Manantial Del Toro
Dominican Republic 10/12/2008
by Phillip Lehman
Divers: Bettina Balmer, Thomas Riffaud, Phillip Lehman
After diving Hoyo, I ask Jose about other sinks in the area, the next one on the list is about 15 mins away. After driving up a really bad dirt path we eventually have to stop and continue on foot. There is a 15 min Walk on a small path and we eventually get to the edge of the sink. I can't see the sink at all as it is fully overgrown, as I climb down and get to actually see the sink i narrowly escape annihilation by a wasp nest and I am blown away by the sheer size of the place, there is a small hole in the ceiling with tree roots coming down and the ceiling is so wide it looks like it is going to collapse at any moment.
After climbing down the huge boulder slope Bettina and I finally get to the water's edge.
We only brought a mask and light so Bettina decides to jump in for a quick look.
Bettina swims around for a while and free dives a few places and says she saw what looks like the start of a big tunnel, there may be going cave.
Bettina in El Toro
We make plans to come back the next day.
We get to the town early meet up with Jose and the crew and head to the sink,
We set up the gear and the kids help us to carry all the tanks down the cave and as we get ready to go down a park ranger informs us that this is on Medio Ambiente property and we need permission to dive here, So close yet so far.
No amount of bribery works so I end up going back to the car and calling a friend of mine who is a high ranking official.
We finally get permission and then get ready to dive, I am sweating like a pig in my wetsuit by now and can't wait to get in the water.
After gearing up I swim over to what Bettina described to me the previous day as "a possible start of a tunnel" Now what I actually see is the biggest entrance tunnel i have ever seen, it goes down vertical and is big enough to take a submarine through, I can't see the bottom.
I sink down and wait for Thomas with the reel, i still can't see the bottom, we start swimming down and we get to the roof of the cave, then the cave opens up and is way wider than what I had ever seen before.
The cave is very weird geologically, the rock is white with very weird black protrusions everywhere, some areas are yellow and potholed, there are wild halloclines all over the place and in some parts we loose sight o the walls.
all pictures were taken on later dives
photo Phillip Lehman
There are house sized boulders everywhere, some look like they are held up by a some mysterious force and should fall, I consciously swim a bit faster under those.
like Hoyo, the water is 20/80 and the mixing zone is shallow at about 5-6 meters there is also a Yellow opaque haze at about 10 meters and only the tips of the biggest boulders stick out of the haze adding an extra dose of mystery to the place.
photo Cristian Pittaro
I see leads everywhere and Thomas swims in the direction of what looks like the main tunnel, although it is really big the cave percolates fiercely and wherever the bubbles hit the ceiling a rain of silt comes crashing down along with a few small and not so small rocks.
I am tripping out, not only is this a virgin cave it is also the biggest cave I have ever seen, We all swim close to the ceiling to save air, after a while the haze disappears and the floor is at about 15meters and is covered in a strange orange color.
we swim for about 20 mins and then the cave changes drastically, the tunnel get smaller like it s going to choke and goes straight down and levels off at 18 meters, here the rock is black and the walls are all coated in a really weird orange color goo.
there are goo stalactites growing everywhere, It looks like the gates of hell really spooky.
The reel runs out and Thomas ties in another, there is a bedding plane straight ahead and he heads in, every part of the cave is covered in this weird orange goo, the water is tinted green and super salty, the contrast with the orange stuff is wild.
bacteria stalactites
We push this and the resulting silt out is otherworldly, unlike anything I have experienced
entire sheets of this stuff starts to fall on us, it is extremely thick like roofing insulation, in addition to this the ceiling percolates so hard you can almost feel silt raining down, I have never seen anything like this, we are being attacked by bacterial mats.
I keep going and I figure that Thomas must be able to see at least and make ties offs since he is in front, a few minutes latter I can feel Thomas reeling back and I understand that we need to back out of a dead end.
ceiling view of the bacteria tunnel
We get back to the beginning of this weird bacteria bedding plane and catch a glimpse of the way on which was to our left, not straight ahead.
The way on looks like a triangular shaped tunnel covered in orange goo stalactites, the rock is black and there is an orange layer covering the floor, it looks super spooky and this area gives off a vibe of impeding doom.
floor of the bacteria tunnel
Thomas wants to keep going but I feel we pushed far enough for today, viz is starting to go south, it's time to go, I call the dive Thomas ties off and cuts the line and we head out.
It is mostly a zero viz exit and holding the line knowing how big the tunnels are but not seeing anything is a really strange feeling.
With air to spare we swim around the massive cavern to look for potential leads there are a few side tunnels that look promising but they all end in collapses, eventually we surface and hang out at the surface talking about the dive, bats are flying around and life is good.
I climb back out talking with Bettina and as we get to the top there are two big bulls right in the way one of them looks pissed off and does not let us pass, so we end up waiting a while, we decide to call the place Manantial del Toro
the actual bull photo Bettina Balmer
Dive time 1:15mins
Max depth 17.3 meters
Fun factor 11 (out of a possible 10)
Manantial del Toro 1
2nd dive
Divers: Bettina Balmer, Thomas Riffaud, Phillip Lehman
We arrive at the village and meet up with Jose and his crew, this time we know what to expect and look forward to pushing the cave past the gates of hell. We get to the entrance and the kids have already carried our tanks down to the water and gear up at the top of the sink.
I jump in the water and head down, the viz this time is not as good, there is a weird "mist" in the water, the cave is bigger than I remembered.
We get to our last tie off and Thomas breaks out a fresh reel, we swim through the tunnel it is covered in orange bacteria and silt out out instantly.
After a short swim we get to a large white room with a domed ceiling, the cave changes radically and the bacteria goo is gone and there are what looks like going tunnels at the near end of the dome about 10-12 meters above us.
I think to myself this is what a sinkhole looks like from below before it collapses.
It looks like there are tunnels in every direction but the main way on looks like it's straight ahead.The tunnel goes straight down to 19 meters and through really weird white fractured rock, everything is covered in the orange goo and big goo stalactites are everywhere, we are back in scifi bacteria hell.
Thomas is in front Bettina second and I am third, I cannot see anything except that huge mats of this stuff is falling down all over the place, it is neutrally buoyant and looks like something definitely not found on earth, I feel like a space explorer.
Percolation is raining down hard but the line feels tight and I pray that the caves keeps going. Being in the back sucks, at this point i cannot see much at all, I catch glimpses of what this section looks like between percolation clouds. Very soft contoured white rock, like the giant bones of a whale's stomach with this orange stuff growing all over the place, there are dark orange silt banks and and orange neutrally buoyant organic material floating above what looks like the floor, but it's not the floor it's more weird soft stuff, it does not look like a cave it looks like an alien environment, I start to use the force.
The viz for me has gone to almost zero and I swim right into Bettina, I find this funny but I realize she is a bit nervous, understandably so, it is a really gnarly silt out far back in an unknown cave and with this really weird bacteria stuff raining down on us it is extra spooky.
At this exact moment I feel the line go loose and I signal Bettina to get back out of this area and that I will continue on, she gives me an OK squeeze, she goes.
I turn around and the viz is getting worse by the second, swimming farther in I try to keep the line as tight as possible, I figure a tie off came loose as the rock is super soft, after a few minutes the situation escalates a bit and the viz is now a total blackout with even more line loose. I anticipate that Thomas is caught in the line and instinctively touch my knife, I think that if that is the case this is going to suck, I keep swimming in a bit more and wrap the loose line on what feels like a rock, I hope...
I keep swimming in and after a little while I start to feel some movement on the line and just before it goes tight we both run right into each other head on, I can hear Thomas laughing in the reg, we exchange OK squeezes in the dark, I start to laugh, we start swimming back I feel for a solid tie off and I wait for Thomas, I guide his hand to the tie off I hope is solid, at it has been a while since I have seen anything at all, Thomas wraps the reel around the rock a few times and clips the reel to the line, he leaves the reel as we are coming back in a few days. The swim out feels much longer than the way in, I cannot see a thing not even my light the whole way out, the cave makes allot of noise and really rumbles hard when the bubbles hit the ceiling, finally we emerge out of what now is officially to be called the bacteria tunnel and into the dome room. Bettina is waiting for us on the line and looks really happy to see us, we signal all is cool and then turn the dive.
The viz in the dome room is still good and I stare up at the ceiling and get a really good look, this is what a sink hole is like from below before it collapses, a perfectly circular domed ceiling, in another few thousand years this will be another entrance.
I see a few leads in the ceiling that look promising, I place a cookie on the line and head out.
The dive out is is uneventful, the cave looks bigger than I remembered it, the tunnels are huge, between silt clouds I get a good view of a few deeper leads below.
We surface and hang out in the water talking about our dive, Bettina tells me she was a bit nervous during the ultra gnarly alien silt out, I tell her it was by far the worse silt out I have ever seen, with the bacteria stuff and all it was in a class of it's own.
I let Bettina know she handled herself very well given the situation, she knew her limits and did not push them. I feel like we are a rock solid exploration team.
We all wonder if we will make it past this really nasty section or if it even goes at all, given the intense percolation combined with the constant bacterial attacks, it will be tough to even see were you are going. We devise a plan, we all push to the end of the line and then it's solo, each diver will take turns on each dive and continue solo to have the best viz possible, the other two will stay back and act as support divers. This will give us all an equal chance of being the first to push through, that is if the caves goes.
Dive time 1:27mins
Max depth 19.3 meters
Fun factor 11 (out of a possible 10)
