During
my attempts to connect the systems Balun Actun and Dos Ojos, between March
and April 2011, I made some dives in the cenote Dos Palmas with the
objective to verify data and to find any unexplored cave passage left by
previous exploration.
Close to the cenote Motz Hayá there is a cave, orginally explored by
Buddy Quattlebaum in 1994 and continued by Steve Keene in 1996, where the
waterflow goes to North East, in contrast to the main direction of the
entire Dos Ojos system, which flows to South East.
The guideline ended
in a small room and the water flow continued toward the North through a
restriction.
The
cave continues towards North, with alternating break downs and restrictions,
though in a highly decorates scenery. The flow is constant and quite
evident. This drew my attention to a possible connection to the system Eb,
which belongs to a group of caves located around the Mayan ruins of Xel-Ha,
and was explored in 2008 by Bil Phillips.
I explored 3642 feet / 1110
meters of new passages, before I arrived into a wide chamber formed by a
great break down. Here the cave opens into two deeper and phreatic passages:
a very low bedding plane toward the West and a passage into salt water with
a weak flow toward the South East.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to enter the cave from the cenote Eb due
to the prohibition imposed by INAH because of the presence of remains and
potteries.
The
reported data by Bil Phillips shows the shallow caves between 20 and 30 feet
deep. I explored a short distance toward the East before I arrived at few
break downs. Above one of them, over a restricted chimney, I managed to get
a point where I was able to see the guide line laid by Bil Phillips three
years before.
Another small piece of the big puzzle was put in place.
This connection added the Eb cave system to Dos Ojos, the third largest
underwater cave system of the World.