8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

along the cliffs we were impressed with thedisplays of tropical fish, particularly thelarge purple Cortez Angelfish.As we swam into the caves they didn'tappear too large, but most went back a good30 meters or more. Several had low areasin the rear that only opened at low tide.We explored and mapped seven caves in thisarea, mostly water-filled. The mostimpressive of these contained largecolonies of orange tubastrae corals, whichin the reduced light of the cave were open.(Normally, corals only "come out" of theirshells at night). Most of these caves werein the cliffs on the east side of the cove.On the west side were some interestingrelict sea caves about 3 meters above waterlevel.Although these caves were interesting,they were not the huge sea caves weexpected; indeed, on Santa Cruz Island,California these would be considered smallpotatoes. We questioned a number of folksin town, but none seemed to know of anyother caves. We decided to head back toIsla del Carmen the next day. We weren'texpecting to do much but snorkeling thatday, but did find an interesting cave inthe volcanic rocks at Punta Lobos. Itbasically cuts through the point. I did myfirst real cave dive here. Seeing a blueglow at the end of an underwater passage, Ifree dove, swimming 10 meters and coming upin a small third entrance. On the waythrough I was swimming so furiously that Ilost both fins! I had to swim back throughwith a light, and I found them wedged up inceiling alcoves! In one side passage intotal darkness we saw large masses of whiteencrusting sponges, tubastrae corals, andschools of yellow snapper, which seem tofavor the dark.Unfortunately, our last day was toowindy to revisit Carmen, so we did someland-based exploration. We headed south toPuerto Escondido. This is where a hugehotel complex was to have been built, butonly one, the El Presidente, was evercompleted. Just south is a large sea stackand some cliffs of conglomerate. In thestack we found a few small caves and aseries of fissure caves, which we mapped.Some of these were impressively tall (seemap). All in all, it was an enjoyable trip- Loreto has some outstanding seafood andsome good diving. From a sea caver'sstandpoint, though, I'll stick to thePacific coast.Postscript: On a later trip to theCabo San Lucas region, we spent some timesearching for caves. We found only one,behind the huge sea-arch at Land's End, onthe tip of the Baja peninsula. We lackedsurvey gear that day, but we swam over toit and explored a large chamber and someshort side passages that probably totalled60 meters or more. The most notable thingabout the cave was that it took water fromtwo oceans, the Pacific and the Sea ofCortez. Not many caves can make thatclaim!Bill Liebman prepares for the "big ones"on Isla del Carmen. (Dave Bunnell)LORETOEste artIculo describe cuevas de lacosta exploradas en la Isla del Carmen,cerca de Loreto en el mar de Cortez. Seexploraron siete cuevas, casi todas conuna longitud de 30 metros 0 mas. Tambiense exploraron algunas cuevas pequenasen Puerto Escondido, y algunasotras cuevas con grandes grietas. Y enCabo San Lucas, se exploraron otra cuevade 60 metros de largo.71