Hoyo,
Dominican Republic 10/11/2008
by Phillip Lehman

Divers: Bettina Balmer, Thomas Riffaud, Phillip Lehman

Acting on a potential lead we decide to investigate la Isla and the potential for water filled caves there. We agree to meet Jose, our contact, the next day at the Isla gas station a few kilometers before the village entrance.

We get to the gas station early and I start talking to the owner about caves and cave diving, he confirms that there is a large water filled sinkhole and that people meet there on weekends to swim, cook and hangout (like most water filled caves in the DR) and that we would drown if we dive there, his words were "what's wrong with you people? don't you have better things to do?".

Bettina lets me know my idea sucks, and does not believe this will lead anywhere and that we are wasting our time, I smile and don't care, the entire area is limestone and I have a good feeling on this one.

Jose gets there on his bike and he agrees to take us the cave which he thinks might be diveable, now like all water filled caves and sinkholes in the DR, this one of course is bottomless and is connected to the sea, lol.. He too thinks we will drown.

After driving on a dirt road for a while we finally get there, Ruction tells us it is another 15 min walk through rocky terrain to get to the top of the sink, so we decide to only bring 2 40's.
It takes about 4-5 minutes to climb down and there at the bottom is a fairly large pool of crystal clear dark blue water, kind of ominous and deep looking, weird color.

Bettina is now very quiet and think this might not be a waste of time after all.

Thomas jumps in with 2 AL 40’s for a quick recon dive, Bettina and I stand on the rock and see him disappear into what looks like a really big cavern.
After only about 10min we see him coming back up and we are bummed cause it looks like maybe it does not go. Thomas’ first words are “it’s too big, I feel like I am diving with toothpicks, let’s get the 80’s”.

toothpicks photo Bettina Balmer

We are psyched, we go get the gear as fast as possible and by the time we get back the entire village is there making bets on whether we will live or die, it’s hilarious.

We gear up and jump in, my first glimpse is like wow! This is huge and really weird too, to the right at about 4-5 meters in line with the ceiling there is a swiss cheese section in a pronounced hallocline, the water is not 100% fresh at the surface more like 20/80 so below 5 meters it's 100% saltwater.
I cannot see the floor as there is an opaque yellow sulphur layer at what looks like about 10-15 meters depth.
We decide to go check out the swiss cheese section first, it’s a complete maze of sharp dissolved rock, the floor is covered in a dark mix of sand and silt, there are ripples in the floor like at the beach and a very pronounced hallocline.

I have to make tie offs as fast as possible as the cave percolates fiercely and it looks like someone is pouring bags of cement on us from above.
We swim around for a while in theses weird sections and spot many leads but the viz is really going to hell and I decide to check out the other parts too as we did not bring more tanks, access is kind of a hassle and want to see as much as possible on this dive. I signal Thomas and Bettina to turn back out.

I decide not to leave the line on this dive as it is a really complex area and I want to get a more precise feel for the area before I do so I can leave a clean permanent line and not make a mess.

At this point I cannot see anything at all not even my light and it’s touch and go with Bettina and Thomas all the way out, I observe the fine total light blocking properties of this new industrial strength formula silt, I reel out slowly and really enjoy this silt out, it is not a regular silt out, it's a virgin's silt out, it feels really good.

We come out of this section and I pause a moment to take in the view, it's a really big circular cavern, with a large breakdown slope that falls straight down from the entrance, house sized boulders are balanced everywhere and there are no decorations anywhere, it looks unstable.
We decide to go straight down along the far end of the cavern, we all get to the yellow sulphur layer and have no idea what lies beneath, we all float above this for a few seconds and sink down.

We emerge on the other side at about 20 meters and the water is crystal clear, there is a large vertical fissure directly in front of me, I make a tie off and signal Thomas that I am going to check it out, Thomas follows me in.

This section looks very different than the swiss cheese section, it’s solid rock but ranging from blue to yellow, there are fossilized crabs and sea urchins on the walls,they are so well preserved they look alive.

I go through a fissure restriction and emerge into a huge cylindrical shaped room, the walls are pure white angular rock and are covered by extra fine silt, it looks like white pine tree branches covered in snow it goes down much deeper looks like about 30 meters or so, but we decide to check out the bottom on a future dive to save some air.

Thomas has a huge grin on his face, we are super psyched this rules!!

I swim to the far end of the room and I notice a horizontal bedding plane in the ceiling just above me, but again the cave is percolating fiercely and I have to make tie offs as fast as possible before I loose viz and decide to leave this lead for another dive.
The rock is really soft and crumbly so I miss my first tie off and swim a few meters out of the raining percolation to actually see what I am tying into, I pull out a line arrow and slap Thomas five, and we head out.

Again this is a zero viz exit, but it's a virgin's zero viz exit, Thomas and I both like it very much.

We get back to the cavern and decide to swim around the perimeter see if there are any additional leads, there are a few small side tunnels but none go very far.

At this point I call the dive as I am getting close to thirds, we go up at the far end of the cavern and just before surfacing Thomas signals me and goes into a shallow bedding plane, it’s only about 1 meter deep but very wide and almost at the surface level at the far end of the cavern ceiling, the rock is dark red with black streaks and very soft, we push this for a little while and eventually Thomas makes a final tie off and we head out. I was expecting a zero viz exit form this section but some reason it does not percolate that bad.

We surface and, like a swarm of flies on a mound of hippo dung, we feel warm and happy.

Dive time: 90mins
Max depth: 23 meters
Fun factor: 9.1 (out of a possible 10)