8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

this point it occurred to us that we hadnot named the river. One of the locals hadtold us that catfish were locally calledbobos. The river became the Rlo Bobes.The passage was still large, 15 meterswide, but not nearly so high (only 10 to 15meters). After a couple hundred meters ofthis, we began to hear the sound of fallingwater, and soon we were looking at a smallsection of rapids and a 1.5-meter-highwaterfalL We called the waterfall Gastro­POd Cascade.Not far beyond GastroPOd Cascade thewalls began to fall away again as anotherhuge room was encountered. This room isperhaps 25 meters wide and 10 to 15 metershigh in places. In the Rlo Bobe just offthis room we found a white crab with ashell 25 centimeters across. I have neverseen such cave fauna in all my years ofcaving. We named the room Crab Cove.Back near the GastroPOd Cascade therewas a walking side lead with a lot of airbeing sucked down it. We started surveyinginto this area and were rewarded by a passagedecorated with the most amazing stalactites,stalagmites, columns, rimstonedams, and helictites. This became theBeautiful Dreamer passage. I was in thelead as we were mapping down the BeautifulDreamer, and the wind was really blowing.Suddenly I heard a barking dog. I shoutedback to Warren that I could hear a dog, andhe and I began looking for the entrancethat we knew had to be close by. After afew minutes of looking around we had foundthe entrance, but it was a mere crack.Warren excavated the crack, making it justlarge enough to crawl out. We left thecave knowing that we now had a cave over akilometer long.In the time we had remaining we madeonly one other trip into Cueva de Teapa,and we mainly mapped side leads. The surveyedlength of this cave is now 1184 meters.Although many of the passages arevery large, the cave is prone to flooding,and after one downpour we noted that thewater rose 6 meters! Because of this wedid not get any photos in Teapa.OTHER CAVES IN THE TEAPA AREAerable amount of time hiking around thearea looking for caves and asking localsabout cave locations. On the western sideof these hills there has been a considerableamount of limestone quarrying for cementand agricultural dolomite. Near thislarge quarry we mapped a small 60-meterlongcave called Cueva Cerca de Cantera,which was just behind a house.In a valley in the center of thesesame limestone hills we found four smallcaves. Only one of these caves was mapped.o 6, ! , ,metersotight andmuddy,;' ~~:-;.~-::----'~CUEVA CERCA DE CANTERATeopo, ToboscoSurvey by Worren Netherton, Jim Pisorowicz15 Februory 1987Mop by' Jim Pisorowicz, Jeff HorowitzPlot by' SMAPSLength' 60 metersCUEVA ELECTRICOTeapa, TabascoSurvey by Warren Netherton, Jim Pisorowicz17 Februory 1987Mop by' Jim Pisorowicz, Jeff HorowitzPlot by SMAPSLength' 78 meters\1/The limestone hills just outside Teapahave many small caves. We spent a consid-34ometers12m