When I tell people that there are caves in the Dominican Republic they all act surprised. Yes folks, there are caves in DR.
First off, I should tell you that my cave and cavern experience is limited, I only dove Ginnie springs in Florida. I never did the famous Cenotes in Mexico, so my points of reference are not the best.
The caverns I did -- and for which I will get the name soon -- are in fact two types of dives in one.
As is typical of underwater caves, there is a big watery hole in the ground into which you descend until you reach water level. At that particular location, we descend a concrete set of stairs, with each step having a different height, as is typical of a lot of stairs in DR. The stairs eventually lead to a long concrete pier of sorts from which we finalize our gear set-up, and jump into the crystal clear pool.
From the pool, we dive in the direction of a first cavern, which leads to another pool about 100 meters away. From there, we take a second parallel cavern that leads us back to the original pool. Since there is an entry point and an exit point, these are technically "caverns". Moreover, we never really lose sight of daylight because we begin to see the daylight glow of the exit before we lose the glow of our entry point.
Again, from the main pool, we take on a real cave, that is, only one entry point and no exit. This cave leads to an open air pocket which is quite big. We can breath in this pocket since it is not a pocket made out of the accumulation of air bubbles from divers, but a natural pocket located above the normal level of water. The roof of the air pocket is vaulted and there does not appear to be other tunnels, but a few crevices, including one in which one or two divers could exit the water and squeeze into.
On our way back, not far from the main pool, as part of this cave, is a second cave. As one slowly enters it, there is a warning sign that tells us to stop. This secondary cave is very deep and requires true "deep cave"certification to enter. Unfortunately, I don't yet have this certification so I could not explore this cave. Last week, two french divers did explore it and said that it is much larger than what is actually on the map. Already, the map shows that cave as being more than twice the size of the other cave. Since very few divers dare venture into that cave, it has yet to reveal all of its secrets . . . maybe one day I will return and add to the mapping of it.
The second type of diving:
Although this "dive experience" is only one dive, it is part of a day long expedition which, for me, started at around 9:30 when a mini taxi-van picked me up at my apartment and from there, along with three other divers and one instructor from Northern coast diving, we drove for over an hour east of Cabarete to the diving site. Along the way, we made a "bathroom break" at a mangrove forest where the Gri gri river runs. A landscape right out of Jurassic park.
After the dive we had a buffet style lunch at a retaurant. But more on that later,m, now back to the second type of diving:
Since that particular diving location is very shallow, I still had plenty of air after about 40 minutes to continue with my dive. So me and Paul, the instructor, stayed in the pool and dove for another half hour. This pool offers quite a unique experience. You have to understand that I am a lake diver from Canada and lakes have notoriously bad visibility. So, I am a mud diver. My first experience in clear water was at "Les Escoumins", in the St-Lawrence river, where fresh water meets salt water and where the bottom is covered in various "tropical style" corals. After that, I did my advance Open Water course in a quarry with very clear water. So clear water diving is always a big thrill for me and so far my ocean diving in DR has been in low viz waters since there is still a lot of wind and rain at this time of year and viz is not as good as one would expect from the Caribbeans. Quarry water is typically very clear but the clearest water comes from underwater springs such as those found in northern Florida and . . . Dominican Republic.
Okay, enough with the preambles. Swimming in crystal clear water is like floating in air. In this pool, there are huge trees that have fallen off and some big fish but mostly small ones. Again, because of the clarity, the fish appear to be flying in mid-air and so do us, the divers. At the bottom is a brown layer of sediments which floats like a dark mist. So, overall, the look, with the many dead trees, is very similar to the setting one would find in a horror movie: Low lying mist over swamps in a forest of dark dead trees -- OoooWeeeOooo.
For what seemed much longer than the mere 36 minutes I clocked, I swam through the maze of tree trunks, limbs and branches, dipped into the brown fog, watched immobile fishes suspended in "mid-air". What an incredible Zen like experience! It is exactly the feeling of flying in the air. What a great way to practice one's buoyancy as one negotiates turns above and under tree branches, hovers above the brown mist, watches a fish . . . We finally came out of the water, quite relaxed and excited at the same time.
On the way back, we stopped at a typical Dominican restaurant -- basically a covered terrace by the road -- where fried chicken, salsa, rice, fried banana slices and pasta were served (strangely no
habichuelas). There is something very interesting about the way they conduct business in the Dominican Republic: In developed countries, for the past twenty years or so, businesses have developed what is known as "just in time", a business practice wherein very small inventory is kept and an assembly plant will keep just what is needed in parts for what they need to assemble whatever they do. For example, Dell computers only has three days worth of parts to assemble their computers according to the clients requests. Eevery time, they need more, they place an order and parts are delivered to the assembly plant just in time. Well, folks, this concept has been known for centuries in developing countries such as DR. One of us asked for a drink that was not part of the restaurant's current inventory and so, the waitress nonchalantly walked across the street to the roadside convenience store and came back with the drinks -- just in time.
And to think that it was some Nobel prize winning economics teacher from Harvard who presumably introduced the concept in business. Baloney! He probably spent a couple of weeks in DR 30 years ago, saw that very same scene and thought to himself: "Hey, I got my drink just in time for dessert. Just in time, hey that's a concept!".
According to this
website, "
The marvelous Underwater World is starting to make a name for itself, and the newly discovered, still unspoiled Underwater Cave systems are going to put the Dominican Republic on the World map of cave diving."
