Cave Cartography, continues

Projext Xulo part 2

Since beginning the project a little over a year ago, we can now proudly say we are officially finished and have a map!

Send us a message if you are interested in a copy

After my summer trip to Europe, Shannon and I started the cartography portion of the project.

Our process for the cartography portion:

• Printing a section of the survey to scale on waterproof paper. A gridded paper is helpful to reference distances while sketching

• Tape the waterproof paper to a slate

• Underwater, sketch the cave features while using the stations (tie-offs) as references. Distances are estimated.

• After the dive, scan the sketches and transfer the images to Adobe Illustrator

• In Illustrator, transfer the complete survey providing a reference to scale and position the sketches.

• Finally, digitalise the sketches by drawing them in the illustrator program

Off all the steps the most rewarding but also frustrating was the digitalising phase. Many hours were used but it could have been a lot less if I would have been familiar with the software. A lot of swearing was involved in the process, as I hate learning software. That said, once i became familiar with the program, I really enjoyed the creative process.

We started with some alternative ideas for the map but ultimately ended up with a classical map after all. However, it has left a taste for more, and has also led to inspiration for other alternative ideas. Already we are currently well on the way with our new project, which a bit of a monster, so stay tuned in for that one!

While talking to the original explorers about the exploration history of Xulo we came to some additional information then mentioned in the last blog post, which I thought would be cool to mention:

How Xulo became to be “Xulo”

In 2011 Alvaro Roldan was diving and exploring in Cenote Catapillar. Upon surfacing there was a heavily tattood Mayan man sitting at the waterfront, staring him down. The Man was said to resemble the character “Machete” played by Danny Trejo. He told Alvaro he had a cenote nearby and asked if he was interested in checking it out? Maybe a bit weary at first by the man’s appearance, he ultimately agreed to have a look.

The original entrance was vastly different, no cavern, no stairs, but instead a muddy traverse dragging tanks to a small puddle.

When entering the water Alvaro did see a line, but that line ended shortly afterwards in the big airdome room. After a bit of poking around he did find a way through, into a big going tunnel.

He then he returned many times to keep exploring the cave. While doing so, he ended up hanging out quite a lot with the owner. He decided to name the cave “Xulo” which is mayan for cool. A homage to the man who introduced him to the cave.

When exploring and looking for a connection to Catapillar, eventually a “visual connection” was made. However the passage was blocked by a big stalagmite, too small to pass….

Or was it? Mauro Bourdignon aiding Alvaro in the exploration, decided to give it a go. No mount and even a wetsuit was needed. Utimately after a lot of wigling the connection was made!

This made Xulo part of systema Catapillar roughly 28 km of passage.

Shortly after the connection was made, a visiting diver learned about Xulo and the connection to Catapillar. The diver, when trying to pass the restriction sadly broke the stalagmite.

This eventually resulted in the traverse becoming a popular dive. Due to the popularity a lot of decorated area’s and restrictions have been severely damaged by divers. It saddens me to hear that there are divers taking a stage past the mainline onto the jump to Catapillar, which is definitly not appropriate and will damage the cave unnecessarily.

Going forward to 2019, Skanda Copfhield took an interest in Xulo, when trying to connect it to systema Doggi. After some nasty restrictions he found going cave. Together with Phillip Lehmann, he expanded Xulo substancially.

Some stats of the project:

Survey: 12 dives, aprox 40 hours

Sketching: 13 dives, aprox 50 hours

Computer time (entering survey data & digitalizing the sketches): no idea, but many more than the actual diving time.

A special thank you to,

Kim Davidsson, Mauro Bourdignon & Skanda Coffield, for providing the exploration history.

Sebastien Kister, for patiently answering every survey sofware questions of these two “idiots”

SJ Alice Bennett, for helping with the layout and the final crossing of the T’s and dotting the I’s.