Cenote Tanque Azul
Report of a Cave diving expedition to Cenote Tanque Azul, Holguín, Cuba, on December 5, 2018.
After a 3 hour trip by car, a 1952 Chrysler, from our base near the city of Holguín, passing through the city of Gibara, followed by a 40 min walk through the woods of the backcountry, with our diving gear on horseback, we, 3 divers (Chérie, Edwin and Danny) performed two cave dives of 45 min each in the vast and beautiful subterranean rivers of cenote Tanque Azul.
We were guided by cave dive instructor Raul, who has lined these caves himself and were accompanied by the local dive instructor Jean. Raul took us on two subsequent dives of 200 m and 230 m each into these vast water filled dripstone caves with wonderful halls full of stalagtites and stalagmites. The total length of these 2 million year old caves is 2.8 km, the depth we reached was 20m, but, at that point, we saw another 20 m deep body of water below us. In the pictures you see that in cave 1 the divers went through a halocline. This can be seen from the unsharp-looking pictures; the view in a broken halocline is like going through a large body of tiny pieces of broken glass. This is caused by the mixing of the sweet and salt water layers, due to the disturbance by the divers of these otherwise separated layers. In the caves we saw several medium-sized blind fish and in the cenote there were several freshwater shrimps. While we were diving the supervisors of the pack horses caught a giant lobster, which they took home with them for dinner.
Photo's in this report were taken by Chérie, Edwin and Jean. Video by Jean and Chérie.
! Please mind that when you watch the slide show, video clips will not autoplay but be visible as unsharp photo's . To find the videoclips, use manual scrolling !
Read MoreAfter a 3 hour trip by car, a 1952 Chrysler, from our base near the city of Holguín, passing through the city of Gibara, followed by a 40 min walk through the woods of the backcountry, with our diving gear on horseback, we, 3 divers (Chérie, Edwin and Danny) performed two cave dives of 45 min each in the vast and beautiful subterranean rivers of cenote Tanque Azul.
We were guided by cave dive instructor Raul, who has lined these caves himself and were accompanied by the local dive instructor Jean. Raul took us on two subsequent dives of 200 m and 230 m each into these vast water filled dripstone caves with wonderful halls full of stalagtites and stalagmites. The total length of these 2 million year old caves is 2.8 km, the depth we reached was 20m, but, at that point, we saw another 20 m deep body of water below us. In the pictures you see that in cave 1 the divers went through a halocline. This can be seen from the unsharp-looking pictures; the view in a broken halocline is like going through a large body of tiny pieces of broken glass. This is caused by the mixing of the sweet and salt water layers, due to the disturbance by the divers of these otherwise separated layers. In the caves we saw several medium-sized blind fish and in the cenote there were several freshwater shrimps. While we were diving the supervisors of the pack horses caught a giant lobster, which they took home with them for dinner.
Photo's in this report were taken by Chérie, Edwin and Jean. Video by Jean and Chérie.
! Please mind that when you watch the slide show, video clips will not autoplay but be visible as unsharp photo's . To find the videoclips, use manual scrolling !
