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CAVING INby Jim PisarowiczI was standing in the middle of Teapa,Tabasco, framing a picture of a church.Suddenly I felt a sharp tug on my shirt.Surprised, I turned around to discover thatan Indian woman was trying to get my attention.When I looked down at her, she saidin Spanish, "There are lots of beautifulcaves around here." I was dumbfounded!Was it that obvious that I was really moreinterested in caves than churches, or wasit an omen that I should return to theTeapa area to look for caves?That encounter with the Indian womantook place on 15 February 1986. Later thatday, Karen Rosga and I drove around theTeapa area and looked at the limestone. Itwas classic "haystack" karst. Roundedlimestone hills rose to the east of town,and to the south one could look up into thehigh limestone plateaus of Chiapas. Tabascowas on the itinerary for 1987!Few of the cavers I knew wereinterested in venturing into a new area,three days drive south of the border, tolook for caves. Fortunately I convincedone caver, Warren Netherton from Iowa, thata trip to Tabasco would yield wonderfulcave discoveries, and on 31 January 1987 weleft Austin for a three-week venture intothe karst of the Teapa area.Above: Haystack karst of the Sierra Madrigal, Tabasco.(Jim Pisarowicz)30
GRUTAS DEL COCONAFinding a cave to begin mapping wasrelatively easy. Upon driving into Teapa,it's pretty hard to miss the bright bluesign that says "Grutas del Cecore" Thiscave has been developed as a show cave, andalthough AMCS cavers have visited the cave(David McKenzie and James Reddell in theearly 1970s), no map has ever been publish~Cocona would be our first project.Warren wanted to take the tour of thecave before we began our survey, so on 4February 1987 we waited around for the caveto open. We waited until 10:30, when theguide turned on the lights and turned usloose. The tour cost 200 pesos ($0.20).The cave is worthy of being displayedas a show cave, for stalactites and stalagmitesabound almost everywhere throughoutthe cave. It is a very beautiful cave.More striking to the average gringo caver,though, is the temperature of the cave. Inthe entrance passages the temperature was awarm 19.5 Celsius, and beyond a constrictionin this passage it really heats up, to23.8 degrees.Past the constriction, the trailforks, with the small right-hand passageturning into a duck walk that leads to adrop with a lake about 25 meters across atthe bottom. The main passage continues toget larger until a room is encountered, 35meters wide with the ceiling rising as muchas 25 meters overhead. Huge stalactiteshang from parts of the ceiling in thisroom.Past this large room another lake isencountered. A bridge has been constructedto get across this lake without having toswim. Huge flowstone displays and massivestalactites and stalagmites can be observedfrom this bridge. The trail then goes upan incline past very fine rimstone, and thepassage pinches to a close in a beddingplane/flowstone termination.After the tour, we changed into cavingclothes, which throughout our venturesunderground consisted of T-shirts, gymshorts, boots, and kneepads, then returnedto the cave to survey. The surveying waspretty easy, considering that we had atrail and electric floodlights to illuminatethe cave. The main hindrance to surveyingCOcona was the constant stream ofColumns in Grutas del Cocone!:. (JimPisarowicz)people visiting the cave. Seeing that weappeared to know what we were doing,everyone stopped to ask us questions aboutcaves in general and cave surveying inparticular. Before long we were actuallygiving cave tours (in broken Spanish) toall the tourists. It was fun.By the end of the next day we hadcompleted the survey of Grutas del Cocona.The total survey was just under 600 meters.All that remained to be done was to take afew photographs of the cave, which we didthe next night after all the tourists hadleft and the lights had been turned off.CUEVA DE TEAPAMost of the cave tours into Coconawere led by one of a group of seven boyswho spent their days playing in the vicinityof the cave. We figured that if anyoneknew of other caves in the immediate area,he would. At the end of our first daymapping in Cocona, Jorge led us to a rathersmall hole about 200 meters from theentrance to Cocona. This hole did not lookvery intriguing, but was better than theother cave, called Grutas Hueco, he showedus, a small resurgance cave that sumps inabout 10 meters. When asked the name ofthe cave, he said that it did not have one.We christened the cave Cueva de Teapa,which met with Jorge's approval.On 6 February we began the survey ofCueva de Teapa. Inside the entrance, thepassage became just large enough to walk31
Page 4 and 5: PLACES INTHIS ISSUELORETO\- II PURI
Page 8: Bot Roost10ometers5I1mprojected pro
Page 16: The large entrance chamber to Cueva
Page 20: Long Caves of Mexicocompiled by Pet
Page 24: Chilchotla is a newly discovered ca
Page 29 and 30: GUIXANI NDIA GUINJAOZONGOLlCA-CHILC
Page 31: GUINJAOTHI GUINJAOCrystalCylinderSS
Page 35 and 36: GRUTASTDEL COCONAeapa, Tabasco~ c:W
Page 37 and 38: Themilky-white sulpher river that f
Page 39 and 40: cne of the many skylight entrances
Page 41 and 42: mer rainy season and vegetation tha
Page 43 and 44: Looking up towards the entrance ofS
Page 45 and 46: CHIAPASThe Dutch Expeditionby Laure
Page 47 and 48: Jl:SRTUCDCCHIAPAS.EL ZAPOTAL.MEXICO
Page 49 and 50: ELEVATIONPLANI '1 11 JI .,.-,. mete
Page 51 and 52: \9}"CAVES OF FRONTERA COMALAPA~CUEV
Page 53 and 54: BELGIAN EXPLORATIONSAT ZOQUITLANMEX
Page 55 and 56: AVCOUPES TRANSVERSALES I t 15MG~MON
Page 58 and 59: w'"ill~0'" a:w
Page 60 and 61: eakdown collapse and a 2~meter pit.
Page 62 and 63: CENOTE NAHARONTULUM. QUINTANA ROOCo
Page 64 and 65: REM:J1'E CENCYI'ECenote Dos Ojos is
Page 66 and 67: 50taoo de Ocotempaby Terry RainesMa
Page 68 and 69: Mauricio Tapie on the Overhung Clim
Page 70 and 71: SEA CAVES OF LORETOby Dave BunnellO
Page 72 and 73: CUEVAS DE NOPOLOESTADO DE BAJA CALI
Page 74 and 75: SISTEMA PURIFICACION 198672by Peter
Page 76 and 77: slipped on a down climb and twisted
Page 78 and 79: There was some airflow, but it look
Page 80 and 81: Low displacement fault in scalloped
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SISTEMA PURIFICACION 198780by Peter
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the right side that was left unpush
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Dale Pate crawling over SOIre of th
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eeze, only seven hours. So it was s
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of the Dragon River, high over Infi
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named after a ghost of popular Mexi
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Meanwhile Peter, Terri, Rich, and P
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CUEVA DELTECOLOTEby Terri Sprousewi
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tions that covered the brittle rock
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A surprise continuation of the Fant
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ReviewsLas Cavernas de la Sierra Go
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Bill Steele labored on the story of
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Chiapas in 1981 and 1984. This we1l
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