9In 1970 a small group returned and mapped to the -400 foot level witho<strong>ut</strong>incident. B<strong>ut</strong> due to further hostilities generated from near San Andres,<strong>cave</strong>rs decided that the Hua<strong>ut</strong>la area wasn't worth the hassle at that time,and the Fissure project was scrapped.So, six years later, we were back in Hua<strong>ut</strong>la at the Fissure. ~erigged the entrance and Jim, Jeff, and Alexia rappeled in. Surely, thebad local feelings had ebbed we thought. As I was preparing to descend,one of the teenagers in the small group of locals that had gathered asked,"What will you do if someone c<strong>ut</strong>s the rope?" That was all i needed to beconvinced we needed a guard. lV:hile the others rigged in, I stayed andchatted with the friendly local that happened by. All seemed well.Abo<strong>ut</strong> mid-afternoon two husky Mazatecs carne down the trail with loadedburros. They immediately stopped, stood up belligerently, and said,"Whatdo you think you are doing there?" I gave them my standard A!~CS introductoryspeech. They replied,"Where is your permission?" Since we had onlyverbal permission from the Presidente of Hua<strong>ut</strong>le and had left the consulatepapers in San Agustin, I was at a loss to present them with anything.They promptly demanded 50 peses, which is a lot of dinero to produce pitside.Naturally, I had nothing to give them and said so. I was immediatelyin<strong>for</strong>med that they were going to c<strong>ut</strong> the rope.Well, I couldn't begin to write down the rash of thoughts going throughmy head at that moment. Neither of the culprits stood taller than my chestand couldn't have weighed more than 110 lbs. each. I convinced myself thatboth could be flipped into the cornfield if anything was seriously threatened.Nonetheless, that was to be a last resort as 20 peasants were watchingfrom the far trail. In the meantime, one of the two was scrambling tountie or c<strong>ut</strong> the rope, while the other was attempting to throw a nooseover my head or whip me with his short rope.Abo<strong>ut</strong> this time, they threw my pack into the pit. Visualizing my lastJustrite lamp smashed to bits was the last straw. Apparently realizing---this, they snatched a 10m rope and ran like hell. I chased them 30 metersand gave up. ThrQugh all this the rope dido' t get c<strong>ut</strong> or thrown in.Had our problems ended then, it would have made an interestingcampfire story. Two hours later, four somewhat smaller Mazatecs arrivedand said the Presidente wanted to see me immediately. They didn't seemtoo hostile and I convinced them to wait an hour. Finally I heard Jim'svoice below. All were up shortly and we had a quick conference. It wasdecided that Jim and Jeff would take all the gear and entrance rope andhead <strong>for</strong> the house with instructions to contact the Hua<strong>ut</strong>la police ifAlexia and I weren't back by morning. Alexia and I then hiked to PlanCarlota, arriving in a courtyard as darkness fell. One man produced a setof keys and unlocked a small door. Alexia looked at me and we both decidedwe weren't going in there until the Presidente had entered.Shortly the political entourage came and all entered the small roomwhereupon a candle was lit and the kangaroo court convened. An old manread an official letter stating that all hippies in the region. especiallythose possessing such "cosas ilictas" as marijuana and hongas (psilcybin)were to be hassled and could be fined up to 1000 pesos and imprisoned. Theythen demanded 500 pesos! The situation was serious as they spoke verylittle Spanish b<strong>ut</strong> were making the case clear that if we had nothing ofvalue we would spend some time getting acquainted with their jail. Theyeven went as far as to suggest Alexia provide some "services" <strong>for</strong> thePresidente. We stated our case <strong>for</strong> abo<strong>ut</strong> an hour and <strong>for</strong> some reason(Christmas Eve, Belief, Boredom? 1) they let us go after we promised toreturn the next day and pay the 500 pesos. We hiked back to the house anda heavy conference insued. There was too much equipment to abandon theFissure, as it was left rigged, so it was decided to pull a politicalpower play.
11The next morning Francisco "Kissinger" (alias Frank Binney) met withthe Presidente of Hua<strong>ut</strong>la armed with a leisure suit, a briefcase, and 2copies of Inside Earth. Four letters were procured, addressed to the townssurrounding San Agustin. The letter to the "agente" of Plan Carlota wasdirect and explicit: These scientific technicians are not to be hassledand it is your responsibility to see that their work continues with nofurther obstruction. Frank and I hiked o<strong>ut</strong> to Plan Carlota where theedict was read aloud both in Spanish and Mazatec. The l1a50n apologized<strong>for</strong> the hassle and the rope rip-off and said we were free to visit the<strong>cave</strong>. No money was exchanged, although we did give the Presidente a bottleof brandy.In much higher spirits, we returned to San Agustin thinking that thematter had been settled. The Fissure was entered and pushed to -420m andstill going. Activity was then switched to Sotano de San Agustin, leavingRoy, Patty, and Jeff to return to the Fissure to finish the surveyand left no guard at the entrance save the bolt with chock backup ~e hadset 3m below the lip. The first person up the drop was very consternatedto find the rope c<strong>ut</strong> just above the bolt, while in the <strong>cave</strong>, and the chockmissing too: The locals were plainly not to be trusted. (Between skirmisheswe did manage to push San Agustin to -2625 ft)EPILOGUEEight <strong>cave</strong>rs and one rider left Austin <strong>for</strong> so<strong>ut</strong>hern Mexico on ~ay 14thin 13i11 Stone's truck, "The Bozo Bus". They plan to spend three to fourweeks in 'fexico, first in the !Iua<strong>ut</strong>la Area checking the Fissure, thenmoving north to near ~oquitlan to explore ~o poentially deep river <strong>cave</strong>s.The <strong>cave</strong>rs are: Bill Stone, Bill Steele, Cindy Coeburn, Cathy RoundtreeJeff Rorowitz, Steve Zeeman, Ernie Garza, and Terry Johnson, a10nB withCindy ~~ho is riding part way down.BRITISH rt4P ECUADOR'S LONGEST ~~ DEEPEST - A July, 1976, British Armyexpedition set off to investigate Cueva de los Tayos in so<strong>ut</strong>heasternEcuador. The <strong>cave</strong> was rep<strong>ut</strong>ed by Eric von Danekin in his book "Gold ofthe Gods flto have been created by extraterrestrial beings, as evidencedby the rectangular passage cross sections. The group of" civilian <strong>cave</strong>rsand scientists that entered the <strong>cave</strong> found no evidence to support hisclaim -- the rectangular passage being <strong>for</strong>med in thin "bedded, well-jointedlimestone. Archeological materials were found near the entrance, identifiedas Pacific Coast materials abo<strong>ut</strong> 3500 years old. The <strong>cave</strong> itself isquite extensive -- surveying showed it to be 4.9km long and 186m deep.Along on the expedition was .~erican ~e1l Arnstrong, the first man onthe moon, who got in his first taste of caving. Perhaps he would like togo to !iexico?from BCFA Bulletin 14
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ASSCCIATION FOR MEXICAN CAVE STUDIE
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3So the large-entranced sotano whic
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5MINA OTATES, T&~.: DSC. 25, 1974,
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MERIDA, YUC.: OCT. 1974, David McKe
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AMCSMEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES LETTEREdi
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3Michael Schulte has been working o
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5To the right of the partition in t
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7Diamond Cave RevisitedAndy Grubbs,
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9CHE~-VEN-SIL-MUTSYSTEM\+--1000 ft.
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Cave Map Symbols11On the following
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13I NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL ISOCIETY
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ASSOCIATION FOR MEXIC&~ CAVE STUDIE
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17Discussion of Map Symbolsby Bill
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19in a 90 meter pit could collect d
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AMCSACTIVITIES LETTEREdited by Bill
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3After leaving Valladolid we went t
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CASI UlL 5By Bill Stone as told to
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June 97Dear AMCSRE:Diamond CaveAfte
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Anyways we speleo-boppedEstrella an
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The adrenelin still pumping through
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13Sotano Hondo de Pina1itoBy Steven
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CAVE MAP SYMBOLS(continued)15The AM
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mechanical shading -- the dots, con
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morphogenetic feature involving gra
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height variation, say. across the w
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23that list to include a broader se
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25be represented by rigidly p,eomet
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27..• D. 0. ȯGravelFEATURENOTESS
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ASSOCIATION FOR MEXICAN CAVEUAP Snm
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AlfCSACTIVITIES LETTEREdited by Bil
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35. I personally had the following
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volunteered to rescue the bag. They
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one large black hole near the top o
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The next day we left camp at dawn a
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11First Exploration of NogalThursda
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'"entire passage has·solutional ro
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13Date: January, 1975Destination: A
- Page 83 and 84: 15Trip Report, Christmas-New Years
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- Page 92 and 93: 22Diamante received its name from t
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- Page 102 and 103: 3View across the botto~ of Hoya de
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- Page 111 and 112: \I0YA DE LA LUZProfile B-B'Located
- Page 113 and 114: 12hotic DiseasesThe August 1976 iss
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- Page 119 and 120: RETURN TO HUAUTLA~Jith t~e 1976-77
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- Page 133: The Fissure t..as located by T.P.
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- Page 155 and 156: 30Medical Report On The April 1977
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- Page 159 and 160: 34considered normal. The diabetic d
- Page 161 and 162: 36Jim Smit~ Has followinp, Blake Ha
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With two leads 'beckoning we began
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Chaining a passage in Cueva de Infi
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the cave. We pulled our rope down b
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increased the cave's depth to -197
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series of parallel ascending (+30 0
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La Sistema Purificacidn: a theory a
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Between the Cold and the" GlorybyTe
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Back tothe Bird PitsbyBill StoneSum
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'Getting Down in Peiiaby Bill Stone
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CUEVADELAPENAPROFI LEmetersoRanc ho