Written January 1, 2013
The first caving excursion we took was to Rio Choy, a 210 foot vertical cave near Cuidad Valles. We woke up fairly early on the morning of New Year’s Eve, had breakfast, and made the short drive from Hotel Taninul to the parking area. The cave entrance is about a mile and a half from the road, though the hike is made easy by some train tracks. The cave itself is considered sacred because of a column that apparently looks like the Virgin Mary (I couldn’t see it), but the cavernous entrance is littered with trash. Frank, Bob, and Deighan rigged the mainline to another rope to make the length more easily adjusted, and the group began the repel. Though the drop is short in comparison to the other pits we’ll bounce on the trip, it is made exciting by the pool of water at the bottom. This allowed us to short-rig the rope and repel off the end of it into the water beneath. This year, we only short-rigged by about 6 feet, which is much shorter than in years past. However, the amazing views of the bright blue water illuminated by a skylight and the opportunity to swim in warm cave water in December made the cave well worth the walk. Many of us used the large rock protruding from the water as a highdive, and the rapids at the exit added some excitement. Overall, nine of us did the drop and some did it multiple times.
After we hiked out of Rio Choy, we drove to Huichihuayan (Wi-chi-y-in) for the annual New Year’s Eve celebration. We began the night with a trip to the usual taco stand and had wonderful beef, lamb, and pork tacos for five pesos apiece ($1.00 = 12.5 pesos after exchange fees). After we went back to the hotel to shower, we went to the town square for the celebration. The New Year’s Eve party in Huichihuayan comes complete with a dancing transvestite and a coffin filled with fireworks with the old year painted on it. Every hour up until midnight, the coffin and a live band are paraded around the town until all the townspeople are in the square. The transvestite dances with the village men, and many couples dance to the live music. Food is sold by vendors in the square, and it’s generally just a good time. At midnight, the coffin is lit on fire, and the fireworks within eventually explode. The music and dancing continues through the night, but most of our group was exhausted from Rio Choy and went to bed soon after midnight.
So far, I've been posting these entries in internet cafes, and I don't want to bring in everyone's electronics to add pictures. I'll add pictures of everything you've read about next time we're in a hotel.
As a side note, if you have access to our itinerary, know that it now very inaccurate. The confusion with the border crossing delayed us by a day, and we are considering changing the order of the drops in light of the recent restriction on Golandrinas. Whether or not we will be allowed to drop Golandrinas at all is still up in the air, but we will if we can. For those of you who are depending on internet access to keep in touch with someone on the trip, don’t worry too much if you don’t hear from us when you expected to. That’s all for now. Happy New Year!!
