Post by jonsdigs on Jan 15, 2009 6:05:14 GMT -5
Diving 'the Pit' in Mexico a special experience
01/15/09
BY SUSAN COCKING
Miami Herald
Diving in 'The Pit,' a sinkhole in Mexico's Riviera Maya region, is a mystical experience.
LUIS LEAL / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
AKUMAL, MEXICO -- Jumping off a 15-foot cliff into a water-filled cave aptly named ''the Pit,'' I felt like I was the star of my own Indiana Jones movie. Except my wardrobe was all wrong -- no jaunty bush hat for me. David Diaz and I were about to dive 140 feet deep underwater, and for that we wore wet suit, hood, mask, fins and scuba tanks and carried some really bright lights.
The Pit is one of thousands of cenotes, or sinkholes, dotting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula -- some explored and mapped, but most covered by the region's lush jungle canopy. Cenote is the Spanish rendering of what the Mayas call tznot, or sacred well.
Maya villages, culture, and customs were built around cenotes, which they used as a water source and regarded as windows into the underworld. Many lead to vast underground rivers flowing beneath the region's porous limestone land surface -- including the Pit, which is part of the large Dos Ojos (two eyes) underwater cave system and surveyed to a depth of 400 feet.
Full Story
01/15/09
BY SUSAN COCKING
Miami Herald
Diving in 'The Pit,' a sinkhole in Mexico's Riviera Maya region, is a mystical experience.
LUIS LEAL / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
AKUMAL, MEXICO -- Jumping off a 15-foot cliff into a water-filled cave aptly named ''the Pit,'' I felt like I was the star of my own Indiana Jones movie. Except my wardrobe was all wrong -- no jaunty bush hat for me. David Diaz and I were about to dive 140 feet deep underwater, and for that we wore wet suit, hood, mask, fins and scuba tanks and carried some really bright lights.
The Pit is one of thousands of cenotes, or sinkholes, dotting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula -- some explored and mapped, but most covered by the region's lush jungle canopy. Cenote is the Spanish rendering of what the Mayas call tznot, or sacred well.
Maya villages, culture, and customs were built around cenotes, which they used as a water source and regarded as windows into the underworld. Many lead to vast underground rivers flowing beneath the region's porous limestone land surface -- including the Pit, which is part of the large Dos Ojos (two eyes) underwater cave system and surveyed to a depth of 400 feet.
Full Story