Mexico
Sistema Vaca Ha - "Cow Water"
Read my recent Vaca-ha story on this page.
Of all the caves that I dove in Mexico, this was by far the most surprising. Starting as a small pool of water in the middle of the jungle, past the skeleton of the unfortunate cow that gavethis system its name, through the restriction and 25 ft of smallish passageway, this caves then explodes into series of massive lavishly decorated open spaces that continue uninterrupted for about 600 ft through the freshwater zone. But the freshwater zone is not the best part of the cave from my point of view. The best part of the cave is further up the line and deeper. There, the cave changes the character completely with Florida-like tunnels in the salt water zone that continue for at least another 800 ft or more.
Salt water erosion passages start deeper in the cave and are simply amazing. There are spots that reminded me of Florida wiht their scalloped walls and ceilings and circular passage shapes. Other parts looked like the pictures of Ressel cave in France with the plates and geometrical shapes of the formations. Some of the passages were bare and others had formations all over the place. I spent hours in that cave trying to figure out how those passages came to be and what was formed first and then eroded.
Decorated fresh water zone.
