning people on to great dive sites!
We switched our double tanks, this time no stage bottle was necessary. You swim the main line and make the second jump to the right. There is a slate attached to the main line stating the line is the proper exit to CENOTE I-HOP.
The Dark Side of the Moon is a gorgeous area. I consider it a top ten area of the entire Riviera Maya. We swam the main line for fifty minutes. However, Denis was having mask issues and we called the dive. After the dive we got everything packed into my truck and I successfully drove out with no problems. We decided it was time for pizza and refreshments! Leo’s Pizza we went and we got my favorite – Pizza Leo Extra Grande. This was their first visit and they were impressed. The prices are great and the ambiance is fun and relaxing. It was not our last visit.
We stopped at the CUZEL air/gas station to drop off our tanks. During our brief stop, Steve Bogearts shows up to drop off a few single tanks as he was working on the Sistema Sac Aktun/Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich connection. Apparently, Steve had a ¨bad¨ day in the jungle as Bruce and Steve traded a few ¨I Love Yous¨ during a brief Mexican standoff. It was funny as hell to watch as Bruce was impressive. It is always enjoyable for me expressing my positive attitude of ¨Have a great day!¨
Tuesday, January 23rd.
Today we traveled to CENOTE REGINA. We arrived and the land owner Regina was there – yes! The dive site fee is 100 pesos. I explained to Bruce & Denis that the cenote basin is kind of nasty. This would be my fourth dive in the cave, however my first one in the winter. I was hoping the water conditions would be better. It was not! It is full of organic debris and always has this green algae in it. In addition, there are ducks, pigs and other critters sometimes inhabit this cenote. We prepare our equipment, enter the water and I showed where the permanent line begins that is tied off on a small tree stump on the surface. The line really was coated with green algae. We decided Bruce would descend and enter the cave first, Denis would be second and I would be third. The visibility was horrible. You descend 15 feet/4.5 meters and duck under a ledge. When Bruce’s bubbles disappeared, Denis began his descent and I waited a minute and I began my descent with my hand on the guideline. At the ledge I ran into Denis’s fins and stopped. Then I felt Denis’s hand feeling mind so I figured he needed more space so I returned to the surface. Soon afterward Denis was at the surface. He explained he was having difficulty finding the continuation of the line. We decided I would go first and try again. At the ledge trying to feel my way into the cave I discovered the problem. The guide line was broken. We both returned to the surface realizing Bruce was still inside. At the surface I jokingly suggested we get out of the water and wait for Bruce. I immediately tied off my trusty Ralph Hood safety reel and told Denis I would get Bruce and we would be back ASAP. I tied off my line knowing I was in big trouble not having the QRSOC committee approval. I descended and found my way under the ledge and into the cave. Swimming about 30 feet/9 meters in dirty, yucky water I emerged into the crystal clear water. There was Bruce about to tie off his safety reel line. I quickly placed my line on the permanent guideline and locked the reel. We both exited the cave and surfaced. The entire event took 13 minutes and we figured that Bruce had snagged the permanent guideline with the 40 cubic feet oxygen bottle he was carrying and snapped the permanent guideline. We recalculated our thirds and restarted the dive and this time no problems entering the cave. I warned the guys prior that you need to swim about 15 minutes into the cave before it starts looking good as this cave is very similar to Cenote Naharon (Cristal) as it is big, stained dark from tannic acid. As we swam along the permanent guideline I was looking for a mastodon tooth that is located on the left side. We were about to reach the good stuff when Denis called the dive as were about 600 feet/182 meters in. Aw shucks I thought as we were almost to the beginning of the best parts of the cave. As we exited the cave I cut the line from my safety reel and straighten out the new line from the old line and got everything right. At the surface, Denis said he was not impressed with the cave as he was eating the halocline behind Bruce’s wake. We all decided it was for the best since we had such a lousy start. We packed the truck, said thank you to Regina and drove back to Tulum for lunch at Don Cafeto´s Restaurant located on the main street.
For our afternoon dive we decided to dive SISTEMA DOS PISOS owned by the Don Roberto Canche Camara family. I explained that the closest entrance requires a 10 minute hike and that the first 300 feet/90 meters would be a very, low silty passage before reaching the good stuff. I was hoping that members of the family would be available to be hired as sherpas. We arrived and discovered the area that once was available to park was now a cattle corral. We parked and two young men were asked to be sherpas. The family has begun to construct a road into the jungle to the closest cenote. So far, they are within three minutes of the target. I humped two sets of doubles as the sherpas were a little confused of what we needed. Finally, by 3:30 p.m. we had all our gear at the cenote. I volunteered to carry Denis’s video camera and be third in the train. I told the guys this dive would justify the hard work involved with the logistics. The main passage is pure white and highly decorated. I cannot think of anything better in beauty. We swam about 50 minutes in and called the dive. The video lights really accented the spectacular aura of the cave. After the dive, both Denis and Bruce were exilerated with the stunning beauty and agreed the difficult logistics made it worth while. To our huge surprise, the sherpas were waiting for us. I had already decided and suggested to leave the gear and we would return the next day to retrieve it. However, our young friends were willing to carry Bruce and Denis’s tanks and I carried my own. Man, I earned my wheaties (breakfast for champions) for this day! We paid our dive site fees and handsomely rewarded of young men for their outstanding help. We packed the truck and I decided it was time for pollo fajitas and refreshments at OSCAR y LALO´s Beach restaurant located at the beautiful Soliman Bay point. I explained to the guys this is one of the last places remaining on the Riviera Maya coast that offers a tropical beach ambiance with NO condos, homes or All-Inclusive resorts in view.
Bruce and Denis loved the place!
Wednesday, January 24th
Today Denis and Bruce wanted to dive the GRAND CENOTE and shoot video. We dived the Cuzan Nah area and for our return swim they let me shoot the video. I was very impressed with Denis’s GATES housing with the Sony HD digital camera. It was really fun to operate as I constantly moved around shooting video from all angles. Our dive was fun and we decided to call it for day. We returned to OSCAR y LALO’s on Soliman Bay for more outstanding pollo fajitas as the guys fell were really in love with this place. The next day Denis complimented my performance on shooting the video as he stated my camera work was very steady and my creative angles were classic. What a hell of a compliment – thank you.
Thursday, January 25th
We returned to the south Tulum area of Highway 307 as I was looking for a rancho property that I knew had a cave system. Because of the road renovation construction going on, many of my land marks have been removed or altered so it was difficult to recognize things. I found a ranch road that looked familiar. It turned out to be a cenote that Alex Alvarez had showed me last summer that he had explored. We met a man named Victario Dzispoc who explained that the cenote is part of the Ejido Tulum. He gave us permission to dive and Bruce volunteered to jump in and find the permanent line and see if it was worth diving. He was gone for eight minutes and returned with good news that he entered a huge room. Denis and I had already assembled our equipment. We donned our gear, jumped into the water, performed all of our safe pre-dive checks and descended. We had to negotiate a low and silty entrance and follow a slope. We reached an area that was highly decorated and basically a huge room. We followed one line that performed a mini loop and another line that dead-end into another area that had potential for side mount. After the dive we agreed the dive was worth it though not a very long cave.
We had lunch in Tulum and I was trying to figure out where to go for the afternoon dive. I wanted to dive the huge CENOTE NAVAL that is now converted into a huge Eco Park called TANKAH PARK. I have been trying to get written permission to dive the cenote as I have dived it many times years ago. The owner is Don Portillo but I can never catch him at his office as he is a very busy man. Therefore, we blew off that idea and we traveled to CENOTE XANAAN HA located behind Chemuyil. I figured Bruce and Denis would enjoy this cave. However, during the dive Denis called the dive and wrote a note on his notebook that the cave sucked. I was crushed in disappointment as I try to make every dive a big winner. We exited the cave. At the surface, Bruce expressed his enthusiastic approval for the cave. I attributed Denis’s lack of enthusiasm to just being tired. Afterward, we had our gear packed and the most natural and best thing to do was LEO´S PIZZA. That we did as enjoying great refreshments and outstanding Extra Grande Pizza Leo was a great finishing touch to another fine day of diving in paradise.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 26th
Today Bruce wanted to take the day off and pick up his new girlfriend from North Carolina at the Cancun International airport. She was flying in for a weekend visit. Therefore, Denis and I decided to do a wall dive in the Caribbean Sea in front of Puerto Aventuras using my SUBMERGE DPVS. Using my neighbor and friend Jim McClure’s ocean front home on the Caribbean as our entry point off the iron shore, Denis and I prepare for a deep wall dive. We used one DPV apiece, double 80´s, one stage bottle and a 40 cubic foot oxygen bottle. The plan was simple. It would take 15 minutes to scooter out to the top of the wall at 190 feet/58 meters (it took 18 minutes), scooter upstream against the current (that was south) for 20 minutes and then scooter west back to shallow reef at 35 feet/11 meters and decompress while looking at pretty fishes. On the wall, I cruised at the 190-196 foot/58-59 meters while Denis preferred to stay at the 170 foo/51 meter level. The dive was flawless as everything was performed to the precision of my dive plan. As we approached the shallow reef area we saw in the distance a cloud of sand being stirred. What the hell was that? It was a group of eight open water divers being led by a dive master; all who had atrocious trim with their bodies angled that allowed their fins to stir up the sand. Thank goodness they were not on the reef itself. We scootered past them and I showed Denis my favorite spots on the reef. One was a coral cave that has a huge green moray eel I call Jim named after Jim McClure as he is the one who showed me the coral cave. Denis was impressed. While we were scootering back and forth on the reef and allowing the nasty nitrogen to be purged from our fragile, precious bodies we witnessed something I have never seen before. It was a different and much bigger green moral eel swimming out in the open along the reef. I was stunned in amazement seeing this huge creature swimming in the daylight on the reef. What a great way to end an outstanding dive! We completed our decompression obligations and carefully exited the ocean as the winds had picked up and the seas were becoming rougher making the iron shore a treacherous obstacle. However, we safely exited and we agreed it was a great day in life. That night, Denis and Bruce took Bruce’s girlfriend and another friend down to Oscar Y Lolo’s Restaurant & Bar on the Soliman Bay. Yes, they sure love that place.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 27th
Today I decided I did not want to dive as I have that option too. Therefore, Denis and Bruce wanted to return to the GRAND CENOTE (damn they love that place). I loaned them my truck and they knew where to pick up the tanks at the CUZEL air/gas station. They made two outstanding dives playing with their video cameras and enjoying an outstanding cave system. While they were diving at the GRAND CENOTE, Steve Bogearts of Playa Del Carmen was guiding two cave divers. It was the perfect opportunity for Denis and Bruce to chat with Steve as adults and not trade I love yous. They had over an hour discussion on different lines in the cave, the self appointed QROSC and the philosophy on safety in general.¼br /> SUNDAY, JANUARY 28th
We took Sunday as a day off as a planned day of rest and relaxation. That night we ALL had great rib eye steak dinners at Richard’s Steak House at the Puerto Aventuras marina. I think Joe T Cocker scored the most!
MONDAY, JANUARY 29th
For today Bruce wanted to take his girlfriend back to the airport, therefore Denis and I traveled to CENOTE CHAN HOL for a great dive. We decided to snack it for lunch and Bruce met us in Tulum as we made our afternoon dive at the Rancho Santa Cruz owned by Don Andres Castro. Denis and Bruce have not dived SISTEMA CAMILO entering at CENOTE MUCHACHOS. This is a huge power passage cave with a good variety of decorations. The land owner has constructed a comfortable roof on four poles to protect one from the sun or rain and with two tables for setting up equipment. He also built a good path to a wood deck with a wood ladder to enter the small pool of water. These comfortable amenities were the results of the Cambrian Foundation Exploration projects during the past seven years. We made a 65 minute dive as Denis and Bruce were very impressed with the cave. For dinner, we stopped at OSCAR Y LALO´s Restaurant at Soliman Bay for more outstanding pollo fajitas and refreshments. The day was a huge success and much fun.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 30th
For our last day of diving, we decided to make one dive (yes, again) at the GRAND CENOTE. We swam upstream beyond the Cuzan Nah area and into the beautiful Cavernas De Los Camillos passage. The guys were really stoked on this area of the SISTEMA SAC AKTUN. After our dive, we dropped off tanks, unpacked gear at the Condo suites so that wet suits could dry off, gear be cleaned and packed. We drove up to Playa Del Carmen and had a celebration dinner at my favorite restaurant on the famous 5th Avenue boardwalk. Denis and Bruce were very appreciative of my efforts to make their 14 day trip a huge success. Both men stated it was their best trip yet (after six previous trips) and look forward to the next one with as I made it very clear I could top it better.
I was very satisfied with my results and very happy that they were very happy cave divers!
FOOTNOTES:
It was a great pleasure to meet David O´Dell, his beautiful wife and daughter along with her parents staying at Villas DeRosa for two weeks. David was trained and NACD certified by my friend Ben Book in the Bahamas. David works with film crews for major motion pictures as a qualified medic. He recently worked on the sets for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies #2 & #3 in the Bahamas. His other passion is paint ball professional competitions. David was thoroughly impressed with the cenotes of the Riviera Maya.
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