Gruta del Palmito (Bustamante) was my first wild cave. It was a mind-altering experience. I have watched the situation concerning the cave go through many changes over the years. It has been a very jerky Mexican-type natural progression from a totally wild, ask nobody for permission, do whatever you want wherever you want to do it, sort of cave to a gated tourist attraction with an artificial entrance tunnel. In the early days we had to follow a burro trail across the thorn infested desert to get there; today there's a road that more closely resembles the main runway of an international airport. Cavers have helped with some of the intermediate steps of the progress and enhanced goodwill with those responsible for the welfare of the cave. But otherwise US cavers (with a couple of notable exceptions) have been of little importance in the overall development of the cave, including the cleanup and restoration work done by the TSA Projects held there in the last few years of the '90s. Their commercialization efforts would have gone on without us. We were just an adjunct to everything else. It is my general opinion that the situation and development at Gruta del Palmito would have taken place pretty much exactly the way it did if cavers would never had lifted a hand otherwise. We have not been betrayed despite our efforts in Palmito any more than cavers have been betrayed by the commercialization of, say, Caverns of Sonora. A few Texans served with technical advice but the overall scheme of things was basically a local effort. Cavers can still get off-trail access through prior arrangement. --Ediger
On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 2:14 PM, Louise Power <power_lou...@hotmail.com>wrote: > Mimi, > > I remember one of my first trips down there. I think Orion was the trip > leader, but I'm not sure who else was there. We had just started down from > the entrance on the breakdown slope when way off in the distance we kept > hearing somebody calling "Luz," "Luz". So we all shown our lights downhill > toward the cries and saw 3 or 4 of the local guys crawling around down > below with no light trying to figure their way out. I can't remember how > long they said they'd been in the dark, but it had been quite awhile (or > maybe it just seemed that way). We loaned them a couple of our extra > flashlights and they trotted off toward the entrance. > > Good practical reinforcement of one of the first rules of caving for me > for me on one of my first "big cave" trips--never go without 3 independent > sources of light. > > Of course, mine didn't have the lasting exitement yours did. > > Louise > > > From: mjca...@gmail.com > > Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:32:46 -0500 > > To: texascavers@texascavers.com > > Subject: [Texascavers] Remembering > > > > 40 years ago right about now sitting in the border crossing building on > my first trip to Mexico, first cave trip, first camping trip. Destination - > Gruta del Palmito. Met my own future cave man on that trip, and have never > stopped wanting to go underground. Don't think anyone ever wrote up that > trip, either. > > > > Time flies when you're having fun:) > > > > Mimi Jasek > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com > > For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com > > >
