8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

FRONTERA COMALAPADuring the last part of January, thegroup traveled to a small limestone plateaunear the border of Guatemala. They attimes observed a lot of tension and militaryactivity. On the other hand, thelocal people were friendly and offered themhelp. The caves found were mostly situatedon the east side of the Rio Grijalva, 500meters from the border with Guatemala. Mapsof some of these caves appear here. A lotof help was given by Senor Humberto, alocal agricultural secretary who used to bea teacher and who has much influence in thearea around Chamic.PROMISING NEW AREAAs a result of some conversations withlocals, the group decided to check anothernice mountain area in another part of Chiapas.Much ridge walking was done, and theycame up with 20 new caves. Because of thepromising nature of the area, the group hasdecided to launch another expedition in thefuture. For the time being they prefer notto give the exact locations, but they haveprovided maps of the some of the caves theydiscovered.TRINATARIA AREAThe group visited CUeva de San Francisco,situated near Trinataria. The cave is aplace of pilgramage for Mexicans. It is ahorizontal system with two inactive sinksfor water. Mike Shawcross and PeteThompson partially surveyed this cave in1972. The total cave length is 1750 meters.Towards the end of February the expeditionmade its way north, stopping along theway to visit the lava caves at Teotihuacan,and then on to Sotano de las Golondrinas.Not having one continuous rope, they had topass four knots in Golondrinas. They describedit as a "great sensation." At thebottom of the sotano, their rope elasticitywas 35 meters. Some of their people gotseasick!They had two injuries during thecourse of the expedition. One person brokehis foot and had to return to Holland.Another caver was out of circulation for afew weeks because of a burned arm and leg,caused by a gas stove.ESPEI..ID NEERLANDESAEn febrero de 1985, un grupo de espeleologos holandesas fueron a Chiapasa continuar la exploracion de Veshtucoc (primeramente explorado por una expedicionbritanica en 1984). Estos avanzaron unos 1300 metros hasta un ancho yprofundo sifon. La longitud de la cueva es de 4930 metros y 380 metros dealtura. El grupo paso varios dias revisando el ah'rea en busca de cuevas. Verlas mapas de localizacion.48