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        La Camotera 2007


        Background

        When I first moved to Monterrey I was looking for caves in the area to explore or at least to do some sport caving. Doing some research with Nestor Luna we found out the location of El Infierno de la Camotera, a beautiful 75m pit up in the Sierra Madre (that turned out to be more like 60m).

        We gathered our gear and recruited Carlos Garza (aka Balle) for this first outing. At La Camotera we met Gerardo and his family and asked permission to explore. He accepted quite happily and in turn asked us to check out some pits he knew, and see if we could find water so he could rig a pump. Water is a problem for them, they bring some down by gravity but not nearly enough for their needs. Dry season gets very complicated sometimes. Drilling wells in these mountains almost always ends up hitting solid rock and no water.

        So while Gerardo returned from his errands in Laguna, one of his kids showed us a cave he called Maximiliano's Cave, which we quickly explored (the survey was later), and then tried to show us the promised pits, but in the way we saw a doline from the road, with an open pit beckoning... This cave, which we called the Old Log Pit, has four shafts and ends in a sump. This is our prime candidate for finding a permanent water flow. We still have to go past the sump to find the water source, though.

        Ah, dolines. I remember when a nice big doline meant a cave below. Here we have seen round and conical depressions all over, but when we get there there's nothing, just a big, round depression with no cave, visible cracks or traces of water accumulation. Earth must be really porous in there to filter out all the precipitation the area gets. Some are obvious earth sinkings in a sponge-like karst, while others seem to have all the traces of a real conical doline, just without the cave. So we've spent a large portion of our time chasing shadows around - interesting ones, though.

        Only two trips after this, a day when we could not find Gerardo and his family, we went into El Infierno... but it somehow felt pointless; what we really wanted now was the other pits, Gerardo's candidates for a water well.

        Zoom to the present

        In August 2007 we started the official Camotera 2007 survey effort, with three main objectives:

          - Find a reliable water source for the people in La Camotera
          - Survey and document all possible caves and pits in this karst area
          - Seek for archaeological remains. Pre-Hispanic dwellings have been found in other caves in Nuevo Leon and the neighboring state of Coahuila. All digs we do in shallow and medium deep caves must be handled as archaeological digs to find and preserve any present relics and remains.

        The Team

        The 'permanent' team in all sallies:

          - Jean Paul Farell (that's me)
          - Nestor Javier Luna Alanis
          - Carlos Alberto Garza Vanderstai, a.k.a. Balle
          - Oscar Angel Sotomayor Gonzalez, a.k.a. Huesos

           
          Also Joined in some trips by: - Ramon Aleman
          - Jonathan (...)

        The project

        For this survey we started by acquiring, compiling and graphically mapping topographical information of the area from the INEGI, the Mexican geographical institute. This would provide very good insight as to where to look (it did not, as it turns out), and give an excellent base for an area map with caves locations.




        New caves discovered so far:

          - Cueva de Maximiliano. (D:15m, L:160m) An excellent candidate for an archaeological dig, the entrance opens to a small wooded valley. This dig will have to wait until we find Gerardo's water. The valley is also an excellent place to scout for more caves.
          - La Grieta (the Crack). (D:75m, L:25+) Narrow crack in the ground, single rappel to the bottom.
          - Fuente abajo (Fountain Below). (D:75m, L:) Narrow entrance, widens below to a nice chamber (photos below).
          - Cueva del Tonto Perdido (Cave of the Lost Fool). (D:?m, L:?m) Found while searching for a "misplaced" expedition member. Very recent formation (less than 5 years) and very much alive. Will wait for dryer season to survey properly.
          - Claustrofobia. (D:+10m, L:?m) Also found while looking for a lost tonto. A fossil cave, but relatively young in this area of ancient holes. It is an asphyxiatingly narrow, vertical rock tube with nice, sharp erosion blade formations all the way to the bottom of the shaft. Did not explore beyond entrance pit because of the ongoing search; will survey in Feb/08 although it seems half of the team cannot fit through the shaft... they'll have to dig the Tonto Perdido cave then :D

          - Revisited Old Log Pit (D:35m, L:43m) Four shafts ending up in a sump. Probably is one of Jim Kennedy's caves (right next to the road, he couldn't have missed it), although he does not report the sump; he reports a "well in La Camotera" as an unfinished survey, though. Another dig to follow the water through the sump failed again. Need better gear for this one, our tools simply don't cut it... still open for future attempts.

        Jan 26-28, 2008
        Tried the dig at the Old Log's sump, but the cave just did not open. It definitely goes on beyond the sump, but also definitely cannot dig through without some better tools.
        This time we had loads of fun. Huesos (Oscar) sort of misplaced himself. We were doing a short, quick scouting around camp before calling off the day. After he failed to report to camp and did not answer whistles and shouting (voices here bounce off the cliffs all over the canyon) we got worried. We did an area search, and no Huesos. Oops.
        Nestor went to Laguna to call for help. Proteccion Civil sent eight people to aid the search. All night we combed the area. He could not be far, after all; he does know how to navigate the wilderness, and being inside a canyon, surely he could never loose his bearings. Besides, it was a short check around camp, right? So he could not have gone far...
        By next day we decided that he probably fell in a pit somewhere so we started scouring the area, in much more detail, worried we might be looking for a seriously hurt Huesos or even a body by now.
        One member of the rescue team turned out to be an amazing tracker. He went off looking for Huesos' Converse tracks, somehow he found them (you try identifying a Converse track on a pine-needle covered forest. Heck, try spotting any tracks there), and followed them to Huesos, who had simply decided to walk down the canyon to Potrero Redondo, some 5-6 hours away, instead of walking up to La Camotera which was friggin' here, less than ten minutes away. So one full day late and families and friends worried sick we eventually returned to the real world with only a few scratches and quite a few new leads to follow - the one useful thing out of Huesos' excursion.
        The most promising leads we found this time (while looking for a fool's body) are:
        - Cueva del Tonto Perdido (Cave of the Lost Fool). We just had to call one after him. Brand new one, been here for just a few years. This is going to be a muddy, muddy, tight and muddy survey, but just might take us inside the karst. With fossil caves so sedimented, an open new one just keeps us hoping.
        - Claustrofobia. Also found while looking for the lost tonto. Narrow vertical descent. Did not explore beyond entrance shaft because of the ongoing search; will fully survey in Feb/08.


        Below, photos of Fuente Abajo and the Crack.


        * Incursiones does not do paid tours.
        We are a non-profit organization for the exploration and documentation of Mexico's natural wonders, and for the archaeological research of Acoyauh A.C.
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