Rhiannon practices azimuth reading
Kris enjoys some pico after a long day of travel
Fear Factor Akumal style
Thank you Villas DeRosa
Roberto greets us at the airport
Andy reviews dive plan for tomorrow
The team arrived safely at Cancun, anticipating new cave and catching up with each other. Returning are Renee, Thecia, Andy, Karl, Bob, Mike and Sandy. This year brings us two new members, Rhiannon and Kris. Rhiannon is an audiologist from a really tiny island nation (same as Andy) who has recently joined the ranks of the cave divers. Kris is a high school student at Family Christian Academy in Winter Park, Florida. He is an intern with the Cambrian Foundation who will serve as surface and safety support. During the expedition Kris will be gaining skills and knowledge topside that will give him credit towards his Biology course. Thecia was unable to make her connecting flight – something about the tower at Houston being on fire?? She is said to be somewhere in Mexico and we are awaiting her arrival.
The dive locker room held a surprise for us – probably the largest scorpion in the Western hemisphere decided to hang out (and we are running around barefoot). Renee took a few pictures and Mike captured the scorpion and successfully relocated it to a nearby woodpile. After configuring our tanks for tomorrow’s dive, Mike held a short survey refresher for those of us who haven’t been recently actively counting knots. The team met after a delicious dinner of grilled shrimp to discuss the newest version of the map, plans for the upcoming week and new safety procedures. Tomorrow the team will divide into 3 teams. Andrew, Rhiannon and Renee will resurvey a portion of the upstream section beginning at the far end of the Halocline Room. Bob and Karl will have another look at the Time Line area then resurvey the Low Silt Line to Cenote Camilo. Mike and Sandy will survey 2 lines upstream that have been put in by a previous team but not surveyed.
The hurricanes of last year have left their mark – the forest is still recovering, bare trees where once stood green jungle and the towns have quite a bit of new construction – some recovery from the storm, others new establishments. Whether this is good or not depends on who you ask…
We are very happy to be back at Villas DeRosa. As always we were welcomed with open arms and a warm smile. Thank you for making us feel right at home.
Team Members:
Bob Giguere
Andrew Pitkin
Michael Poucher
Sandy Poucher
Renee Power
Rhiannon Raggott
Kris Shannon
Karl Shreeves
Thecia Taylor