The drownings took place one of the two large river caves beneath the commercial cave, named in one article as "La Chonta."
I have been on that same section of cave with mostly a group of Austin cavers. ( The trip where the filmed it using a railroad-train headlight. ) I did not wear a life-vest or a wetsuit, but I did have on proper gear for a tropical river trip. I doubt any of these eco-tourist had anything like Bata boots, neoprene socks which really come in handy on river-caving trips. The news article claims the river rose. That might have caused them to get sucked underwater especially if they had no idea how to float in current or they did not have enough light to figure out what was going on, or all of the above. My speculation is they held hands, or grabbed each other, and that is about the worse thing one could do in a drowning situation. They certainly must have both panicked, or one drowned trying to save the other that they thought was going to drown. One sad part to all of this, is that eco-tour ideology at that cave has killed numerous students. Isn't this the 15th drowning on an eco-tour there in the last 20 years ?? Notice all the tactical Federales in the photos, as if somehow they have a clue how to manage a cave rescue. That clearly shows some of the different cultural aspects to caving in Mexico. The Federales probably had uzi's on them. La Chonta is not a beginner caving trip, but it could be properly lead by an experienced caver at the front and back if everyone knew how to swim, and had proper gear and given some kind of proper explanation of the trip prior to going in. Since the other 17 people made it out okay, it must not have been a huge unexpected rise in the river. It is sort of hard to go back out upstream towards the entrance ( actually the middle entrance to the system ). Isn't this the dry season down there ?? I was probably in the cave during a low water, or regular flow, as there were sandbars and rocky beaches near every curve in the passage. Below is a recent news article in Spanish about the incident. http://surestesur.com/encuentran-muertas-a-jovenes-que-se-perdieron-en-las-grutas-de-cacahuamilpa-guerrero/ David Locklear Here are some more articles, but I don't see anything new in them http://nfl.com.mxwww.zocalo.com.mx/new_site/articulo/mueren-dos-hermanas-en-las-grutas-de-cacahuamilpa https://noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-noticias/localizan-cuerpos-jovenes-desaparecidas-grutas-cacahuamilpa/ https://www.bajapress.com/noticias/mexico/guerrero/dos-hermanas-mueren-arrastradas-por-rio-en-grutas-de-cacahuamilpa
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