CENOTE TUCAN EXPLORATION
Cenote Tucan is a sinkhole with no diveable cave passageway. It’s always a bit disappointing when we don’t find going cave, but every time we jump into a new cenote, we learn a little more about the planet. It’s never a waste. Cenote Tucan is visually stunning (and a bit spooky) with strong tannic water layers, hydrogen sulfide, and a sharp halocline. We found a variety of bones and one pot on the debris cone, made a quick survey of the cavern walls, and took a little video.
The cenote has a maximum depth of about 60 feet/ 18 meters with an oval shape. The descent to the water is a sharp slope with the smooth walls typical of sink holes, and getting out required a little vine climbing. The debris cone starts at 15 feet/ 5 meters and drops to about 40 feet/ 12 meters. The debris cone is covered with fallen branches and organic material. The cavern has no speleothems.
CENOTE TUCAN SURVEY
The survey of Cenote Tucan: depths have a little arrow pointing down next to them, north is up. The starting point of the survey is in the center of the image.
SKULL WITH HORNS
This screen grab shows an animal skull with horns. The skull sits on the debris cone at about 40 feet/ 12 meters. We are guessing that it’s not very old because of the color, but neither of us really knows much about these things. All our findings at Tucan have been reported to INAH. Remember if you find something like this, stay a few meters away and don’t touch or move it. The environment surrounding an archeological site can tell scientists quite a bit about a discovery. If anything is disturbed, that data is lost!
SMALL POTTERY
This small pot is partially buried in sediment. Of course, we don’t touch or closely approach the things we find on exploration dives, so we have no idea if it is complete or if there is anything in it. This is the only pottery we saw on the dive, but I would guess there’s many things hidden under the sediment.
INCOMPLETE SKULL
This incomplete skull is quite large; the bones shown here are maybe 18 inches long. If I had to guess, I would say these are older remains than the horned skull above, as the color is darker. There were several large animal leg bones of a similar color near this skull. Charcoal remains were also found in the vicinity. This site is on the debris cone of the cenote, at about 40 feet/ 12 meters.
LONG BONE
Again, I am not an archeologist, but this looks human to me. I know it’s supposed to be cool to find human bones, but honestly I (Natalie) would rather not. It makes me sad and creeps me out a bit. To me, this looks old because of the coloration. The bone is at 40 feet/ 12 meters on the debris cone. Hope this person rests in peace.
LARGE WHITE BONES
These large white bones look sort of like a pelvis to me. Clearly I should study animal anatomy a bit. These bones are quite white, which makes me think they are newer than the darker bones because they weren’t stained/ darkened by the same process. I could be wrong though. Again, found on the debris cone at about 40 feet/ 12 meters.
MORE BONES
I am not even going to guess what these large, brown, flat bones are. They are part of a rather large site (maybe 1.5 meters square) that has a great number of dark, scattered, partially buried bones. The bones have branches and debris on top of them. A short, wide leg-ish bone is sort of visible in the upper left of the screen shot.
VERTEBRAE
I am actually pretty sure these are vertebrae. Not 100% sure, but close. These are part of the larger bone site in the previous photo, and they are also dark brown and buried under branches on the debris cone. If you look closely, you will probably be able to identify more bones than I can.
PRIMARY TIE OFF
Cenote Tucan has no protrusions or jagged bits to use for tie offs, so Vince preformed a rather seal-like maneuver, flopping himself out of the water to reach the reel over a nice solid branch. It was raining, and the run off made the surface of the cenote opaque.
LOGISTICS
Our wonderful employee and friend, Aurelio May Cauich, helps Nat get her tanks out of the water. For years, Aurelio has provided logistical support, cenote leads, and Maya language lessons. We wouldn’t have accomplished nearly as much without him as part of our team. Plus he looks sharp in his pink shirt.
TEAM HIKE
