Caving in Quintana Roo March 2017

Earlier in March I had the opportunity to go to Quintana Roo on a caving expedition. Quintana Roo is a Mexican state in the Yucatan peninsula. I found a cheap flight on Southwest to Cancun with Carol, a caver from California. We arrived to the warm, balmy weather, and our host and expedition organizer Peter picked us up and took us to his palapa in Paamul. Paamul is an RV park that has gotten fancy, with many RV owners putting thatched roofs over their RVs and sometimes enclosing the entire living space. Some are rather simple, others are deluxe, all are close to the beach.

The Paamul beach has a mixture of tidepools and white sand.

After a night to adjust, we headed into the jungle the next day to go survey caves.

For part of the two-hour hike, we hiked through caves, as it was easier than hiking through the jungle!


Here's a photo of me taken by Frank Bogle, one of the participants. The Melgarita cave pants did well on this trip (I took out the kneepads to make them cooler for the jungle hikes).


After surveying all day, it was time to eat and enter cave data. We returned several times to Mr. Trompo, an outdoor cafe on the pueblo side of Puerto Aventuras. Trompo is apparently a way to cook pork on a skewer. They put strong seasonings on it and it looks sort of like a carrot, including the color. You can imagine the fun we had with their logo. (Photo by Frank Bogle)


Each day was different. The second day of caving involved a lot of passage like this:

It felt like the room that never ended! Fortunately the water was warm. I was sketching each day, and seven days in a row really helped my sketching ability! The sketches, along with the measurements we take (distance, azimuth, inclination) help make the cave map.

A couple mornings I had energy to go for a run. North from Paamul was a lovely trail along the beach.


South of Paamul was a very rocky shoreline littered with ocean garbage, but the reward was a Mayan pyramid between two freshwater flows into the ocean. Here's the view from the top of the pyramid:

Each day we had different people helping with the cave survey, although for the week we had a core group of seven. We would get the lineplots, if they existed, the night before on our phone. Then we would tie into those the next day and continue surveying. Here's part of the group getting briefed on their mission.

For two days, Frank and I got to survey a wet cave, which involved inner tubes. They run snorkel tours through the cave. It was amazingly beautiful.

Another day we were again far out in the jungle, sketching in a line plot that some cave divers had surveyed. Then we found a little crawl that kept going and going, and eventually got to a huge magnificent room full of formations. And it kept going!

Sac Actun is a mostly underwater cave in the area that cave divers have been exploring for decades. It is the second longest cave in the world, after Mammoth Cave. We surveyed some cenote (sinkhole) entrances and added about 800 meters to the length one day. Here's a view of one of the sinkhole entrances. There's a diveline that goes back in the dark spot.

I'm not a cave diver, but I did go snorkeling! I went several times, amazed at the ocean life all around me. It was fun being in the waves.

I also snorkeled one of the cenotes, and saw these catfish. They were hanging out under some bats.

Pausing for a quick photo through some tree roots.

Here's an example of the data and sketch.

All too soon, the week came to an end. It was organized so well and I was able to totally put myself into the caving mentality so that's nearly all I thought about each day. It was a relaxing vacation because my mind wasn't whirring in a thousand directions like it usually does, instead I was very focused.

On my last day, I had a late afternoon flight, so in the morning I took the colectivo (bus) down to Tulum to see the ruins. Tulum is on the coast and very scenic.

I went early in the morning, as it's also very crowded.

High waves meant that you weren't allowed to go in the water past your knees, but that was okay, I was there for the view.

This iguana and I hung out in the shade for awhile.

Then it was time to fly home. There are lots of commercial caves and cenotes in Quintana Roo, so even if you're not on a survey trip, it's easy to experience the underground marvels of the Yucatan. I hope to go back, it's an amazing place! Thanks so much to Peter for organizing the trip and being such a great host, to Carol for being a wonderful traveling companion and roommate, Frank for letting me borrow some photos, my husband for agreeing that it was a good idea for me to go, and all those who took care of the kids while I went on a nourishing retreat!

Gretchen sketching in Cueva Olchun, Photo by Frank Bogle.

Pronghorn Photo Shoot

 I was driving back from photographing birds at the lake and literally had my camera with the telephoto lens on my lap when some pronghorn were right next to the road. What an opportunity! So I stopped, rolled down my window, and started snapping away.

The pronghorn are such interesting animals, North America's fastest land mammals. (There are invertebrates that are apparently even faster.) They used to have several relatives, but they died out at the end of the Pleistocene due to warmer climates (roughly about 10,000 years ago).

The pronghorn were definitely keeping an eye on me, and they moved a little further away.

But there were still close enough I could see them pooping.

They often have a characteristic when they poop called SPUD--scratch, paw, urinate, defecate. If you see little cleared areas near some pellets, they were probably made by pronghorn.

Another cool thing about pronghorn is that they don't jump over fences, instead they go underneath them. And if you ever have one running alongside your vehicle, slow down. They often will make a 90 degree turn and run right in front of you.

I felt so lucky to get to spend some time with them. And in fact, my photos of them were probably the best photos of the day!

Oh, what eyelashes! About the only thing cuter are baby pronghorn, which are generally born the end of May.

You can learn more about pronghorns here.

Spring Birds

It's springtime, which means a whole mix of weather, but overall we're getting outside more--hurray! Desert Girl sure loves our chickens. They've been good layers all winter. And I have to admit I'm surprised that they've survived with all the predators around here. 

Some birds are coming back, like the killdeer. They can make quite a racket.

The bluebirds have been around all winter, but their colors seem brighter now.

Desert Girl worked hard to catch one, but didn't succeed. Then she tried to talk me into getting her a parakeet. No, thanks, I know who will end up taking care of it! I told her it's best to enjoy the birds in the wild.

The heifers (first time moms) are already done calving, and now we're in prime season for the cows out on the range to give birth. The bluebirds are checking out what's going on.

One morning I decided to get up early and go down where there's some water to capture the sunrise reflections. There were a few birds around, especially Canada Geese.

It was a gorgeous morning, and the usual wind had calmed down.

The ravens are numerous year round.

I liked the symmetry of these flying ducks and their reflections.

There were a big group of sea gulls out on the lake.

And no year would be complete without at least one photo of a daffodil!

 Happy spring!

February Roundup

So, similar to January, I have a mish mash of photos, many from my phone. I have trouble downloading my phone photos to my computer, so it can take awhile.

One of the highlights of February was the winter carnival, where we made up a booth called Cinderella's closet. The idea was the kids started with all the clothes, shoes, hats, and jewelry in the laundry basket and then had to hang them up as fast as they could. The winning time was 41 seconds.

The top of Bald Mountain looked especially snowy one day, when the moon happened to be setting.

We spent time working on trails for our community. We're crossing our fingers that the proposal will get funded and soon we'll have safer places to go recreate. Most of our bike rides are on the highway now, as there just aren't many places to go.

One morning I went for a snowshoe hike on the Upper Lehman trail. I had it all to myself and it was so peaceful!

The lighting was great one day as I came back from Ely, so I pulled over to the side of the road and took some photos of the windmills.

I had never seen that some of them are painted grey. They really do fade into the background a lot better!

One afternoon I went to the elementary school and we experimented with invisible ink--aka orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, and milk. Vinegar wasn't so good, but the other three did well when the paper was heated.

The kids thought it was kind of fun.

The sandhills crane came back! I love seeing them.

Desert Boy had a piano recital. He is doing quite well on piano.

The kids had science fair, and there were all sorts of interesting experiments and demonstrations.

Here's Desert Boy explaining his project to a community member.

I got to do some caving. This is a harvestman, Sclerobunus ungulatus, only found in caves in the Snake Range.

Although January was cold and snowy, February was warm and dry. We spent a lot of time at the post office parking lot riding bikes, scooters, and more.

And we spend time there because the concrete slab that serves as the tennis court/basketball court in town is 40 years old and not in good shape. When the school board came out for a meeting, we asked to have it replaced. We've been in contact with them since then and are crossing our fingers that this ten-year priority might actually happen this summer.

Then it was time for the annual snow survey. Snow conditions ranged from 100% to 150% of average.

My husband has been taking an Emergency Medical Responder class and I've gone to a few of the classes to get continuing education hours for my EMT certification. We take the kids along, and one evening they got to be patients and enjoyed that very much (since no pain was involved!).

Well, that's it for February!