Cueva El Pantano first dive
Dominican Republic 8/11/2008
by Phillip Lehman

By now it's getting late. It's 6 pm, we did a first dive in the Tree cave and we decide to do a quick exploration dive in the swamp cave. I call Mark at NCA to let him know we will be doing a short dive in a new cave and we should be out soon. I also call Raquel and let her know we will be out shortly but I will be late for dinner though. I let them both know I will call again when we get back out.

We gear up again and head back to the swamp. I gear up and try not to drop anything in the mud, it smells like sulphur (I hope) and I wiggle my way to the entrance.
I follow Thomas's line. It goes down a vertical fissure and bottoms out at about 14 meters. I tie in a new reel and swim on; the tunnel then goes into a tight restriction and ends in a squeeze. It could go a bit more but I am loosing the vis and I don't like the soft rock.

It looks the same as at the end of the Tree cave only here there are some really uncool looking boulders on the ceiling and all that is needed is a few inches to block the exit. I make a final tie off and back out.

I swim back up the line toward the entrance and I go through a series of tunnels but none seem to go very far, it looks like the sink collapsed and if there is a cave, it's buried under the boulders and only shrimp can get through.

After about 30 minutes I start to get a bit discouraged and I am thinking this cave does not go. I signal Thomas we should swim back up. About midway, I notice a small passage through a boulder collapse that look like it goes somewhere, up to this point we had been looking around in the deeper part of the cave. I feel hope build again and I tie in and we both go down this tunnel.

It looks like there is something up ahead as the light gets lost, it appears that the tunnel ends in something bigger, hope builds even more. I swim further in and I realize there is definitely something big up ahead, we swim further and we pop out in the ceiling of a big, airport hanger quality beautiful white rock tunnel, it's pristine.
To the right, I can see a big boulder slope were this sink once collapsed, the water is crystal clear and there is a pronounced halocline. I turn around and high five Thomas. We are both screaming all sorts of congratulatory stuff in our regs.

The floor looks like it's about twenty meters deep so we stay about midway to save air, after swimming a while the tunnel eventually leads to gets to a junction room, a cave version of a roundabout. From here I see a series of midsized tunnels that go off in three directions, the reel runs out and I tie in and cut the line.

Thomas breaks out another reel and we continue on. We swim through a large main tunnel and after a while we get to a collapse slope. It looks like it just happened the debris appears brand new. Thomas makes a tie off and we both go up, I feel a bit uneasy, every little piece could be put right back in the ceiling, like a puzzle, and it's kind of soft rock.
Earlier in the day we saw a big bulldozer and a few graders working in the field directly above, smashing the limestone ground, the landowner is leveling the field to build something.
This annoying thought pops in my mind at this precise moment, I swim further up the slope looking at the ceiling which is now percolating, silt and small rocks are raining down, I see Thomas turn around and swim back, I don't even try to find out if it still goes, I turn and swim back down the slope.

Thomas makes a solid tie off on a rock at the bottom of the slope, cuts the line pops an arrow and we are off.
We swim back to the junction room. I reach back to my d-ring and suddenly realize with horror I only have my safety reel, I already emptied my other one, I did not take another reel, Noooooooo!

I signal Thomas to give me his reel; there is only a bit of line left, damn! I tie in the reel anyway and swim off down one of the tunnels, this part of the cave percolates a good amount and after a while I can't see anything, but it looks like it goes.
I reel back and give Thomas the reel; he goes down another small tunnel just below the tie off and disappears. I look at my watch, wow it's already 8:15, Thomas reels back undoes the line and we decide it's time to go. We swim back out extremely satisfied, two new caves on the same day! We feel like champions of cave diving, we are cool.

As we get back to the entrance, I cannot see any light coming down and I realize it's dark out, I look at my watch, 8:45. Thomas is always the one to get bitten by all kinds of bugs especially wasps and mosquitoes. As we do a safety stop I use hand signals to let Thomas know he is dead! We will be surfacing at night in a swamp, a mosquito Mecca.
Thomas does not look happy. We surface expecting total annihilation, and find the swamp is surprisingly quiet' almost no frogs and incredibly no Mosquitoes, cool.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Angel and a few local kids are waiting for us at the car. They all thought we were dead, we told them it would be a quick dive and it’s been almost two hours.

We get back to the car rinse off and change, I turn on my phone and see about 40 missed calls, I call Mark to let him know we are out and the new cave we found, he is really happy to hear my voice, he thought we were dead.
I then call Raquel she picks up immediately and she is crying hysterically. She thought I was dead, I think to myself, really you too? I start to tell her about what we found and how cool the cave is, she hangs up on me.

Dive time: 87 mins
Max depth: 14 meters
Fun factor: 10

Click for larger Swamp Cave map