Hannes small rental car packed full with cave diving gear we head out to Aktun Ha (entrance: 100 Pesos) for an extended -one stage- cave dive. The objective being some video shooting in one of the more remote passages.
At the cenote we meet Steve Gerrard, Yucatan's cave guru, busy teaching two students in the art of cave diving. We take our time gearing up, as there's no point in getting overheated, splash in, do a final gear check and slowly submerge. I lead the way in, laying the primary line to the cave's main guide line, which starts way back beyond the cavern zone, in order to avoid tempting inexperienced divers into the cave's total darkness.
About 22' later, shortly after passing Luke's Hope, we each drop our stage tank, then jump off the main line through a short restriction, emerging in the Crystal Palace's lower section. Continuing past the Room of Tears, into a narrow tunnel, where we get to practice our maneuvering skills. Shortly after we reach a T, mark our incoming path, go left a few meters then immediately jump off again upwards.
At some point we find ourselves so shallow that the water turns greenish-brown from tannic acid. Formations here are colored brown too. And there're lots of them, whole armies of ancient stalactites drooping down. Guarding the gates to Dreamland. 55' into the dive we reach the end of the line. After having passed another T and probably a couple of other jumps.
We're about 800m into the cave. Time to turn around. When we finally surface it's two hours later in the world of humans. But for us, the experience was timeless.
