12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

appelled down and walked through a.10 by 14 meter room and then outthrough a lower entrance in the bottomof the sink, about 10 meters belowthe upper entrance. A couple ofshelters in the walls led nowhere.The second sink, just up the hill tothe NW, is 15 by 40 meters and is10 to 20 meters deep. I climbed10 meters down the east side on somelarge roots to the floor. Halfwaydown there is a 2 meter diameterentrance to a side passage. Thisgoes 3 meters to an unexplored 6 meterdrop with a visible passage atthe bottom paralleling the NW-SEaxis of the sink. About 2 metersin from the entrance there is a roomon the left, about 2 meters in diameterand 3 meters high with a smalltunnel sloping down to the east.This was not entered as a loud hissingnoise, rather like a mad Boa,precipitated my retreat. At t~floor of the sink I saw a large,gray iguana perched on a root. Atthe NW end of the sink I climbed upinto a fissure which soon split intwo, the left branch soon pinchingoff and the right continuing steeplyup over flows tone to a skylight. Onthe west side I entered an 8 meterdiameter, 6 meter high room which lednowhere. The SE end led into a fissurewhich dropped 6 meters to thefloor of a 10 meter diameter, 10meter high room. I entered this bytaking a 10 meter long, floor-levelcrawlway on the west side, but Iexited by climbing up flows toneand between some columns. I saw anowl hiding among rocks on the westside of the room, having left its 2eggs and 2 chicks in their nest onthe floor of the east side. The windowopens high in the SE wall of theroom, onto the previous sink (I assumed).We sketched the place uponreturning to the truck and returned tothe R10 Fr10 for our last night inMexico. In the morning we crossedthe r10 on the hand trolley and visitedthe nacimiento. That afternoon wewere back in Harlingen, Texas.Continued field work in the Sierra de GuatemalaWe hope to return to Manantialesand finish the map this summer. Thereare a number of other known caves andpits in the lowland Sierra de Guatemalawhich are unmapped or incompletelyexplored. Cavers interested inassisting in our work in the area:;hould contact me, Filliam E~liot,Ttsum Pesticide La~, 152 E. Stenger,San Benito, Texas 78586.Author's Note: "Manantiales" on theLoma Alta topo sheet is actually aplace called "Corrales" (for thestone corrals there), and the realvillage of Manantiales is in thelarge dolina 5 kilometers by roadto the NW of Corrales. We learnedfrom locals that the best way tocome from Chamal is via Coahuila,then north to Corrales.20