DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CAVES - La Jeringa Article

CAVES IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Dominican Republic Virgin Cave Exploration!

La Jeringa 2009
by Dave Pratt

My long lost dive buddy Cristian Pittaro, who now lives in the Dominican Republic, had been researching possible cave diving spots (known and unknown) for us to dive since December 2008. I arrived in Santo Domingo on Feb 24th, 2009 for eight days of cave diving. This was the first of my many cave diving trips in the Dominican Republic. Our first stop was at Golden Arrow, one of the few technical dive shops on the island. We picked up our tanks and talked to Denis Bourret who runs the shop. There we learned of a few additional dive spots. The first three days we dove known caves and did a little ridge walking. Cristian had been out of the water for a few years, so we needed to get him and his new gear up to speed. We found several dry caves while ridge walking; a few of them had water. This dive log is about our exploration of the virgin cave La Jeringa!

La Jeringa is located just outside of the small town of Bayahibe in the Dominican Republic. La Jeringa in English means “The Syringe, kind of a strange name. In doing a little research and talking to one of the old timers that lives in the area we discovered that the property was once owned by Manuel Perez. Manuel was known as Jeringa because for some reason he liked to call everyone by that name. Manuel died many years ago when he was hit by a bus (driving in the Dominican Republic is crazy). The city later owned the property and pumped water from it until approximately 10 years ago. Today the property and much of the area around it is owned by the La Romana Bayahibe Hotel Association, with the park controlling access.
The cave starts out as a small dry cave that has a small block building (the pump house) attached to its entrance.

Day #1 Because of the small entrance to the dry cave and the unknown of going passage, Cristian and I started out with a single aluminum 80 and each did a short 15 minute solo exploration dive. Not only did we find that there was a cave attached to the cavern, but there were two leads in the cave that may have going passage! Cristian found the first lead on the left and I found the other lead further back on the right. We left no line during these dives. We kept the dives short, as we wanted to come back with our doubles. This cave had possibilities!

On our second dive of the day, we wore double alum 80s. Cristian took his video camera with him. After a short 50' swim in the cavern we dropped almost straight down from a depth of 20 to 30', through a small opening to the start of the main cave. The cave was heading NE, width of the cave was approx 40', height approx 20', vis 100'+, with nice white walls. The first lead was only another 20' in and on the left side, hidden behind a large rock; it looked like a fairly tight restriction. We passed on this lead and we continued in the main tunnel to the NE so I could show Cristian the lead I'd found earlier. In another 70' the main tunnel ended but there was a low restriction on the right that appeared to keep going! Depth was approx 43'. After looking at the restriction from a few different angles we started in. Both the limestone ceiling and floor were very rough and liked to catch everything. This restriction reminded me why my 55lb wing is too large for double alum 80s! The wing wraps up and around the tanks and is easily caught by the ceiling. I make it through the restriction, Cristian was behind me filming, and as it turns out he was also moving some small limestone rocks to make it easier to pass. With both of us through the restriction we proceeded on. The cave then turned Southeast, then South and up a small hill, depth was 38'; my primary reel was now empty! I tied the loose end off to a rock; Cristian added a line arrow. We continued with a large spool. To the right, the cave continued for another 60' and ended at a depth of 28'. To the left, the cave continued for 65' before ending at a depth of 46'. Up to this point we laid 460' of line. We back tracked to the first lead, where Cristian decided to wait on the exit side of this restriction. I tied into what is now permanent line and headed over to the restriction to see if I would be able to squeeze through. Once again both the ceiling and floor were very jagged and caught everything I was wearing like Velcro. After making a right 90deg turn, followed by a left 90deg turn, I was through the restriction! I passed a breakdown room on my left and then the cave made a slight right turn and dropped down a few feet and came to another restriction. I looked the restriction over and decided to save it for another day. Cristian had been waiting long enough; I felt bad that he was not there. I started back out, but instead of cutting off the 120' of fresh line Id laid, I reeled it back in. I wanted Cristian to be able to line this tunnel and the reel I was using belonged to my buddy Bob K. back in FL. For some reason I felt funny about cutting his line. Cristian was waiting for me at the restriction and had opened it up a little by moving loose rocks, making it much easier to pass through. We made our way out of the cave and looked around the cavern before ending the dive. Total run time 79min, max depth 47', water temp 79deg, it was nice diving without my drysuit! There was a lot of percolation (very small limestone). Sometimes if we spent too much time in one place while cutting and tying off the end of the line, good size limestone rocks would fall on us from the ceiling. The smaller ones we would laugh about because we would end up with rocks all over our tanks/wing. It was quite evident that no one had ever been in there! What a day!

Day #2 The first dive of this day Cristian was in the lead. We took the first tunnel to the left and continued past where I had stopped the previous day. The line came quickly off the reel now even though the tunnel size was just large enough for back-mount, some would say its a side-mount cave. In the back of my mind, I was afraid that the cave would end just around the next bend. I discovered then just how amazing the feeling is to come around a corner in a virgin cave and have the cave open up in several directions! New tunnels to explore sure beat the cave ending! We now call this section the Junction Room. We continued to the left in the Junction Room and in another 157' we came to a dead end. We back-tracked a short distance and checked out another lead that turned out to have a small window connecting to where we had just dead-ended. We began our exit, keeping an eye out for additional leads. Run time was 111min, max depth 48', line laid approximately 600'.

On dive #2 of day two we decided to go back to the Junction Room and explore the tunnels to the right. I lead and before we know it we were at the Junction Room. We placed an arrow on the mainline which we had just laid a few hours earlier and T off to the right. Soon we came to a vertical restriction; we made it through but noticed that a big part of the left wall of the restriction was loose. If it were to come down while going through the restriction it could cause trouble. Following the tunnel around to the left lead us to a straight passage that was large for this cave, maybe 40' in diameter. The tunnel was slowly ascending and soon I saw what appeared to be the surface. We surfaced in a small air dome of maybe 10' by 10'. I was hoping it would be a second entrance/exit but we saw no sunlight. We looked around the Air Dome passage in hope of finding other leads, but with no luck. Then we worked our way back to the Junction Room and checked out a short lead to the NE that quickly turned to side mount/no mount. We called it a day with a run time of 96min, 49'max depth and 190' of line laid.

Day #3 The last dive of my Feb/Mar Dominican Republic cave diving trip was 3/3/09. During this dive Cristian and I did a rough survey of the line we had installed on the two previous days. We were also able to add another 40' of new line. Bottom time for this dive was 122min, max depth of 48'. Total line in cave to date was approx 1290'.

Day #4 Day number four of the La Jeringa exploration would have to wait until April 18th when I returned to the DR for four days of cave diving. During my month at home, I was dreaming about La Jeringa, wondering if maybe we had missed a lead on the Air Dome line. This dive was to get additional survey data. I read that sometimes surveying leads to new exploration and thats exactly what happened on this dive! During the resurvey of the Air Dome line we found a small tunnel off to the right; it had an immediate bend in it so at first you could not tell if it was going anywhere or not. I entered the tunnel for approx 20', but it pinched down to a low restriction, beyond the restriction it looked like there might be going passage. We decided to leave the restriction for another day as we were getting near our turn pressure and time to head out. Run time for this dive was 167min, max depth 47'. We had a few minutes of deco on this dive, during which we found some interesting bones and other items to look at.

Day #5 This dive found me trying out my Halcyon 36lb single wing on a pair of alum 80s; it worked great! No more wing catching on the ceiling! Later dives in other caves would show that the addition of a stage bottle is a little much for this wing setup. During this dive Cristian and I were planning on pushing the tight restriction we found the previous day just off the Air Dome line. We geared up and headed in, reaching the restriction I sized it up, the restriction was approx 18" high and 3' wide with not much silt. I did my best impersonation of a worm, and after a few minutes made it through. Good thing I had my small wing on! Cristian was not so lucky and decided to stay on the exit side of the restriction while I proceeded in (which we previously discussed topside). Well it turned out that I was able to lay 535' on this one dive. When I returned to the restriction Cristian was waiting for me but was not very happy, he saw my empty reel and wished he had been back there with me. I dont blame him. Dive time 128min, max depth 48'.

The second dive of the day was through the same restriction, this time Cristian had an idea of how he might get through the restriction and lead the way. After several minutes he made it through the restriction! Before the dive, I told Cristian that there were a couple of side tunnels that I had not checked out so that was our plan. Twenty five feet past the restriction on the left was the first unchecked tunnel. Cristian connected his reel to the line that I laid earlier and proceeded to line the new tunnel, 85' later we rejoined the main tunnel and my line. This tunnel turned out to be a shortcut. We then retraced my earlier dive so Cristian could see the cave. No other line was laid during this dive. Time 101min, max depth 49'.

Day #6 I waited two months in order to return to the DR for my third cave diving trip of 2009. Day #6 was on 6/27/09. During this dive Cristian tried to no mount his doubles through a restriction we found earlier on day two. This restriction leads to the NE, but he was unable to squeeze through. We did some additional survey work and headed back out. Time 66min, max depth 49'.

On dive #2 of 6/27/09 I was in front and wanted to check out a possible lead that I noticed two months earlier at the very end of the Hammer line. To me the shape of this restriction looked like the shape of a single tank diver. I decided to wear a single on my back and a stage under my arm. Once I arrived at the restriction, I removed the stage from under my arm. I was then able to fit through the restriction. Unfortunately the passage only went another 40' past the restriction and ended. We did more survey on our way out. Time 109min, max depth 48'.

Day #7 We returned to the side mount / no mount restriction that Cristian tried to push on Day #6. This time I was able to no mount the restriction with a single aluminum 80 out in front of me. Being neutrally buoyant at 40' in just my wetsuit was a huge help. We need to get good sidemount gear one of these days! I added approx 95' of line and decided to come back another day when I had more appropriate gear for this tunnel. Time 121min, max depth 48'. Less than two weeks after this dive a group from FL found La Jeringa. In an email they told us that they added a “T and some line to La Jeringa, but they will not tell us where they added it. So much for diver etiquette between explorers.(note by CP: which by the way was removed for being in a not wanted place, a very short shorcut)

Cristian and I plan a return trip to La Jeringa soon to wrap up some loose ends. Finding and exploring this cave has been a blast! I have made some great new friends from my diving in the DR. We would like to thank the La Romana Bayahibe Hotel Association and Medioambiente at the Padre Nuestro Park for their written permission to dive this sight.

The official map of Manantial La Jeringa (click for bigger view)

Thank you,
Dave Pratt
Cristian Pittaro

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