Back to Hell - Really?

We got the long awaited cave call - only the news this time was that it would be another trip to Hell! You may remember our first ever cave trip with Tom. Cerdo Infierno...a trip that started with a disgusting smell which led to a pool of water with a gigantic bloated dead maggot infested hog floating in it...the news that we would be diving into the pig water to go under a sump etc etc. That little adventure ended with Jeff on one side of the sump with Tom and 3 of us on the other side instructed not to follow. We all rounded up an hour later and took a side passage that ended with Jeff and another guy getting lost....you get the drift. The second trip to Hell was a different section that went a little better (you may remember the frayed hand line). So our excitement was boiling over with the thought of surveying yet another section of Hell. Why not Heaven for a change? When we arrived it was already living up to its expectations. The entrance looks okay until you look at the river that feeds into it.


Oh, refrigerators...great. Tires...trash everywhere of every kind. Metal, plastic, stuffed animals, clothing, styrofoam. Hell has it all! We enter the cave and are surprised at how large the passage is. It is like a large lava tube kind of. Already we smell a smell and start having flashbacks of the giant pig. We find the place where Tom left off surveying. He believed the cave would go only a little ways (maybe 200 meters) beyond his surveying (this was based on previous maps, accounts from people etc). He told us there would be water and there was. The smell was making me gag and my imagination was whirling about what it could be. It didn't smell as huge as a hog, but didn't smell as small as a gecko either. Oh such anticipation. It wasn't long before we found the source of the smell...a Boa, or section of one at least, that was a few feet long and very bloated. Soon after that we encountered the water and I was pretty hesitant to go in. With all the garbage I just didn't want to do it unless there was some payoff. Diana decided to pass on the water part. Jeff went first and said it kept going, so it looked like the original plan of doing 2 caves wasn't going to happen - this cave seemed to offer more than expected. Since it was the only cave of the day I decided to go for a swim and we continued with the surveying for a while.

This cave was truly hell - there was so much garbage it was hard to even be there. It is a mix of disgust, horror, amazement and anger to be a few hours underground and see all this crap. The karst is a water filter and much of the water supply travels through it. Do people know that their water is mingling with all their garbage? How could they NOT know? How the hell do you even get a washing machine through the jungle and into the river in the first place? Here it is - one of many.


There were lots of tires and car parts and hub caps and bottles and clothing. Deep in the cave obscene commercialism of a "Happy Meal" shows up as a little plastic princess.

Amidst all the crap there were some beautiful formations like this dam. Why do people have to ruin everything they touch? After making it past the stinky snake and washers and refrigerators we walked in chin high water to some collapse where the cave supposedly ended. Well it didn't end. There was a little crack for me to explore and when I did I came out at an overhang overlooking an immense tunnel with a river in it. We didn't have rope or vertical gear with us and it was not possible to climb up or down it so we looked for alternate routes. We found a little drop that went into a river and we headed in and after wandering in it for a while got to a place where we could look up and see where we had looked down. Very exciting!

It continued on and branched with water coming in from 2 different directions. There were a couple levels in this cave and that was totally unexpected. The snake stink was gone and the large appliances were broken down at least so excitement took over where anger had been. Diana had left the cave and we didn't want to have her wait forever but it ended up being a Lechuga situation - let's just see around this corner, and the next, and the next and before you know it is has been a couple hours since the surveying stopped. A couple hours of fun exploration.

One of the neatest things we found was this faucet. It was like a giant shower head in the ceiling of the cave with water just gushing out of it! Looking up into the shower head it was a nice formation that looked kind of fancy. The water coming out of it was not a delicate dribble.

There was also a line up of around 8 or so smaller nozzles that were spraying water into this pool as well.

There is much more to explore including a passage we didn't even go in. Tom thinks we can take a long day to survey it but Jeff and I think we went 1/2 mile in and believe with the side shoots it will be more than a day to complete. However long it takes it is very interesting once you get past the evil beginning. So back we went. Here is a full-size blue garage can stuck in a crevice.

Oh, here's another garbage can deep in the cave. Too bad the garbage can wasn't on the outside filled with all the $&%$ garbage now inside the cave. Back past the snake, the washers, the garbage cans, the metal sheets, the stuffed animals (3) and other things people have tossed into the river we left trying to think about the wonderful water spout and the exciting adventures ahead. This includes another trip to hell and back, or maybe two.

A Couple More Caves - Cueva Muerta y Cueva Vientos in San German

Tom Miller was contacted by a Mycologist (Angel Nieves-Rivera) who wanted to bring a professor friend (sorry I forget who) to a cave he had been in a long time ago to look for pottery shards and other evidence of human activity. Angel believed the cave was in the San German area and we got invited along. After consulting maps and talking further about it (after a late start- hee hee) it seemed that neither Tom nor Angel knew where it was. This was going to be exploration! The first place we tried was somewhere Jeff and I had not been - Cueva Muerta. We found the spot, parked, and Tom knew the way up the slope. It was a short, steep hike which is a good thing since it wasn't there. Tom headed back down to ask people in the neighborhood who set him straight and we were soon on the right path. The walk was short with another steep climb up to the rock face. From below you could barely see the opening. The opening was straight up and we basically did a little rock climbing/hanging to get up there. It was a little too much for Angel and friend who ended up staying on the bottom as we did a quick exploration of the cave. Angel did know that this was not the cave he remembered. We climbed straight up, crawled/hung on a little ledge to get into the thing and it was small but kind of neat. Here's looking out from inside.

Inside we did see three boas. A mound of guano lead to a small opening of a small bat room. I could fit inside but didn't want to disturb the bats for no good reason. This kind of bat is different than the kind we usually see. It was very small. We also saw coral fossils which would have been nice for Angel and his friend to have seen.

After exploring Muerta we hopped into the cars and went to the Vientos system which we hoped might be the one Angel was searching for. We had gone into this large system before through an opening that required vertical gear. This time we entered from the other side of the ridge in an entrance you could walk in to. We knew about this entrance from the inside...it featured the Edgar Alan Poe "pit of doom." (I don't know if Poe ever wrote about a pit of doom but if he did this would be it.) On our last trip I did not circumvent this pit since we didn't have a hand line and my arms were not long enough (I didn't think) to risk the slippery edge around it. (It frightened me.) First we had to tromp through neck high weeds that were full of burrs and other sticky seeds. We all looked hairy before we got there.

The plan was to leave the bone/pottery hunters near the entrance to search for their goods while we dropped into the unknown pit to survey it. We dropped 100 feet of rope and needed most of it. The rope was very stiff and I had a heck of a time trying to feed it through my rack. I was bouncing and trying everything and eventually dropped down if you can call it that. Jeff used his figure 8 and also commented on the stiff rope. Tom never has any problems (or if he does you never know about them). Anyway, we all ended up in the pit of doom.

We were greeted by a Boa. The pit was just that...a pit. There weren't any other passages in or out of it, no river, no formations, nothing. Just a deep dirt pit. Kind of disappointing. We did a quick survey and headed back up the rope.

This system is very interesting because of all the different colors of rock and the different angles.We always see the Guava (should be an accent on the last a) which we have heard it called a Guaba as well. It is a tailless scorpion but doesn't have any toxins. They are still kind of robot-like and can be kind of big.

We continued on and did a little more exploration in a lower area. On our way down a passage we saw these neat round pits in the rock that looked kind of like something had been broken off maybe. My thoughts were tube worms or bones maybe. Tom had no idea either.

We rummaged around another pit and then went to a lower area and Jeff shouted out that he had a "Katrina hole." That always perks me up. I took off the helmet and slid my feet down to a little toe-wide ledge. I was perched above a 40 foot or more deep pit that I couldn't get down without a rope. I was able to sneak a foot across the pit to a formation and go up a little side shoot. It was steep and I got to this little obstruction. It was small, but I could see it kept going so I wriggled into it (not sure how) with some concern about how I would get out. It didn't go more than a couple body lengths but at least we know this ends and next time can add it to the survey (if I go into it again). Since it was getting dark and we wanted to get through the jungle while we had some light we had to leave the deep pit for another time. We headed back looking at the interesting rock angles and layers. Tom thinks these are fossils. I wish I knew more about geology and anthropology so I could know what I was looking at.

The guys at the entrance took some photos of interesting things and seemed to have a decent time. We of course had a great time (caving is the best!). It was nice to see a new cave and to explore more of the large Vientos system that is in our backyard. Vientos is a large system with many levels. We hear that it is possible to go in from one entrance and rappel 160 feet down or something. We haven't done a rappel that far and I don't want to do it on a couple stiff ropes! (I would like to do it though.) As always we are looking forward to the next cave.

Winter - What's Done Stays Done...for a While

You can kind of see the arboretum taking shape. What were little trees are now larger trees with some producing fruit (Longon, Peanut Butter Fruit, Pomegranate, Canistel).

Where else can you grow orchids just outside stuck on trees?

Vegetables are hard. Seeds rot, wash away..plants get buggy or stunted or grow HUGE like balloon animals (only they are cucumbers). This is a vining Malabar spinach that only grows above 84 degrees. It isn't as good as baby lettuces but hey, you can grow it!

Tomatoes.

More tomatoes.

Purple basil.

Batatas amarillas (a sweet potato but it isn't the same as a sweet potato in the States) under a hot pepper with a baby papaya.

I love this plant. It blooms ALL the time and roots where ever it touches which makes it great for covering big areas and stabilizing soil.

Look how tidy everything looks! Don't blink...it is raining and the grass will be a foot before you open your eyes.

Surfing at Last!

Finally, after talking about it every single time we can't dive because the surf is up...I took a lesson. It was kind of a reward after sealing the roof and painting around the house. I was in a funk due to (for here) crappy grey weather and a lack of caving and diving. I called to arrange the lesson and left a message for Melissa at Puntas Surf School in Rincon. She didn't answer so I brought beach stuff and what I thought I should wear surfing and decided to go to Corseca Beach to check out the visibility for diving this weekend. As soon as I got to the Rincon exit she called back and I was meeting her in 30 minutes at Maria's Beach.

She showed me some paddling tips, the stand-up maneuver and position on the board before heading out into the water. Paddle paddle paddle and out we went across the white breaking waves. Kind of tiring since my arm strength isn't that great. We got where we could rest and she gave some more tips and started looking for waves. "Paddle paddle paddle...pop!" she said. When the wave caught the board I could really feel it. That surprised me. It is almost like an invisible hand down there that reaches up, takes hold and starts to pull! What a rush! I was standing on the first try and rode it for a little bit and it fizzled out. Then it was paddle paddle paddle to get back out. As a beginner the waves looked pretty big to me. A couple times I forgot to rise up on the board when a wave crashed on me and that is not good. Rising up reduces the impact. Then it was resting and waiting and then "paddle paddle paddle" and "up." You can definitely feel when to stand. I had a couple waves I was too far "on my heels" and toppled after only riding a little bit but I was up every single time. I didn't think I'd be standing/riding on the first lesson so I was very excited. I think the hardest thing about surfing will be reading the waves, learning the timing, and developing the different muscles needed. Diving requires a strong back. Caving requires flexibility, slithering ability and a mental attitude. Surfing I think (this is only after one lesson so what do I know) requires a strong core - my ribs and pubic bone were/are very sore. The ribs were sore kind of like in kayak water polo sore but a little different. My shoulders weren't sore and my back was fine but pressing into the board on the pelvis made that area sore. I think you have to learn not to "look" once you decide to go for it! In caving you can do crazy climbs and slithering because you only look where your light is and avoid seeing the huge drops or other dangers by not looking there. After you commit to a wave I think it is the same mental thing. The surf pushed my bikini into a thong so next time I may wear pilates or biking shorts. (the extra padding may help too). So in the hour lesson part was on the beach and the 45 minutes in the water let me catch around 5 or 6 waves. The last one I could tell was different than the others because I felt a mini elevator drop sensation in my stomach and knew I missed the timing a little or it was just bigger than the others. I fell off, the board I think may have whacked me a little and I got salt water up my nose before paddling back out for the final wave. The last wave died pretty quickly and instead of paddling out I aimed for the shore and rode the board in on my stomach which was extremely fast, furious and fun! Even if I never get good at this I can always have fun on the board anyway. So after inquiring about used boards Melissa was willing to sell me a couple and xmas became a much happier day. I had been looking for boards but most of what was available seemed to be short which isn't good for beginners. The boards are soft boards like what I had the lesson on which I think is good since we aren't 30 anymore, may not get good at this for awhile (if ever) and the impact will be less when we get whacked. Now I had to hide the boards and contain my excitement so Jeff wouldn't know what I had done. How do you hide a 9 foot and 7' 8" board from your husband? I leaned them on the other side of the shed and since he comes home in the dark he didn't see them. He also didn't suspect I would do that. What I had trouble with was not busting out with the surf lesson excitement! I also explained away my lack of accomplishments in the yard (not up to the usual) with feeling a little "off." Reality of course was some tired arms and sore ribs and pubic bone. So today I gave him the leash and let him figure it out. He thought it was a stand up paddle board but I had no intention of ever doing that - I call it the paddle "bored." He is excited to get out there but the waves are huge right now - too big for beginners I think. We'll try for next Thursday when he has a day off. He is excited and so am I! Just what we need...more equipment and more body damaging sports...do it while you can I say since it won't be for forever.