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Mexico Cave Trip, February 2006 |
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Mexico Caving Trip Area
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Marvin Abbott, Scott Christenson, and Ken Lyon left Oklahoma City on February 18 about 7:00am in an ice storm. The driving was slow but improved as we went south into Texas. Saturday evening we were in Austin and stayed at Mike Walsh's house. He talked long into the night describing where to go in Mexico. We were to stay at Mike's house in Aquismon in the state of San Luis Potosi. Jeff Fusselman joined us at Mike's that night.
The next morning the ice storm had caught up with us in Austin and driving was again slow until the south side of San Antonio. We crossed the border after lunch at Laredo. We arrived in Aquismon at 1:00am Monday morning and went to bed and slept late.
The village of Aquismon is located just west of the major north-south highway along the eastern coastal plain. The village is on the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre Oriental. Aquismon is located at 100 meters elevation and average rainfall is 160 cm per year. The mountains range from 200 to 1500 meters southwest of Aquismon. The local people are largely Huastecan Indians. Their own native tongue is commonly spoken locally.
Monday afternoon, we went to Sotano de las Quilas. Sotano on the names of the caves translates to "basement" or "cellar". Quilas is the Huastecan name for the large number of green Conures (parrots) that return to the pit every night. It is a large vertical pit with a sloping jungle floor. There is an extensive horizontal cave described in the guide book that can be explored. Scott went into it a short distance to verify that we found it but we did not explore it.
Tuesday, we got an early start but were delayed on the mountain road by a pickup truck that had slid off into the ditch and partially blocked the road. Tuesday we drove higher into the mountains through the village of Tamapatz to the "Bird-pit", Sotano de Octufu. The karst topography of the mountains in the area was most impressive. We took a lot of pictures of distant mountains. The cave was a very impressive deep pit with a small opening. The mountain road was rougher and slower coming back to Aquismon in the dark but well worth the effort. It was a great day.
Wednesday, we explored Cueva Linda, which is south across the mountain from Sotano de las Quilas. We picked up 3 native men who wanted a ride into Tamapatz. The village was about 10km past Cueva Linda on a very interesting steep rougher mountain road, and 10km back. If we didn't pick them up, they would have walked past the unoccupied gringos truck in about 15 minutes. So we were happy to keep up the good will in the area. It was a very interesting trip with pigs, horses, and goats staked out occassionally to graze along the side of the road or just lay in the road. Mike Walsh had told us to find the owner of the property to guide us to Cueva Linda. He had said there were many trails across the jungle area to the cave. As we were guided in to the cave, we saw that Mike was right. So we marked the trail in order to find our way back out later. The trail went between his house and other buildings so he would have known we were there. His dogs were very possessive of the buildings and made a lot of fuss when we passed through. The cave has a long horizontal entrance and has been mapped about 3500 feet. We got back much earlier but a lot dirtier. We had planned to take it easy the day before Sotano de las Golondrinas but we were tired when we got back to Aquismon.
Thursday, we got an early start and made good time to the village at Sotano de las Golondrinas. We arrived at the village about 8:00am. It is high in the mountains and we looked down on a fog/cloud lifting from the jungle we had driven through. There is a checkin booth in the village before going to the cave. There was a guide at the checkin to take us to the cave. After we arrived the guide told Scott we had to wait for the "Committee" to come and talk to us. We waited about 15 minutes and a man and wife came to the cave. They were trying to explain there was an additional charge to go down into the cave. After about 5-10 minutes a group of men came by the cave and one of these men was back home from Florida visiting. He talked to the Committee and understood what was happening. We paid the additional charge and signed their log book. We also had to sign a waiver before we could rig up the ropes. Is there no place to escape the judicial systems of the world? Today, even in the jungles of Mexico. After everything was completed, el senor went over to edge of the sotano and removed the yellow-plastic "caution" ribbon, which was the only thing separating us from the edge of the abyss. (If OSHA only knew.)
The cave is unbelievably huge. Rigging the rope was no problem because of the large limestone boulders at the edge. Bulletin 10 of the Association for Mexican Cave Studies has a great description of the cave. Pictures from up on the surface or from inside can't capture the size of the pit.
We had the ropes bagged and in the truck before 4:00pm and were waiting for the return of the birds at dusk. While we waited the sinoria, who was one of the Committee in the morning, cooked us a light meal on a wood burning clay hearth in one of the thatch shelters near the upper rappel area. The meal was flour tortillas with black beans, rice, chicken, and mild spices. They were very tasty. Earlier about 2:00pm, another sinoria had appeared and asked if Marvin and Jeff wanted dos cafes. We told her we wanted four coffees. She went away and came back about the time we had the rope bagged. She carried the coffee in a 2L plastic bottle wrapped in a towel and served the coffees in clear plastic water glasses. She was probably from the village where we had parked the truck, which was about a kilometer from the cave. So she made 2 trips to and from the cave to sell coffee and make a little money. Oh, did I also say the coffee was Great. It was locally grown, dried, and ground. It must have had a little chocolate or vanilla added and a dash of the local course sugar. It wasn't to hot. It wasn't to sweet. It was just right.
By the time the bird show started there were about 40 people at the cave to see the birds come back. The green conures came back first and generally flew around the pit as pairs. We guessed these were probably mates. They circled and spiralled down into the cave until they were out of sight. They have a very destinct call and it echoed off the walls as they went down. Initially the golondrinas gathered above the opening to the pit and circled in a cloud of bodies. Some of them would occasionally break off in groups and dive straight into the pit. They were probably diving at greater than 100 mph. The digital camera recorded them as a series of dashes. As the evening turned darker the golondrinas began coming in without circling. They were coming in so fast it felt like it was raining birds or being in a meteor shower of falling birds. When the show was over it was completely dark and we had to make our way back to the truck by flash lights. The rough mountain road was all smoothed by little elves during the day and it took us no time at all to get back to Aquismon. NOT. We got in late. It was another magnificant day.
Friday, we decided to do a little turista sight seeing. We went south along highway 85 about 30 miles. The first stop was at the Nacimiento del Rio Huichihuayan, an artesian spring west of the village. The water was crystal clear coming from a cave. We then drove southwest to the village of Xilitla and saw Cueva de Salitre. It's referred to as a bird pit but is a large sloping coneshaped opening ending in a small room at the bottom. There is an area off to the west side at the top that has potential for a cave to explore. A rock pitched in it indicated it had some depth. We then went to Las Pozas de Edward James a short drive back to the north. It is a very interesting place. It was constructed by a wealthy-surrealist artist-excentric Englishman. (The adjectives could be place in any order.) It is referred to as "Art in the Jungle". It covers about 40 acres on many different levels up a steep jungle mountain. There are a series of waterfalls and it is very differently beautiful. To some extent it is like the picture of the stairs going up in four different perspective planes to nowhere. We went back north towards Aquismon on highway 85 about 20 miles and turned west into the mountains to Hoya de las Guaguas. It is another great cave and is only a short distance south of the caves we had been exploring west of Aquismon. The easiest way to get to Guaguas from Aquismon is to take the highway. The road up the mountain was being paved to the village at the cave and will be in good condition next year. We hiked about a kilometer over to the pit from the village through coffee trees. We arrived at dusk and watched the conures and golondrinas come in. There were more conures at this cave and fewer golondrinas but the shower was still good to watch.
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