The past Christmas - New Years holiday season saw a return visit to the project began last year. 
Over a two week period a group of up to 17 cavers, from three different countries managed to survey a little over 3 km of new cave along with another 3km of surface survey to tie them all together. While exploration continued in our main cave (now renamed Cueva Vinata after local consultation), five other caves were explored as well, some of them with some impressively large passages and chambers. This report will attempt to document what we found.
The main target of the expedition was of course the famous hoped for, 4th sump bypass in C. Vinata (Spanish for still - the alcohol producing variety - the remains of which are located just near the entrance and according to the locals who live closest give the cave its name - as opposed to the C. Grande de Puerto Hondo, that we heard it referred to last year). The first day saw a large group rigging the entrance series and heading downstream to take photos and look for the by-pass. 
We found the water levels to be a bit higher this year, probably only 10 cm, but enough to make the small cascades more sporting and even requiring the rigging of a new pitch to avoid one new cascade. We managed to locate the by-pass area but not the actual traverse, the area being a 3 dimensional antlion trap with three different levels. The return trip upstream was quite exciting especially for the shorter members of the crew. In a couple of places you had to launch yourself across a pool against the current and try to grab a hold of the smooth wall right where the next cascade was pouring in.
Nobody was jumping to go back in the next day, the thoughts of cold water hitting your chest seemed to be the limiting factor. So a group led by Ramón started the exploration of Cueva Ano Nuevo with Taco and Vicente leading ahead to rig pitches. The cave immediately drops 2 short pitches into a large down-sloping entrance passage that then opens up into a very large room - about 60 x 50 x 50m high. At the bottom of the room could be heard sounds of running water in the active streamway while climbing up on the right led the team to what looked like the start of a borehole passage. They were lured by the water though and headed down another drop over big boulders in the bottom of the big room which put them in a stream some 5m wide with reasonable current and air flow. The excitement mounted as Vicente shot off down the rightside passage and the surveyors mapped down the large main drain. Passing nice decorations it only went 150m before hitting a sump. The air flow had disappeared somewhere previous, though there was a small hole above the sump that looked like it could be hammered to allow a body through. With 340m surveyed they called it a day, with lots to come back to.
Still nobody was volunteering to go do the scary bolt traverse so teams went off to continue in C. Ano Nuevo and to start in C. de Los Tontos. Ramón headed up into the borehole in C. Ano Nuevo with the women while Vicente and Nabor headed down to hammer open the sump by-pass. The borehole turned out to by almost full to the roof with flowstone, but climbing this gave them access to the Goldfinger Room (sporting a prominent stalagmite with a golden hue, while the start of this passage began with station number 007). The room was a dead end, figuratively and literally as some bat bones were found along with a lot of guano, suggesting that there used to be an entrance into this section but has been filled in by the copious amounts of mud associated with erosion from the logging on the surface. The major excitement for the day was Ixta's 7m fall down a near vertical climb up loose boulders. Probably the only fall arrested by holding onto a survey tape! (The other end was being held by her sister Illi and both are daughters of Nabor who was down with Vicente at the time. Nabor had arrived the previous day with his wife and four young daughters whose names we were still trying to figure out. These two were named after two big volcanoes, one being Ixtalcuataptl outside Mexico City and the other Illiminani in Bolivia, two peaks Nabor had climbed in his younger days). I personally chose to rappel back down that one and am amazed that she walked away from it. Vicente meanwhile had managed to pass the sump through a very tight pinch but only found about 30m more passage that sumped again and had no air flow. He emerged in time to join the surveyors as they finished off his side passage from the previous day which also pinched out after 200m, though passed several climbing leads along the way. Vicente also pushed upstream for about 100m before his light failed, calling for a retreat.
Over in the center part of the doline a group headed into Cueva de Los Tontos (Cave of the Fools) and probably Taco can best tell the tale of how the cave received its name...
It started innocently enough. Two grizzled veterans on numerous caving expeditions, Chris Lloyd and Taco Van Iperon would show Jazmin how caving was really done. So off we went to do a virgin pit Chris had found the year before.
The entrance was expertly rigged off a boulder and a re-directional sling, the pit expertly dropped, and then Taco yelled down the hole to Chris, "I forgot the bolt hammer back in camp". No problem, we already had the pitch rigged. We would continue.
10m downslide Chris prepared to rig a tricky looking downclimb. Then Jazmin passed him by and descended it without problems and the 2m climb was left un-rigged. Chris shook his head saying, "I must be losing my ability to judge climbs".
We descended an extremely pleasant streamway down into a hip deep wade in a tall narrow rift. Two more turns lead to a pitch. Bolts were needed. We had none. We decided to survey out. A tape was needed. We had none.
Taco volunteered to run back to camp to get the bolt kit and survey tape. He was back in 30 minutes to find Chris fighting Jazmin's non-functioning, borrowed, ceiling burner in the entrance chamber. Taco's electric became Jazmin's new light source. On we went.
We surveyed everything to the new pitch which Taco rigged off two bolts. We dropped down into increasingly nicer stream passage and continued surveying in 3-4m wide and 10 to 20m tall canyon passage which suddenly opened up into a large chamber with numerous side leads. The stream passed through this chamber back into a lower section which quickly became stooping passage, then crawling in the stream. Taco scooped ahead a bit to confirm that it was still going though in similarly unpleasant nature. We decided to head out in time for last daylight and managed to emerge without killing ourselves.
Getting out early also gave us time to prepare to Christmas dinner as is traditionally done on Christmas eve in Mexico. A large, smoked turkey (not so traditional, but appreciated nonetheless) was heated up in the bonfire and enjoyed by all. Enjoyed too much as it turned out for nobody went underground on Xmas day.
Being well rested, volunteers finally emerged to go try the dreaded bolt traverse in C. Vinata, again best described in the own words of one of the participants...
There I dangled, 20m above the ragging river, trying to figure out how to get across the climb. Most people spend Christmas holidays with family or on the beach. Right now this didn't seem like a bad idea.
About three hours earlier, Ramón and I had entered the cave to attempt a promising climb across a pit which looked like it headed off into blackness, bypassing the terminal sump down below. Though a proper light dimmed our hopes quite a bit, the lead still looked like it might go. It had to, as there were no other possibilities to bypass the sump.
The walls were a muddy slim which seemed to stick to everything. Progress was made by hammering in bolts and then traversing across to get access to further bolt placements. Mud coated everything. Three cows tails, two footloops, a tether for the hammer, the main rope (both at the bolt and dangling down) were all a uniform muddy mess. At each moment I had to carefully trace the lines back to my harness so I wouldn't do something stupid like clip into my footloops.
Finally I had placed three horrible bolts and was ready to try and climb the rest. Above me was a steep muddy slope, 20m below me the gapping maw of the pit. The laws of physics were trying to get me to fall down the pit. My intentions were different. We only had 8mm static rope to climb on so a double rope was needed. I had to de-rig my working rope, pull it back in and tie the double line to myself. Ramón belayed. I slowly picked my way across, and then made the old step up the crux. The stream roared in excitement. It would get fed today.
Then I was up. I had only one big step to go and one meter of rope left. I was safe. The lead went up a muddy, steep slope with lots of trash (plastic bottles mainly). It ended in a boulder choke after 20m. There was no apparent air flow.
Some yelling across the pitch led to a safe return to the other side. I didn't even need to leave any gear behind. The stream roared in frustration. The laws of gravity and physics got their revenge though by making the packs so heavy that it was hard to get out of the swims and across the pools against the current all the way out. [thanks again Taco]
Later an old man who lives over the hill from our campsite came by to point out caves to us and told us a bit of the history of this area. It was quite impressive to hear the account of the water flow during the hurricane about 20 years ago that directly hit this area and caused the water to flood out of the entrance of C. Vinata, which is some 80m above the regular stream level. Certainly explains the large mud accumulations in places like the 4th sump non-bypass. The water ponded in the entrance doline until it flowed up and over to the south where it sank again into C. de Los Tontos. Wow.
While news of this disappointment slowly sunk in exploration continued in the other caves. Vicente returned to C. Año Nuevo and attempted one of the climbs in the side passage off the river only to find another climb requiring bolting above. He finished off the survey upstream ending in a sump and bringing the cave up to a total of 876.9m. The bottom streamway, side leads and bottom overflow passages in C. de Los Tontos were all pushed to muddy and tight finishes leaving a total for the cave of 858.9m. The 15m wide entrance right near camp was explored for 204m in C. del Campamento in mainly a big chamber which hosts various bats. Quite quickly the chances for getting into the main drain below the 4th sump non-bypass were diminishing. Even the cave that is in the next doline downhill along the main road up turned out to have been explored by Draco and company for only some 300m. Surface wanderings and systematic searching by our injured scout (Ruth Diamant) located over 30 surface features and resulted in the dropping of about 10 small pits, all blind. Another promising looking entrance located by Ruth down the road by Pinabete went all of 39m, thought turned out to be the local hangout for vampire bats. A breakthrough was badly needed.
Fortunately the main cave wasn't finished and rewarded those who made the long trip upstream to push the Gour Passage. 
A small hole in the wall located last year near the end of the Gour Passage popped up into large breakdown passage. This 30m wide borehole was mapped for almost 500m on the first go, mainly up and down over the breakdown blocks, with occasional glimpses of the stream below.
This stirred the excitement as the same day Ramón and I had gone to check out a large inlet, referred to as C. Jumate, that an old man told us was the source of the water going into C. Vinata. And it certainly looked the right size with a clean washed 2m wide streamway dropping into a 15m wide entrance. It was blocked with large logs at the bottom of the entrance opening, but some poking about and log moving located a little hole that dropped down into going cave. This restriction seemed to have protected the rest of the cave and down we went following the strong airflow. This must be the upper entrance we thought to the Gours. Nice walking passage degenerated into crawling through sand in tubes, but at least it went. Somehow a log managed to get in that far and we had to move it to continue along a bedding plane crawl which seemed to be taking the air. Our suspicion was confirmed when a 1m wide hole in the floor was found with a good draft. It turned out to be a beautiful, straight, 22m drop that we christened The Rifle Barrel. After 15m in a 1.5m diameter tube the roof cut back opening up in to a sizable chamber which one can enjoy as they spin around on the rope. The obvious way on pinched out in gravel fill immediately, but another route on was located down a rift out the other side. This de-generated into a series of stoops through small rooms floored by sand. Then the sand led into a pool of water while the roof came down giving less than a meter of space above the water. We decided that surveying out was a preferable alternative to a full immersion in muddy water, and netted 200m, but were disappointed in not dropping in on those pushing the Gour Inlet.
New Years Day saw the last hard push and got a team past the pool we left in Jumate. The passage continued through a series of similarly wet, muddy pools for almost 150m before getting into large chambers. 
A sump barred the way at water level, while above a boulder choke looked like it might head up to another entrance. Looks like it will have to wait for a dry season push to see where it goes.
While the hoped for downstream continuation of C. Vinata did not come to be, all enjoyed the other five caves explored and slowly the underground picture in that doline is being filled in. Also on the biology front study of the different bats was initiated by Claudia, who is doing her degree on a bat cave closer to Mexico City. Here she identified at least three different species including vampires, xxx and possibly yyy.
After the majority had left the 5 Canadians headed out via Torrecillas, on the western edge of the plateau, and spent a short day mapping the odd Torrecillas Cave. Usually caves weather down recessively, leaving lines of sink holes or open aired cave segments, but here the bit of limestone with the cave in it was a raised ridge holding the cave in it. An upper segment went upstream under the road for 86m in nice walking / wading canyon passage. Following the stream out the entrance and across the open grazing field you can continue through 72m of the Remnant in the Ridge which features numerous skylights. Further across the field the stream sinks underneath the gaze of the twin towers that gives the Torrecillas doline its name. There it starts out very encouragingly but slowly the ceiling comes down, the water gets deeper and after 130m we waded into the terminal sump. Fun while it lasted and some wanderings around the area revealed other entrances that will have to wait for another year.
Chris Lloyd
Feb. 1998
