THE YUCATAN NEOTROPICAL RATTLESNAKE
(Crotacus Durissus Tzabcan)
DIVING WITH TOMMIE PADALINO
I consider myself a very amateur herpetologist. I love snakes. I have always been fascinated by them. It is an incredible creature of Mother Nature. I totally respect this species of reptiles. This life form is much better than those damn gaytors in Gainesville, Florida. During 1985 – 1989 while living in Tallahassee I had in my care a ball python and three Burmese Pythons. The biggest was 16 feet and 150 lbs. named Monty. The second python was 11 feet and named EC after ED UDITIS who was a very successful NAUI Open Water Instructor and ran the University of Tampa Scuba program.
During my 21 years of living and diving the Riviera Maya area of the Yucatan I have heard of rare stories of the Yucatan rattlesnake. However, I have never witness such an animal in the Maya world. Six years ago the sons of Dön¨ Pedro Rodriques – owner of the CENOTE NOHOCH NAH CHICH found a huge one underneath the rotten palapa at the CENOTE FAR STATION. Unfortunately, they killed it. Dinah Drago of Puerto Morelos once told me she came upon one on a path in the jungle twenty years ago. On Monday, July 2nd my first encounter with such a beautiful creature took place.
I was diving with the beautiful Tommie Padalino of Dallas, Texas. Tommie was trained and certified by Jim Coke in 1986. For several years in those early and great historical moments of the cenotes and cave diving in this area, Tommie was a participant and witness of those precious times. However, life has those twists and turns that one usually does not expect. After logging 100 cave dives, other responsibilities such as a very successful career working in a prestigious law firm and raising a young daughter into a confident and responsible adult took precedent. Tommie contacted me about six months ago expressing interest in getting back into cave diving. With her daughter now in her final year of college and engaged, Tommie has rededicated her life for herself. We exchanged several emails and I coached her on what pieces of gear she needed and what I could provide. We found a window in my schedule and her busy lifestyle and she flew down to Cancun on Sunday, July 1st. I picked her up at the new Terminal Three at the Cancun International Airport. The last time I saw Tommie was eighteen years ago. The purpose for this trip was to reintroduce her to cave diving and rekindle the confidence and enthusiasm she had when diving with Jim Coke, Johanna DeGroot, Tom Young and other folks during the late 1980´s. I told her she probably would not have much difficulty as it would be like getting back onto a bicycle. The most amazing thing of her return to the Riviera Maya would be the initial shock in how much things have changed. I gave her a quick tour of Playa Del Carmen as she remembered the sleepy fishing village of the 1980´s. Today it is rapidly evolving into a huge city. She was amazed with the changes. Tommie stayed in the Condo Suite on the first floor of the La Costa Condominium building #001. For Monday morning, July 2nd I chose for her reintroduction CENOTE CHAC MOOL. She had bought for herself in Dallas a DiveRite 10 watt HID primary light, an Aluminum back plate with the deluxe harness and Dive Rite Rec wings. I gave her a summary of today’s attitudes within the cave diving community regarding equipment configuration and the different philosophies of DIR, Hogarthian and common sense. It took awhile but we finally got her squared away with her gear and performed two dives within the cavern zone to build her confidence and work on her fining and buoyancy techniques. As the dives progressed, her confidence grew and her abilities as a safe & competent cave diver were reappearing in a magical way. After the dive session I gave her a tour of Puerto Aventuras showing her the Manatees exhibit, the Harbour seals and the numerous dolphins owned by the Dolphin Discovery Company. We had lunch at THE PUB restaurant and we watched the tourists participate in their Dolphin Discovery shows. She was impressed with the growth but still in culture shock of the many changes from the past.
I decided we would dive CENOTE DOS PALMAS that is part of SISTEMA DOS OJOS as the entry into this cenote would be easy for her. In addition, she was very curious about the CENOTES DOS OJOS as Tommie was one of the very first cave divers to dive this location. She clearly remembered the 1954 Willis Jeep that Jim Coke had access to that allowed the very few cave divers at the Akumal Dive Shop to gain access to these two mammoth collapses. She remembered the 125 meter hike through the jungle from where you parked the jeep on the almost impassable jungle road bulldozed by the Calica Mining Corporation during the early 1980.s. I informed Tommie that NO MAS as now you can park almost on top of the cenotes and hundreds of people use the cenotes daily for swimming, snorkelling, cavern diving and cave diving. I playfully suggested that CENOTES DOS OJOS had become a zoo. We drove out to the cenotes. I walked her down the massive stone steps of CENOTE DOS OJOS EAST and showed her the big wooden deck platform with set of steps that the Ejido had installed several years ago. Though it was 3:00 P.M., there were still many divers and snorkelers at the cenote. Tommie observed everything in disbelief as she was amazed in the changes. We got back into my truck and we drove back towards to CENOTE DOS PALMAS. It was approximately 20 meters before the left turn to CENOTE DOS PALMAS both Tommie and I immediately spotted a big, fat snake on the Dos Ojos road. In delight, I told Tommie it was a Yucatan Boa snake and I stopped the vehicle. Though Tommie was hesitant about snakes, I assured her it was harmless and a very beautiful snake to observe. I climbed out of my truck and walked towards the creature. That is when I noticed the tail and abruptly stopped as I realized this was not a boa snake. I yelled to Tommie if she would be kind enough to grab my NIKON Digital SLR camera and I informed her this was a rattlesnake. I was pumped in excitement as for twenty years I have wanted to see such a snake in the wild as they are very rare. The snake had now crawled into the jungle and as I approached it he faced me with no fear. This snake knew he was a bad ass. Luck is with me, I had two lenses. I had my wide angle 12 – 24 mm lenses and my newly acquired 70 – 300 mm zoom lenses. Common sense told me to use the zoom lenses. I began shooting photos and I counted six buttons on the rattle of the tail. This snake was gorgeous has he had two bold linear lines along his head and the typical diamond patterns along his big, fat body. It is said the ancient Maya used this snake pattern for the architecture geometry in building their pyramids. I was very impressed with this snake. I had to move a few branches to get a better view and photos of this reptile. Finally, he began to move and I moved a few more pieces of brush. That is when the snake started his rattle warning me to keep away. He coiled his body in a defensive posture but did not try to strike as I was far enough away. After shooting about 30 photos, I was more that satisfied with my images and it was time to quit pestering the animal. What a great moment to witness such a great and beautiful snake.
Tommie and I got back into my truck and we drove into the entrance road to CENOTE DOS PALMAS and parked as close to the stairway into the cenote as possible. I paid the entrance fee and we prepared our equipment for one dive upstream the main passage. Compared to the morning dives, this dive was like night and day for Tommie. She was more relaxed and comfortable and it clearly showed. For our first day, mission accomplished as we were in the right direction for her re-introduction into cave diving.
Our second day, July 2nd we dived CENOTE VACA HA and CENOTE TORTUGA. I gave her a history of the exploration of these two cenotes as it was the first week of August, 1992 that the six amigos of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Ivan & Mary Cappelli, Randy Douglas, Sam Ferra, Cliff Keck, and Don Redinger along with Allen Jonushaitis and me first explored these two caves. It was fun exploration week of cave diving. Tommie was super impressed with both these caves and her diving skills quickly were becoming stronger and better. Between the two dives we had lunch on Tulum Beach at the Mayan Grill and I drove her down to Boca Baila in the SIÁN KAAN Biosphere to observe this incredible part of the Caribbean coast.
Our third day we performed a photo shoot entering at CENOTE ZACIL HA (Luke’s Hope) in the SISTEMA CARWASH. We jumped to the Madden – Turner line and I took a variety of photos at the Room of Tears and beyond to the Room of Tears basement. Our second dive was at CENOTE CHAN HOL. This cave is always a winner. Afterward, we stopped in Chemuyil for pizza at the Pizza Leo’s and refreshments.
For Tommie’s fourth day we decided not to dive as Tommie wanted to relax at her condo suite, enjoyed the pool and walking around Puerto Aventuras. I had plenty of things to do on my own as I am preparing for a very long trip in a few weeks. That evening I took Tommie to the famous 5th Avenue in Playa Del Carmen. We had dinner at the Luna Media Restaurant (always my favourite) and we stopped at Carlos & Charlie’s to enjoy a balcony view of the people walking the 5th Avenue boardwalk. It is fun to people watch and the evening was great.
On Friday I took Tommie back to the airport for her flight on Sun Country Airlines to Dallas and I had business to take care of in Cancun. Tommie was excited and pleased with her four day adventure to the Riviera Maya. She is already making plans for a return trip in October or January, 2008.