A small team of divers - Garry Dallas, Ivo Kalushev, Deyan Iliev and with the help of others from the ATI team, will be exploring specific cenotes recently found in the area of Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. An ongoing project supported and sponsored by Apeks. Garry, a diving instructor from the UK specialising in Sidemount/Tec/CCR and Cave programs and a keen explorer in the UK and abroad Ivo Kal
ushev graduated cinematography in 1994 and has since led a life full of adventure around the globe. His photography is well known in the world of speleology, and his first documentary film, “The Unexplored” has attained international acclaim for it’s gentleness, depth and beauty. Ivo is one of the top no-mount cave exploration divers in the world, a technical speleology and cave rescue instructor trainer, sailor and adventurer. Formerly the owner of the Roke Speleology School in Europe, in 2012 he started the DivingMexico Cave Diving School in the Riviera Maya and is currently the team leader of the ATI Cave Exploration team, which explores the world’s longest single entrance underwater cave system – the Ixtlan Cave System. Ivo is also a renowned meditation teacher, having studied for more than two decades in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition in India and Nepal. Deyan Iliev studied cinematography before dedicating his life to teaching and speleology. As one of the few leading sidemount cave diving instructors in Mexico, cave explorer for more than 15 years and avid adventurer, he is one of the most experienced members of our team. His expertise, skill and calm in the most difficult circumstances help us achieve goals which are normally considered impossible. Deyan has been with us from the very beginning – as speleology instructor in the Roke Speleology School in Europe, a companion during our numerous and extensive travels in India, Nepal and Bhutan, as second captain of the ATI Ship during our transatlantic sailing voyage to Mexico, and now as central part of ATI Pictures’ every project in the jungles and caves of the Yucatan. Deyan is a leading member of the ATI Cave Exploration Team. Tulum was one of the last cities inhabited and built by the Mayans; it was at its height between the 13th and 15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have been the cause of its demise. One of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites, Tulum is today a popular site for tourists. The Tulum ruins are the third most-visited archaeological site in Mexico, after Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. The whole of the Yucatán Peninsula is an unconfined flat lying karst landscape. Sinkholes, known locally as cenotes, are widespread in the northern lowlands. The mass extinction of the dinosaurs at the transition from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene Period, 65 million years ago was caused by an asteroid impact somewhere in the greater Caribbean Basin. The deeply buried Chicxulub Crater is centered off the north coast of the peninsula near the town of Chicxulub. The now-famous "Ring of Cenotes" (visible in NASA imagery) outlines one of the shock-waves from this impact event in the rock of 65 millions years of age, which lies more than 1 km below the modern ground surface near the centre, with the rock above the impact strata all being younger in age.
