Our day to day life was filled with primarily two things: working at the Dive shop, and exploring caves.   In the beginning after work, we went to the known caves like Ponderosa now called (Eden), Car Wash, Sac Actun, and others where access was easy. We would swim the Cave looking for passageways others may have missed.  At Ponderosa there was a Mayan guy who lived in a palapa and we would ask permission to dive the cave. Payment for access was a coke or some cookies. Now, it is probably about $15-20 USD per person to go there.   At this cenote there were two ways of getting into the water.  Climbing down a rickety ladder made of trees branches nailed together or jumping with 80 or so pounds of gear on your back on from a ledge about 15 feet to the water.  We usually opted for jumping from the ledge, saving the shaky ladder for the exit.

In exploring caves we essentially used kite string, knotted every ten feet. It was in on our evenings at home in our "casita" we would "knot line".  Gary and I would set up two chairs ten feet apart. Gary would have the spool of line, I would have the reel reeling up the knotted line.  Every ten feet he would tie a knot. We would lay this line in an unexplored cave passage. The line would be run in straight shots, and tied off on rocks, or stalactites or stalagmites creating a "survey station" and changing the angle of direction as needed.  When we were done exploring the line would be tied off and left in the cave tunnel.  This line was our guideline out of the cave.  The significance of the knots is that once we would put the line in, on the way out we would survey the line.  We would take the depth of each station, count the knots and get a distance between survey stations, and then get the compass direction.  This info all on a slate would later be pencilled into a form and then drawn out by hand or, by computer by Jim Coke who had a program called SMAPS.  Surveying and mapping the caves gave us insights into the tendency of the cave and possible ideas for leads to follow on the next dive. 

One of our first discoveries was what we called the River Run in Pondersa.  It was a water-filled passage where you could see the line (known as a halocline) of where the fresh water and the heavier salt water meet.  The fresh water actually rippled over the salt water and you could see it.  That section of the cave made for weird optical effects and was actually filmed for part of the 1998 MacGillery/Freeman IMAX(R) movie "Journey to Amazing Caves" (the making of this movie is an entire story in and of itself).  Places that we would discover we got to name.  The River Run, The Repair Shop, that was the place where we fixed a scooter when it broke, the Dune Room. Each name we gave a discovery had a significance be it Mayan, just how the day was going, something special that happened on the dive or just out of silliness, like the Beefcake Line in the Yaxche/Ox Bel Ha system.

We would not only go to existing cave systems to see if the cave had been fully explored, but we would drive and hike along the coast looking for topography that would give tell-tail signs of a cenote (sinkhole) near by.  Since no land is un-owned if we could find someone around we would ask permission to come onto their land.  In some cases we could just ask them if they had a cenote and if they would show it to us.  Since there are no rivers in Quintana Roo, the underground cave systems were the main source of fresh water.  Land owners would use these wells for the day to day water needs. 

Most of the people we spoke to were Mayan and were very kind in showing their cenotes.

It was rare our first foray into a new cave would be with dive equipment.  We would crawl or climb into them with flashlights to see if there was any water in the cave.   If the water looked stagnant then we considered that perhaps it was just a dead off-shoot of the cave, but if the water was crystal clear, "gin-clear", was the expression, then we would know we had found a potential cave to explore.  

Dos Ojos was one of our pet projects in 1993, Dos Ojos "two eyes" was located about 2 kilometers back in the jungle owned by Ejido Jacinto Pat.   The location was beautiful two large round caverns  that you can now snorkel between.  Buddy Quattlebaum was instrumental in helping anyone get back into the jungle to dive.   There was an old path barely what you could call a road back to the Dos Ojos.  If we wanted to dive, Buddy would round up horses for us.  These two horses we named Gidget and Moon Doggy.  Moon Doggy was pretty much blind but followed Gidget well.  With ropes we would lash a set of tanks on each side of the horse and then equipment bags.  Then we would lead the horse back into the jungle to the dive site, one person always has be behind the horses with a stick in has to slap the pony on the butt to get him going.  They would get distracted stopping to munch on tree branches along the way.  Once at the dive site, we would unload the horses, and lower gear down from the lip of the cave to the jungle floor staging area were we would assemble, check gear and don wet suits.

There were not many women cave divers in the area at the time. Lori Conlin who discovered Dos Ojos with Jim Coke, myself and Shelley Baker who was around for only a couple of years.  Mainly the explorers were men.  So you are in the jungle, hot, dirty, tired, got a job to do in the cave, there is just no room for modesty.   Dressing and undressing we had an unwritten rule:  You can look, but you could not point and laugh!   A band of brothers and sisters if you will, a kinship that I think never goes away.   

Helpful tidbit:  When climbing a ladder made of sticks with pounds upon pounds of gear on, do not step in the middle of the rung. It is better to step closer in where the rung is attached to the sides of the ladder.