Open season

Thu, 22 May 2008 10:48:49 -0600

The exploration season is now well under way. The dry season has been good, and we can now see much further into the jungle now the foliage has withered and dried up. The rains have yet to fall, and we are making the most of our time before the weather brings out the army of mosquitos. We are currently committed to 4 different locations, each containing quite sizable tracts of land. Lines are being surveyed, and data stored. The topography has been stunning, with three of the locations offering more dry caving than wet caving. I have been stung by bees on mass in excess of 10 times this year, and my reaction is becoming slowly worse each time, and so I am now taking an “epi” pen, just in case. The photos below are from 3 different projects. The cenotes found have already been given appropriate names, but will not be released until the work is over.

The new camera is doing ok, and I am still not completely familiar with it. The pictures posted below have been taken in just three days of exploration work. Obviously, crawling through the jungle requires a light load, and cameras are not only extra weight, but tend to get bashed around a lot. However, I am due to take a week off to go cave diving with my friend Marcia, and to specifically take pictures, and get to learn what the camera can really do. Those photographs will of course be posted when completed.

The first 3 months of 2008

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:50:46 -0600

It’s been a strange few months. I have finally given in, and bought a condo, and some land in the jungle. I have been working hard, which is great, and have walked in the jungle a lot. Exploration has begun again, and whilst I have not found any going diving cave, I have come across some awesome caverns, one that went 650 feet back, and was basically one big swimming pool. Pictures of that will follow.

The Return of the Welshman

Sat, 2 Feb 2008 02:36:12 -0600

An arm injury, a marriage, a house sale, and a new business took me out of the game for about 3 months. In cave diving terms that’s huge, but on the bright side, it’s been healthy. I have a full diary, and a new condo on the way, and a wife who is coming to live here in Mexico. This will give consistency to my life here, and allow me to create the photography website I have planned. It’s all about control. And it’s all happening. Very exciting.

It was my birthday today. I’m 39. Not bad I thought, until some stupid bast**d reminded me that this was the beginning of my 40th year. Thanks. And then Wales beat the enemy at the the great game. It was a great gift.

I went diving with Marcia for a few days when I got back to put me in the mood. Here are the pictures.

I am really looking forward to just concentrating heavily on cenote images this year, and I have no better time with my camera than when I am with Marcia. I have two new cameras turning up this year. They are all new with high degrees of light sensitivity, but I am just interested to get to see what they can do. Big and expensive is not always best. In a water filled cave, it certainly isn’t.

I am amazed at the increasing number of dry suits. This is the tropics, and unless I’m in the water for AGES, it has to be a wet suit. Sharp rocks, shallow caves, more equipment to break (regularly) and more drag. It seems that the DIR message is getting out to the masses without much consideration for the environmental factors. It doesn’t bother me other than it seems to show that people are using them to gain acceptance in certain circles, rather than diving to the environment. And neither does it make sense that some groups of people, who go diving together, always get very cold very quickly, while other groups do not. That suggests that it is not being used for real reasons but for social pressure. And that can’t be good for caves. I know it gets cold after a while, but most people spend less than 2 hours in the water, and I think that, for the tropics, is enough time to spend without getting cold. Anyhow, after a few months, I was thrilled that I managed to squeeze myself back in my wet suit.

Some pictures for your viewing

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:10:35 -0600

Photography is coming on a long way in water filled caves. It is strange to think that this area has zero day light, and yet the pictures are taken on a point and shoot, a camera you can put in your pocket and uses no flash. Point and shoot cameras are just so much fun, and such little work.

DIR versus Stroke

Sat, 8 Sep 2007 01:22:03 -0600

One size fits all is not good in caves. Jarrod needs to dive in better decorated caves. We call that a dangly. or cave breaker. Get it in the right hand, and stop all this follow the leader nonsense. Please.

Thank you

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:55:04 -0600

Thank you to the LABUE, and to Barnacle Busters, for their warm reception and hospitality on the evenings of the 14th and 15th August respectively. I believe everyone had a great time, and learned a lot about caves of the Yucatan.
to Barnacle Busters, for their warm reception and hospitality on the evenings of the 14th and 15th August respectively. I believe everyone had a great time, and learned a lot about caves of the Yucatan.

Not looking good

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:41:41 -0600

Please do not listen to any of the American news channels on this. Last time we had a hurricane, it was reported that Playa was swept out to sea. The truth is that everyone was fine, and we were open for business 4 days later, and it came right at us. They are bad, but you need to keep a sense of perspective.

Honeymoon Gifts

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:36:06 -0600

So I finally get hitched, and for a send off I get given a stock market crash and a grade 5 hurricane running to my home. I am still in California, and so will not be coming back on the 20th as planned. I will return hopefully as soon as I can, and I am praying that the airport stays pretty clear. Of course I wish I was there. I am a photographer, and there is a hurricane. I mean, its a no brainer.

Decorated Caves

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:21:56 -0600

The technology works. The medium is very good quality, and you need to make a cup of tea for the large as it takes about 4 to 5 minutes longer to download. So press pause as soon as it starts for a few seconds. But the good news is that we can realistically stream a new slideshow every week in mint quality. These pictures here are in the Gallery, but look better to music. They were all taken on a dive in Systema Dos Ojos..Good times ahead. Enjoy.

Thank you Whalers for a great evening

Thu, 9 Aug 2007 00:34:23 -0600

I went to the Whalers dive club this evening to talk about caves. Normally I would use a short film as an introduction to my talk on the cenotes, but I dropped it for the presentation this evening, as it became a bit too technological for me, and broke my rhythm. This time I just showed some pictures we had taken of the past 6 weeks, and I just talked about what was in the picture. We had a blast and the audience enjoyed it. It was a good call. I would like to thank the Whalers for their warm hospitality and I look forward to seeing them again pretty soon.

Getting Married

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:45:58 -0600

I had a great day today with Steve. You can see the pictures in the link above

I Have also finished the course. It was great to hang out with Jimmy and Luke, and they did a great job. I had a really fantastic time. I love my job. Some pictures can be seen in the link above, with more to come this week.

For now, however, I am going to be looking to move my attentions away from Mexico. I am going to be coming back in about three weeks especially for a full cave course, but for the majority of the next two months I am going to be away in California and the UK. I go home to the UK to see my friends, family, and I am selling my home, and, more importantly, marrying my wife to be Laura. For anyone interested, click here, on the wedding site.

It is going to be a strange time, and we are not sure how it will affect us, but we know it is the right thing to do, as it feels just great to be alive. It is the first time for both of us, and none of us are spring chickens. When usually asked why I have never married, i used to reply that i had just got lucky. Well I have this time. With so much going on in our lives right now, it doesn’t really seem that important, but when you isolate it, and examine it closely, it can feel kind of scary. We’d made the decision to marry on very practical issues, which seems really boring and sensible on reflection. But now that the decision has been made, we are both really getting into the fun of it all, and it seems to be getting bigger everyday. As we have told everyone else, we are not so much as getting married, but going on tour. LA, Missouri, Amsterdam, Brighton (England), Swansea (Wales), and finally Mexico. We haven’t arranged anything concrete yet, but it will happen soon.. But as advice to anyone else, if you want to have a cheap and easy wedding, go and marry someone from your hometown village. It must be easier, surely.

But already excited for when we come back to Mexico in October. I have loads of plans, and quite a few chunks out of my diary for courses and guiding. But also I will have my new EOS SLR and housing unit, and I am looking forward to seeing what it can do with Marcia, and I will post the pictures as soon as I have some. However, I am always in continual contact and any messages are responded to immediately. Keep you posted

Dai

A Sabbatical from the website

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:28:22 -0600

Its July 10th, and I go back to California on July 25th. I have a course starting on Thursday so thats 10 days gone, and I have to move house, and finish my little land deal before I go. I then have to arrange for a flight to the UK, to finalize the sale of everything there, so I can then build here. Its all rather a lot. I am supposed to be taking a sabbatical, so I can get all this done, but I have done some diving with Steve, and Marcia. Tomorrow I go with a friend called Norm to Camillo, and I’m doing some photos in Tulum with some friends/clients. I also want to go and film Steve again on his exploits, as I won’t be able to for a while. The past month has been crazy with setting up this new website, run totally by myself out of a mac. I’m getting there, but it is something that takes time and energy to learn. I want to run some podcasts but first I have to find out what they are and how they work, but for now, they look really fun. I can also do photocasts, but that will also take a little while to learn. The bottom end, is that this is a work in process and it is incomplete. I have yet to put up any forms, documents, or papers and endorsements. Right now, my eyes are square. It is 2 in the morning, and thats not right, so I am leaving the computer alone, and coming back to it in about a month, with all that data inside. So please be patient. In the mean time, I am going be alive to mails, and note that my email address has changed. Its all change here. I am going to send this blog and the new website to everyone tomorrow. Exciting times, but square eyes.

I heard that Ox Bel Ha became the worlds largest cave system a few days ago. It is the only connection ever made over a chance conversation at a BBQ!!!!!!! Funny story. Very funny story. Well done Dan and Gary. This place is a sponge.

Speaking the Unspeakable

Sat, 7 Jul 2007 21:30:07 -0600

Had a day off today. I went diving with my friend Marcia to Xibalba, a cenote to the north of Playa Del Carmen, so we could take some pictures, as well as have a look at what impact the development of this region is having up there. The images were not too bad, just on a point and shoot, and you can see them in the photography section.

As I live in Playa I have been many times to this cenote. It is at 20 meters/60 ft, and it has (had) a little of everything . Whilst there today I found the subject of my first blog piece for the new web site. I have never been able to find my way there easily, despite it being in Playa. This is because of the development in the area continually changing the scenery and your natural navigation. However, this time we were completely lost. Gone was the little path that took me there before, only 10 months ago. It is all houses now. And surrounding the cenote is a huge paved area with swings, and a basketball park. It is total concrete. It has obviously lost its charm, and within a few years it will be too polluted to dive. The local kids still hang out there to cool off, and show off to the pretty girls, but you wonder for how much longer that will be the best environment to do that in. There is enough rubbish at the entrance already. Its a shame.

So what am I feeling. I am feeling quite a lot. It is very hard to live in Playa del Carmen, at this period in History, whilst living a life in caves, to not have a whole gamut of emotions go through you.

Of course seeing the destruction of this cenote is hard, but if you look at how much development is going on here, you just wonder how many have just been filled in and bulldozed over. It is countless, so why I feel for this cenote is hard to say, but being one of the few to be familiar with its mythical underworld makes me have a stronger affinity to it than most. I know what is being lost, and there are not many others who do. And here is my point. It is only a few who care. That’s not wrong, and its not right, it is what it is. It is not my fault, it is not your fault, it just is what it looks like. Even though I really like chicken quite a lot, I don’t really care about battery hen farming in Scandinavia, at all. But some people do, and a lot. I care for caves, and I can’t expect anyone else to feel the same as I do about them, and I am in the process of getting over it and dealing with it. If anything, keeping them exactly as they are is my goal, so I can continue to dive in them, and use them as my playground. If ever there was a policy based on helping the few, my policy of pollution and people free cenotes is it. Everyone stop developing, right now, just stop it, so Dai Jones can go and dive where and when he wants without visually degraded dive sites. That, my friends, is that. I know people can go on about the dangers to our water source, and pollution, but even though I care strongly about that as much as the next person (and that is the truth), my main motivational force for wanting to protect these awesome planetary features is from a huge desire to keep them pure and unadulterated for the few to dive them, and share that bond of what they have experienced.

We are few. That is why, in our eyes, they are dying. But in reality, this huge limestone slab will always be. We are dying, they are not. They are evolving, and will outlive us many times over. The only thing that is really changing is our opinions, because we have seen what we have seen. If we hadn’t, our opinions would be different. People want progress. And houses, and jobs and lives in the Yucatan. This is indeed the world’s fastest growing region. It is so easy to get all sanctimonious about being the great cenote protector, but there are many other things in life, many many many other things that matter much more to an awful lot of people than anything caves could give them. We can’t expect them to. And that is why we have this range of emotions. It is great to see Mexico doing so well down here, and to see these towns grow so quick. People have jobs, lives in the sun, and safe streets for their children. Schools are funded, and corruption less visible. It’s all thanks to tourism, and if society has to fill in a few caves along the way, so what. We have plenty more. The trade off has been worth it for these people, and that’s ok. We can’t make them wrong, particularly when you do not know who THEY and THEM actually are. It could even be me, and it could be you. We all own land, we all work in tourism. From the cave instructors to the ATV tours, from the hotel zone in Cancun to the Eco parks in Sian Ka’an. It is all based on tourism, and like the big truck with a “go green” sticker on its tail, we are in no position to preach. Life moves on. There are bones here in our caves of men 14,000+ years old. The Maya came and went before Grijalva even landed his boat. Air travel and technology fuel our current species. A new future civilization will come and go, and new plans for this earth will be. It is just this great procession of time and progress, and you just have to understand how inescapable it all is. Despite our desires to protect our environment, this colossal tidal wave of developmental growth, of man’s evolution, is just crashing down in slow motion on everything in the Yucatan Peninsula, and we are all riding its wave. As I said, it involves a lot of emotions doing this for a life, at this time in history. Everything seems so visible. The unexplainable becomes the understandable. I so love living here, it’s just that sometimes it makes me want to scream.