Today the team divided into several groups. There’s no exploration diving on the last day and everyone is free to spend the day as they like. It’s always a little sad on the last day, but we’ll muddle through…

Early to rise, early to bed; most of team Fuqua awoke for PT with sore feet and arms from the previous day’s work. So, they decided to stay at the hotel and rest. One by one, the team slowly dwindled until only the three freshmen remained. The remainder of the group left early for Aktun Chen, the dry cave system we had started surveying on Tuesday. The small team quickly finished surveying the main passage of the cave. The freshmen discovered a small fissure that they decided to name “Freshman Fissure,” (a fissure is a crack, “just say no.”) They returned to the hotel for lunch and to check up on the others. After lunch, all but one of the team members had a quick snorkeling session in the pool, before they moved on to the ocean. The ocean wasn’t perfectly clear but the sight was spectacular for those who had never been before. There were an unusually large number of long-spined sea urchins. The team then moved on to their next feat: “bouncing off the walls,” as they repelled down the wall of the hotel. It was quite an invigorating experience. Before the day was over, everyone was fitted into a wet suit for snorkeling tomorrow. Catesby packed for his departure. Meanwhile Andrew, Renee, Michael and Sandra returned to Cenote Camilo. They were assisted by Boz, Josh and Woody, who were deputized to help haul gear and support dive operations topside.

The team got underway a little sooner this morning. Kara, Catesby, Taryn, and Bethany left with the dive team and stopped at Tulum to post the update. From there they headed to the Camilo site and unloaded Brown Stripe. It’s been 2 years since we’ve made the hike to Camilo. It was as arduous as we imagined or remembered. Twenty six tanks, 6 sets of dive equipment and several boxes of water sampling supplies were hauled out into the jungle by 24 people each carrying their own backpack of water and supplies. Once all of the gear was down the trail and in the jungle, and after a rest, the dive team prepared for diving assisted by the Fuqua team.

On our (Fuqua students) way to Aktun Chen, the dive team’s van had a bit of trouble. This delayed us about an hour or so and from there the dive team and the Fuqua team split up. While the divers waited for Wayne from Villas DeRosa to repair the van, the Fuqua team went to explore a dry cave at the Ecological Park Aktun Chen. At first, we encountered water that came up to about waist deep and then we crawled through some small holes. From there on, the team made their way to a cave opening named Hidden Breeze. At that point, the team had lunch and then the team split into 3 groups. One team consisted of Catesby, Joe, Boz, and Bethany. The second team was Kara, Amy, Breanne, Taryn, Linda, and Josh. Finally, the last team was Woody, Terence, Jessica, Hope, Mr. Newcombe, Ms. Trovato, and Doug. After the three teams surveyed the cave, we headed to the van. While on our way, we were entertained by the wildlife. Some of this wildlife included deer, spider monkeys and other creatures. Finally around 5:30, the Fuqua team arrived at Villas DeRosa and met up with the Dive team.

Since Bob was dealing with delayed baggage in Cancun, today the dive team split into Michael and Sandra, and Andrew, Karl and Renee. Both teams headed north, with Michael and Sandra exploring a line in some going passage they started yesterday. Their passage ended up connecting the Grand Canyon Line to the Hass Line. They took a look into some leads on the way back to Cenote Muchachos, surfacing after about two and a half hours, which included about 30 minutes of decompression.

We woke up entirely too early, 5:30 AM! We met on the beach at 6:00 AM for morning exercises. We had some difficulty carrying Boz in a canoe but when the whole group got together it was easier to carry Woody. Then we showered and got dressed and met at the pool around 8:00 AM for breakfast. Then we packed up and left to visit Don Raphael’s cenotes. First we helped Renee, Andrew, Karl, Bob, Sandra, and Mike get their gear ready for their dives. After they all submerged into Cenote Muchachos, we headed for Cenote Camilo. Terrance showed and explained to us the dangers of the pizza tree. The sap from a pizza tree causes your skin to breakout in sores and rashes that resemble a pizza. It made us fearful to touch any tree in the entire jungle. We also made a few stops along the way to see a few sample cenotes. Most of them were smaller and muddier than the one the divers were in. Cenote Raphael had a dock overlooking it.

From a glance at the Team Member list compared to yesterday, you can see that our group has grown! The crew from Fuqua School arrived, along with Doug Chapman, Linda Wooddell, and Amy Giannotti of the Cambrian Foundation. Three more divers also arrived (Bob Giguere, Michael Poucher and Sandra Poucher), bringing the total dive team to six (three teams of two) for the rest of the week.

Terrence prepared everyone egg whites, bacon and toast this morning before departure. The team was motivated this morning and left Villas DeRosa’s at 7:30 AM. They did the usual update posting and email checking before arriving at Don Raphael’s.

Out and about early today we were. We departed Villas DeRosa at 7:30 AM and headed for the internet cafe. Once the work was done there we were off to Don Raphael’s ranch. He greeted us as warmly as always and we gave him a smaller map of the system as promised. Today was the humidity fest in the jungle. It seemed much hotter and the tanks seemed much heavier due to the changing weather conditions.

Don Raphael was awaiting us this morning with his usual countenance at 8:45 AM. Once at the site the team performed the usual task of unloading the van of gear and transporting it to Cenote Muchachos.