Bayahibe
LA JERINGA
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First found and explored by Cristian Pittaro and Dave Pratt in Feb 2009, it was a former water pumping station, abandoned for several years, when discovered most of the gear was still there, unfortunately our discovery attracted looters who removed the pumps and all they could sell in the market.
The cave gets the name from the original owner that used to call everybody as Jeringa (syringe) so, he was nicknamed Jeringa, so his cave is locally known as La Jeringa.

Dave and Cristian at the entrance after the second exploration dive

The access is through an small side road, normally overgrown and hard to find, that leads to the old pump station, surrounded by a fence. After the gate, you need to avoid some wasps, to get to the path that takes you down to an small house that was made at the cave entrance to protect the pumps from looters. You need to open the gate to enter the dry part of a very small sized cavern, follow carefully the 2 pipes down to the water, stepping carefully on the rocks you can get down to the water. This level is an airdome with a very shallow (2-3') of water on the bottom, here you can get easily geared up before the dive.

Once you enter the cavern you won't find more than a few very small stalgmites, and mostly rocks, you follow the main cavern to the left and right after the warning sign you will find a restriction and a dropdown which takes you to the begining of the main line.

This is a very surprising view, cave opens up in a truck sized tunnel, crystal clear water and white walls, this tunnels goes for about 100' with same size, then you find a very tight restriction that should be called for sidemount only (even when cave was explored in backmount is not recommended). The restriction takes you to some smaller tunnels very interesting to check.

Picture showing the normal size of the tunnels in La Jeringa

Back at where the cave starts, about 30' of the main tieoff is an unmarked jump to a tight restriction that takes you to the longest part of the cave. The jump is about 20-25' long to the tieoff, from there you will find a bunch of very tight restrictions, once more only recomended for sidemount gear, after the first restriction you get to a decent size slope that goes to your left, after it another thight restriction takes you down to one of the deepest parts of the cave with about 48' deep, then you keep going in small tunnels and through several restrictions, go past the silt passage, and after you get to the junction room, a very nice looking place that takes you to several different tunnels. If you keep going on the mainline on the C - Tunnel, you end up in 2 different tunnels, taking the T to the right takes you to a nice breakdown, find there the window, through it you can see the end of the c-line tunnel :).

The Junction Room

Back to the Junction Room, you can take the T to the Airdome (or could use the secret bypass) that takes you to the Airdome, one of the biggest tunnels in the cave that takes you to a very small air pocket at the end.

Going back a bit, right after we took the T to the Airdome, after we go past the moving rock restriction (you will know where) there is another T to the right that leads to the Hammer Line, a very tight section, takes you to a short wormhole that turns 90deg left and then 90deg right to find the hammer restriction, this is as well a very nice section of the cave, and the longest so far, also is the downstream (very light flow almost not noticeable), take some time to go around, be gentle in this cave, is all very tight, avoid tank banging on the rocks, avoid touching the rocks, they are very fragile.

Cris at the hammer Restriction.

Most of the cave can be seen using two AL80's and is not recommended for backmount. The cave does not really silt out so viz is good throughout.

All the caves are within a 10 min drive, you need to register with the Medio Ambiente office in Bayahibe and pay the park fee before you dive. The office is at the entrance to the Bayahibe port.

For more information you can contact us directly.

Please check the links section for this area's dive shops, hotels and filling stations.