This morning however, Robbie, who actually explored Dos Pisos with Gunni, tells us nah, the hike's less than this or that cenote, meaning we can easily walk it. Which we tell Don Roberto, who just shrugs and thus only sends one boy with us to show us the way. Alas our little Maya seems to be rather dumbstruck to be with three big foreigners and barely says anything more than sí to any of our questions.
We drive our pick-up as far as we can and decide to go and have a quick look-see at the supposedly near-by cenote before gearing up. The short unburdened stroll turns out to be a 15' walk along a rather uneven path, booby trapped with leaf covered foot twisting holes, sneaky feet enlacing vines and crossed by fallen trees.
At the cenote we're quite relieved to see another young man arrive on a horse and unanimously immediately decide to hire both youths to carry our doubles. Two sets that is. Leaving one set which I volunteer to carry. The condition being that my crazy effort be filmed as proof!
Back at the car I partially suit up, strap on about 45kg of gear, splash some cooling water over my head and stride off. Twenty-one minutes later I finally make it to the rocky overhang shading the cenote, steaming hot and badly needing to wind down a few degrees. Some dry honey crackers and a mouthful of water later we prepare & check our equipment for the dive at hand.
Several lines start right from the upstream area, so we just pick one of them and get going. Finding ourselves in a fairly low but richly decorated passage. The main line T's off at various points, requiring plenty of markers. We keep going right for simplicity, ending up in an eroded tunnel. This cave obviously hasn't seen too much traffic yet, our bubbles causing plenty of percolation and dust clouds. The current here's quite noticeable too, though still easily conquered. About one hour into the dive I give the turn around signal and we emerge back out again in the cenote another forty minutes later.
My dive booties soft soles not really being meant for treacherous jungle paths, I actually hurt my foot on the walk in, so I'm not jumping to prove I can do it again. No need though, Miguel's already squared his shoulders and marches fully geared up straight from the water into the jungle. I gratefully hand over my doubles to one of our porters, grab the remaining gear box together with Kirk and slowly limp my way back, harassed all the way by very thirsty mosquitoes.
[ entrance fee: 80 Pesos + 150 Pesos/porter ]
