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Donde esta el piloto del
helicoptero?
By Patricio O'Diam
From the September 1998 Flowstone
Dispues de como ses meses de planiar,
por fin pudiamos saler otra vez para ir al gran
pais de Mexico. We had not even gotten halfway to Birmingham yet on the cool and rainy June day before paw-paw was snoring to the top of
his lungs. Before we even left Mexico back at
New Years, Scottie, Micah, the Milk Man and I
had made plans to return in June. We were now
on our way again, only this time, no Scottie. In
Louisiana, we stopped at the place were I lived
some 13 years ago, O'Neal Lane. It brought
back lots of memories. Soon, we were joined
by two others, Houston Hardin from Mississippi
and Matt Harris from New Orleans. We
continued on through the night, arriving at the
border just before daylight. It took me and my
group all of 3 min, to cross, but Matt and
Houston were not that lucky. Some hour and 15
min. later, they finally were permitted to re-
pack their things in the 4-Runner and continue
on. By the way, Vic was still asleep.
Ciudad Valles was reached by mid-
afternoon on June the 5th. We found a room in
the Hotel Piņa and then took off to make
arrangements with a guide that was going to help us get to Hoya de la Luz, the reason for the return trip. We spoke to the man in
Xilitla, and he said the person taking us would
meet us on Tuesday to discuss the trip. Things
were falling into place.
On the morning of June 6, we awoke
early and headed for Aquismon, a small town at
the base of the mountain leading for El Sotano de
las Golondrinas. They were having a large trade
day, the entire town was there, buying, selling,
trading. After looking around for a while in
town, we soon started up the 6 mile rode to
Drinas making it in only 45 min. We were
welcomed by the locals, and they even
remembered us from a few months back. The
large bat on the back window was the sure sign
for them. After a nice visit, we were off to do
the pit. It was rigged in little time, and Micah
once again was the first one down (shows how
dumb he is). With Micah on the ground and
proof that the rigging was going to hold, I got on
rope, only to feed rope for 250', get too tired to
continue, and change over and come back up. I
still don't know what all went wrong, but it was
too hot (100"+) to go on.
As Micah, Matt, and Houston had there
time in the cool air of the 1,100' deep Drinas, I
spoke with the person who was responsible for
the fence and the charging of money. I voiced
my opinion, and he voiced his. In the end, we
did pay the $10 peso donation per person, and
even $5 for Vie, for taking pictures.
Sunday, our day off, day of rest. I went
to visit the local church that morning, and then
returned to drag Micah off in search of Vintana
Jabali. Vic wanted to stay in bed, and Matt and
Houston went to the Birdhouse. Micah and I,.....
after 2 1/2 hr. on a dirt road, a local finally pointed
to the top of a high mountain, and said, there,
that is the entrance. Only about a 6 hour hike to
get to it! The 503' drop was not worth climbing
the mountain. We returned and got Vic, and
were off to Aquismon again, this time to search
for waterfalls. We did find a nice spring where
the children were swimming and playing, and the
water did come bubbling out of the ground, form
a cave, but this was not the waterfall we were
looking for. We later found out, they were still
some 2 hours away. While returning to our
hotel, we saw another caver that was returning
from a 19 day trip, ail by himself. We talked to
him for a while, and them the Phantom was
gone.
June the 8", we were going to do Hoya
de Guaguas, but the locals were jerks, and tried
to charge us too much money to do the pit. We
decided to pack up and act as if we were leaving
to get them to come down on their price, but
they let us leave, so we went to bounce Cepillo.
What a wonderful pit! We all had a wonderful
time, and I even went for a swim in the lake at
the bottom. The sunlight was shining down the
414' pit, illuminating the pit and the formations
beautifully.
That evening, we decided to go ahead
and try to find our guide for the Hoya de la Luz
trip. We were back off to Xilitla, and the
Genius, or so he was called, told us of a
helicopter in town that would make our 6 hr.
hike take about 5 min by air. We were off in
search of the pilot, looking everywhere in town
for him. He was from the state of Washington,
and was down there fighting the wild fires. We
searched everywhere for him, and found a girl
from Texas, but no guy from Washington. We
got word that he would be leaving out the
morning, but our trip was not planned until the
following day. We finally gave up hope of
caving in a chopper, and around dark, we went
in search for el Ranchito del Pino. After driving
up, up, and away up, doing about 15 switch-
backs, and getting dizzy from the lack of
oxygen, we reached the ranch, well after dark.
As I stepped out, about 50 people surrounded
my truck. Finally, a young boy said his father
was the one that was going to take us to the pit.
The many people were very nice, just curies, for
they had never seen Gringos before. Houston
and I went to speak to the boy's father, and Vic
and Micah stayed to guard the truck. The ranch
had no electricity, so it was as if we were in a
cave. The people were so very hospitable, and
tried to get us to stay for dinner, but seeing as
how we had been gone for 30 min, we knew Vic
and Micah were about to freak out. After the
plans were made, we decided to play a little trick
on el Gordo and Micah. While we were gone, a
man had stuck his head in the window for 20
min, and just looked, not saying anything. Vic
was spooked by this. Micah had gotten my
dictionary, and was talking to the kids, showing
them cave'n pictures. As Houston and I
returned, we got the kids to chase us as if they
were mad. We ran, screaming, "lets get out of
hear! Their going to kill us!" We jumped in the
truck as if to take off, but we could not keep
form laughing any more. The people at that
ranch were some of the nicest people I've ever
met.
June the 9th, We spoke to the sec. of the
Mayer in Aquismon, and she wrote a letter to the
rude people at Guaguas. It didn't do much good.
They still were jerks, but we did get to do the pit
that day. We rigged the high side, 668' drop, but
did not do the second drop due to the fact we
were trying to save our energy for the hike the
next day, and boy did we ever need it. We
returned early that night, after an extremely hot
day in the sun, for a good nights rest.
June the 10", we started up, and up, and
up even higher, much higher than we had driven.
Paw-paw did not make this trip, for fear of not
being able to make the hike. There were many
times I thought I would never make it. We went
up for ever, steep! We had hired 4 Mexicans
with two horses and a mule to carry our gear.
The only way we were able to make it, is the fact
that we did not have to carry anything at all,
other than water. The horses and Mexicans got
the rest. That was a live saver. After several
hours of walking through the woods where the
wild-fires had been burning just 4 days before,
we reached another ranch. It was a beautiful
place. Then, we went up some more. At about
7,500 feet elevation, things leveled out for a
while. Soon, we had reached the point where the
Animals could go no further. It was just a 15
min hike form here, so we all packed the stuff in.
It was late afternoon when we reached the pit,
and boy howdy, what a big 'un! According to
the Mexicans, we were the first people in over 9
years to do the pit. Hoya de la Luz is some 800'
across on one side and about 500' across on the
other. The low side offers a 350' drop, and the
high side, 617' free, all the way down to the
jungle below. The pit was rigged, a free drop
was so free that the rope hung some 10" form
the lip. I dropped down first, never feeling as if
I was in a pit. It was so massive, it was as if I
was on a large bluff. Houston came down, and
we chopped our way through the jungle at the
bottom. It was massive. Grass, waterfalls,
streams, shrubs, and trees over 100' tall. The
tallest tree was about 175' tall, judging from the
markings on the rope.
After Houston and I climbed out, Micah
got on rope with his camping gear, as a thunderstorm
rolled in. It rolled over the top of a near by
mountain, and right into the pit! I rappelled
down through the thunderstorm and heavy rain,
got under the undercut, and soon joined Micah
on a nice mound, totally in the dry. Poor Matt,
Houston, and the other Mexicans, all wet up
top. After supper, we put up the tent and went
to bed. Around mid-night, we received a visitor
trying to finish up the remains of my dinner.
The next morning, Micah climbed out, Matt
came down after watching the wild goats go
wondering by, and then I climbed, followed by
Matt.
Wonderful pit! My all time favorite.
Hard to get to, but well worth it. The next
morning, after a good nights rest in our hotel
beds, Matt and Houston took off for the good
'ol U.S.A. Us, we were to stay another day. We
went in search of other pits, and ended up in the
city of San Luis Potosi. That evening, we
crossed the scariest mountains I've ever seen,
and stayed the night in Ciudad Victoria. The
next morning, we headed for the U.S., crossed,
and Micah was nice enough to drive us all the
way home while Vic and I slept. Oh yes, Vic
did manage to wake up enough on the trip home
to buy about 38 different newspapers.
WHAT'A TRIP!
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