(dramatic music)
- [Mike] Did you find any there?
- [Elber] Yeah, somethin' there I can see.
(heavy breathing) - [Mike] oh little tiny eyes!
- [Elber] Yeah!
(dramatic music)
- There are some adventures on this planet
that make me say, what?
That is something you can actually do?
Sign me up.
And tonight is one of those exact adventures.
I'm in Tulum right now standing in front of Koox Diving
and Tours and it's fast approaching twilight
because this group here is gonna
to take us crocodile night diving in a cenote.
The cenotes are these fresh water sinkholes
that go down into what the Mayans thought
were the underworld, and some do have crocodiles.
So tonight we're gonna suit up.
I've got some friends inside, we're gonna meet them
and we're gonna go jump into the dark waters of the cenote
and see if we can find some reptiles.
Let's go meet the crew.
(dramatic music)
- [Mike] On the adventure team tonight we have Jordan.
(ding) - Hello!
- [Mike] Of Drenched, ca colas.
- Wahoo!
- [Mike] Sarah confident travel girls of scuba.
- What's up guys?
- [Mike] The Koox team here.
(laughter and whistling)
- [Mike] And the police.
(Mike laughing)
- We were illegally parked.
- [Jordan] Yes well obviously.
(laughter)
- Let's fix that before we continue.
(dramatic music)
Okay, after a 20 minute drive along the beach,
in Tulum, looking at dream-catcher shop
after fancy hotel, after pretty cool cocktail bars,
we are finally at Cenote Encantado.
It's pretty ominous in this light,
which means the Enchanted Cenote.
We're coming at night for a special reason
that I will explain to you once we get our kit together
and get in the water.
This is gonna be pretty crazy, I'm pretty excited.
Sarah, thoughts. - Yeah?
My thoughts on crocodiles are I think they're amazing
and to see them at night would be incredible
because they'll be a lot more docile
and a lot less worried about us,
so I'm really excited to see how they behave at night.
- [Mike] This looks like one of those anonymous interviews
where you're meeting a drug dealer
and you can't see their face.
- Yeah, can you not see my face?
- [Mike] No, there we go, wave.
- Do you like my shark costume?
- [Mike] I do, look at that.
- [Sarah] I need a croc one.
- [Mike] super boring compared to mine, mine's just black.
(Sarah laughs)
Do you want to hear one of my favorite sounds on the planet?
- Yeah
(hissing)
Oh, so sexy, I love it.
Oh, I have one as well.
- [Mike] The most important part of every scuba excursion
and every rap video, the booties.
(rap music)
Alright so the team is ready, we have our gear together.
The problem I have now is this camera,
that is super great in low light and with the microphone,
has to go inside of this case,
which means I can't talk to you.
But, we've got a GoPro, which will work.
We've got some flashlights which will add some light
and I think we'll have to operate that way.
So, I'll catch you inside the case.
(eerie music)
(animals chirping)
- It's kind of cool, it's like a mangrove tunnel.
Do you guys know any good crocodile ghost stories?
Okay so we have gotten to the location.
- Yeah. - We're here.
- This is Cenote Encantado, The Enchanted Cenote.
It's a little bit ominous, there's dark water,
it is all in an enclosed mangrove lagoon.
Mangroves are these really cool plants
that grow in salty water.
They have these, it almost looks like tentacles,
but their roots go down into the ground.
So, these ones here are perfect homes
for small little crocodiles.
Actually a lot of reef fish, little baby fish
come live in the mangroves before they live in the ocean
because here there's so many of these roots.
It's like a labyrinth and they can live safely.
So for a little crocodile or little fish
this is a good spot to hang out.
- Once we are in the water everything is silent, okay.
Let's go following me.
I'm gonna be the only one with the torch on,
right, because I'm gonna look for the crocodile.
When I look for the crocodile, when I got it,
we are gonna go very slow to him
and we are going to descend right after.
Yeah?
That's the moment when you turn on your lights.
So that's the moment when we all can see the crocodile.
Let's be nice.
(Mike laughing)
- So Eber is gonna have the flashlight on
and he's gonna be pointing the beam into the cracks
and crevices in the mangrove.
The cool thing about animals that see in the dark
like a cat or maybe a deer, is their eyes
glow when there's a light shined in them.
Right now, my eyes aren't glowing.
I can't see in the dark.
Alligators and crocodiles can,
so when you do shine a flashlight into the darkness
their eyes will glow.
It's like a red color right Eber?
- [Sarah] I think they're white actually
- It'll flash back like a red
or a whitish color, - Alligators and crocodiles.
- almost like two shining coins.
So we will try to find those first,
then we'll descend with our lights
while we're under water, and be able to spot them.
But that's why we do it at night not in the day
because otherwise they are very well camouflaged.
Here at night we can spot them with the flashlight,
see their eyes glow, go underwater,
and kind of observe them.
Under without them knowing too much what's going on.
How's the water?
- The water is fantastic
It is warmer than I expected, incredibly calm.
And when you look out, you can see our bit of light here,
and then past that it's just pitch black.
- [Mike] If you look underwater what do you see?
- I see, my fins.
(laughter) - Okay good answer.
It is time to find the crocs.
It is time to get excited,
and it is time to lose night vision, apparently.
Alright there we go.
It's time, to find the crocs.
We're out in the Cenote and behind me
you can see the mangroves.
You can probably imagine if you're a little tiny crocodile
how you could hide in these, this maze of roots,
and avoid being eaten by predators.
This light is supposed to be off right now.
I'm breaking the rules for a second to talk to you.
They're up front and have the torch,
and trying to spot the eyes of the crocs.
So you can see, it's very dark, there's stars in the sky,
crickets and frogs chirping, you can see them up there.
Jordan's turned on the light to talk to the camera.
And I am a little bit behind.
Let's take a look underwater though.
(ambient music)
Alright.
Lights out, lets go.
(wind lightly roaring)
So Eber can you tell me exactly what you're looking for?
- I'm looking for the mommy
- [Mike] The mommy, the big one?
- Yes
- [Mike] And how do you know when you find her?
- Because she used to rest here.
I saw her the last time here.
- [Mike] So you see a point of, what color?
What color are their eyes?
- Orange - They're orange?
- Shiny orange
- [Mike] So the mother will have big shiny orange eyes.
- Yes exactly.
But we have to be very slowly and gentle in the water.
It gets scared really easily.
- [Mike] What did you find?
- Maybe the mommy, yes - Maybe the mommy?
So what's the plan?
- We're gonna go through there, there's a wall of rock.
So mommies, we're gonna dive from here,
then go back to there, looking for them.
- [Mike] So scuba dive yeah?
- Yeah exactly.
Get ready guys.
- [Mike] Are we all going under?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- Lights on. - Lights on.
So Eber says we could have potentially found the big one.
We don't want to scare her, so we are going to go down.
Put on scuba equipment.
(hissing)
(water bubbling)
They've all gone under, I've gotta follow.
Hopefully we can sneak up underneath
and catch this big momma crocodile
where she doesn't expect us, underwater, let's go.
(ambient music)
(dramatic music)
(water bubbling)
- Floating in a lagoon, that's the Milky Way,
some random red planet, what is that?
- [Sarah] Mars
- You don't know it's Mars.
- [Sarah] Yes it is.
- It could be Saturn
What about Venus?
We've found a stick insect.
We should save him.
Your life is on my hand, uh oh.
You are not a sea creature.
You are a land creature.
Okay, there we go.
(ambient music)
(animals chirping)
Did we find any there?
- [Eber] Yeah, it's over there I can see.
- [Mike] Oh the little tiny eyes.
- [Eber] Yeah.
- [Mike] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He may be like what, like 12 inches, about a foot?
- [Elbert] Yeah about a foot.
- [Mike] A little tiny guy.
- [Elbert] Yeah, he's moving.
- Oh yeah he is moving, okay.
(water bubbling)
We're on croc number three right now.
It's kind of cool because Eber went to see
this little glint of orange-red.
He'll point it out and you'll see it just floating,
Bobbing like a little laser pointer almost.
That's almost the same color.
(ambient music)
What do you think?
- He's so cool
- [Mike] He's pretty cute right?
- His eyes are like, really different than
what I expected them to look like.
They're very cool.
- His mouth is open.
Wow.
- [Sarah] It's not moving.
That's so crazy.
- Alright, we are back at the truck.
The gear is put away.
Our hair is tied up,
those of us who have hair.
(Sarah laughing)
And we're gonna head back to town.
How was it?
- [Sarah And Jordan] Amazing.
- Amazing. - Amazingly amazing.
- We saw a couple crocs.
This guy is the crocodile whisperer.
- Yes of course.
- Seeing the little red specks in between
the roots of the mangroves, takes some practice for sure.
If you haven't checked out Sarah yet, check her out.
- Come check me out guys, come and check out what I do,
which is Girls at Scuba, which is to inspire
and encourage more women to start scuba diving
and eventually start doing what we just did today,
scuba diving with crocodiles.
- Jordan, that's me. - Jordan of?
- My name's Jordan and I also have a YouTube channel.
It's called Drenched Divers
and it's all about scuba diving,
and travel, and sailing, and adventure, and fun things.
- Amazing, and check out Koox Diving here in Tulum.
And if you haven't checked out me,
you know where to find me.
Hey it's Mike from Fearless and Far,
and welcome to Self Silt Key in Belize.
This is gonna be an upcoming video that we film with Patty.
Did my tank just fall out?
My tank just fell out.
(cameraman laughing)
We're gonna keep rolling.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
If you missed the last video you can check it out
in the bottom corner.
You can also subscribe, you can like the video,
and if you want to see where I post
my behind the scenes content to help you fight your fears,
that's the Patreon community at the top.
Experience over possessions.
I'll catch you next video,
and Bill, please fix my tank.