I finally got to dive Nohoch Nah Chich! The name means "Giant bird cage" in Maya. It used to be an off-limits system for Aktun dive center and others not belonging to a certain cave clan. However, things have changed, and whoever is willing to pay 150 Pesos is now allowed to enter this vast underground system.
We left a bit late this morning, but Nohoch is only a short 10' ride up north from Tulum (the entrance road is marked with a sign for cenote Caracol and the Labna Ha exploration), followed by a bumpy 6' of dirt road into the jungle. The cenote's entrance is, just like Grand cenote, a collapsed roof. Wooden stairs lead to the water.
Though there's actually not so much daylight seeping in, the cavern's snorkel area is quite big, and many tourists are brought in by truck loads. A real money making machine for whoever owns this piece of land.
Fully geared up, I stumble over the rocky path towards the stairs, located on the far side of the cenote's opening, and as usual, I'm really happy to splash into the cool water. Bubble check over, Nadia leads the way in, towards the permanent cave line that starts way into the cavern zone. I'm second, followed by Olli.
15' into the dive we jump off to the left. Now we're truly in the cave, away from the cavern zone's busy commotion. Nohoch truly has some wonderfull passages. The ceiling's low, but the tunnels are very wide. Full of slender columns. Sometimes there're so many of them it looks like a fantastic rain forest. After 28', we encounter our first T and go right.
Some of the formations seem to be taken out of fairy tales. Our planned dive time being 2 hours, I had to take my less powerfull but long burning light with me and unfortunatly I can't take pictures with that one :o( Too bad too sad. We pass a big petrified waterfall. After 43' we pass yet another T and go left till the end of the line. Nadia closes the gap and goes left, but not for long as Olli calls the dive shortly after.
I've barely used 50bar, thanks to Nohoch's average depth of only 5m! Still, we're one hour from the entrance. Slowly and carefully we swim back. Most of the formations are extremely fragile and damage by less cautious divers is alas clearly visible in some passages. Total bottom time 117'.
