Sometime around 1990, several Austin cavers were planning a trip to ridgewalk in the Sierra de Guatemala just north of Joya de Salas. ( feel free to correct me on that )
They were armed with aerial photos take by Peter Sprouse and some rumored leads. At the time, Rolf Adams (R.I.P. ), a young aspiring speleologist from Australia was staying in Austin. I somehow managed to sneak under the radar as a stowaway in Brian Burton's (R.I.P.) new 1989 Ford 4x4 Bronco. I think Mary Standifer rode with us. In the other car, a 1986 4x4 Toyota 2-door 4Runner, was Bill and Rolf. Our first stop was to swim in Nacimiento del Rio Sabinas. ( been there several times since ) Anyways, the most memorable part of the trip ( for me only ) was that my entire 26 year old life I had been thoroughly brainwashed that Ford's were the best and imports, especially Toyotas were junk. [ Sidenote: My biological father was a card-carrying 40 year member of American Automobile Workers Union, although he was a career employee of Bell Helicopter. And my grandpa was a WW2 Veteran, and as anti-Jap as one could be. And my step-father thoroughly instilled in me that companies outside the USA, illegally cloned all American technology. ] Back to the Bill part. Bill taught me on that trip how wrong I had been taught. The 4Runner could go places the Bronco could not, and was 10 times more reliable than the Bronco. When I got home, I gave up my dream building the infamous SpeleoStationwagon ( a 1972 Ford Country Squire ), although I did not trade in it in for a Mazda until about 1994. Anyways, we did not find anything noteworthy that I recall. Somewhere in my storage unit is probably a sketch that I made of a solo trip into a tiny 60 foot pit near our campfire. The next day Rolf did a quick bop of something like Sotano de San Francisco ( which was 2 feet from the road trail up the mountain before you get to a house marked Julilo on the 1985 era topo-map. I think Rolf said it was a blind pit about 75 meters deep. It is listed clearly in "Caves of the Inter-Amercan Highway." [ a book sold to me for $100 from Pete Lindsley ] Did he rig to the Toyota bumper ? Maybe Mary Standifer recalls more than I do. D.L.
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