THE BOTTOMLESS PIT BEYOND BABILONIA

By John J. Pint

La Asociación de Excursionismo de Jalisco, which presents high quality films, slide shows and lectures at its monthly meeting. It was at one of these meetings, a presentation by Mexican Alpinistas, Carlos Carsorio and Elsa Avila, that a number of enthusiastic climbers told us the kind of tales that would make a caver’s mouth water:

There’s a place we know where the ground is as full of tunnels as a piece of Swiss cheese, and in the same mountain range there’s this bottomless pit, ‘way over 100 meters deep without a doubt ... Now, near Tequila, we been exploring some deep fissures that just go on and on...’

BEYOND BABILONIA

Of course, we were hooked. By chance it turned out that our informants, members of the Cuerpo de Exploradores de Occidente (Western Explorer’s Corps) were going up to Tapalpa the very next weekend. Mario, the leader, invited us to join them, which is how Susy, Jesús and I found ourselves on a dusty dirt road south of Tapalpa, hunting for a rancho with the unlikely name of Babilonia.

Now, it was the bottomless pit we were after, not Babilonia, but little by little we were discovering that our guide, Don Pancho, had forgotten a few minor details about this pit, including we began to suspect, its exact location. Since he had only visited the place once, ten years earlier, no one was really expecting too much. The vehicles, a Nissan pickup and our Jeep, were covered with an inch of powdery dust by the time we faced Babilonia, which appears to have a total population of less than ten. Had the Babilonians heard of the Pit? No, they hadn’t, but someone at the Gavilanes Mine might know, and by chance one of the miners was just passing by and would be glad to show us the way in exchange for a ride. Off we went... on one of the most hair-raising roads” I’ve ever seen...

ON THE RAZOR’S EDGE

First of all, it wasn’t so much a road as a wide path. Second, it was normally either full of ruts or covered with loose rocks and boulders. And third, it never seemed to stop going up, meaning straight up, about as close to a 90º angle as you can get. Now, imagine all three of these characteristics at once, add a deep chasm on one -and for a while both sides- and you’ll see why I had nightmares of this trip long after we got out of those mountains, somehow still alive.

BACH AND THE GOLD MINE

I’m not trying to advertise, but I couldn’t quite believe that Mario’s small Nissan pickup (Mexican version) made it all the way to the mine. “If that toy truck can do It, so can this Jeep,” was the only thing that kept me from suggesting we turn the drive into a hike. Eventually we stopped at one rock-n-rutty bend where Mario declared that the road looked “a bit rough up ahead” and I pounced at the chance to suggest we proceed on foot, “just to stretch our legs.”

In lees than an hour, we were being given the grand tour of the Gavilanes gold mine. We learned that an incredible amount of rock has to be mined, transported, crushed and washed in order to produce just one gram of gold dust, and all this must be carried out without benefit of either vehicles or electricity. We weren’t surprised when an old miner informed us that “you couldn’t reach the Bottomless Pit from here even if you spent the whole day walking.

” What did surprise us was what we heard when the miner turned on his newly purchased portable radio. Instead of the Ranchero music we had somehow expected. Out of that tin-roof mining shack drifted the sound of a beautiful Bach organ recital.

EIGHT DOLINES AWAITING A CAVER

Some weeks later we purchased the topo map; for this area and discovered a vast stretch of limestone there, in the of which lie eight very interesting dolines... within walking distance of a town far more r

eachable than the gold mine beyond Babilonia.!

Resumen del articulo anterior:

EL POZO SIN FONDO MAS ALLÁ DE BABILONIA MIEMBROS DEL CEO Y ZOTZ PASARON UN FIN DE SEMANA BUSCANDO UN POZO PROFUNDISIMO CONOCIDO (HACE 10 AÑOS) POR DON PANCHO LEAUTAUD. PERO NO ENCONTRARON MAS QUE POLVO, BRECHAS PELIGROSAS Y UNA MINA DE ORO QUE VISITARON CON INTERES.

UNAS SEMANAS DESPUES, ENCONTRARON ESE POZO EN UN MAPA TOPOGRAFICO QUE MUESTRA OTRAS SIETE DOLINAS ALREDEDOR... ¡Y UNA RUTA MÁS FACIL PARA LLEGAR!

mail to L. ROJAS

SUMARIO