it felt as if the morning didn’t come fast enough.
we decided to put on fewer layers today because we knew we would be doing a little more hiking, and it was going to over 100 degrees. i threw on the lin ss t-shirt and helby put on his (insert name of cargo shorts and button-up here) and we set off out the door. we met the guides in the same spot at the same time as yesterday and quickly made our way on another dirt road out of town.
i couldn’t believe this road was worse than yesterday. i don’t know roads got this bad, period. back home, i was used to traveling the backroads, but i’ve never seen them quite as gnarly as this. it was the relentless potholes, sharp turns, and steep inclines that made my stomach start turning again. not to mention, the drivers in mexico don’t necessarily see the roads as bad. the locals push their vehicles to the very limit - driving as fast as they can. of course, our little chevy didn’t have the best clearance or thick tires for that matter, so i thought i was going to look back any minute and see one of the tires rolling off the side of the cliff. were we going to fall off and bottom out?
surprisingly we made it to our first destination for the day, a hanging cave that was about a mile hike through a coffee farm on a stone trail that was made back when the spanish settled 100s of years ago. i don’t think i have ever seen or touched anything this old.
our guides talked the whole way about how they used this trail as a shortcut to get from the coast to mexico city and give the king fresh fish whenever he wanted. this trail was no joke, one of them said (translated by helby). they passed off livestock, fish, and vegetables in a relay race format so they could reach the king within days of his request.
helby and i listened to him talk the whole way there and the whole way back. seeing multiple caves, one of which had a catholic shrine dead center in the middle of it. “wow” was the only thing that came out of my mouth all day. i couldn’t make up any words for what this place was, or how it affected me, or how it left a huge impact on helby and me.
we drove a little farther down the road and reached the main cave. the gigantic rock wall was covered in greenery with a huge crack running up the middle and reaching the top at around 150 meters above the river. my eyes couldn’t quite adjust to the vastness of this place. then, i suddenly saw a little pack-raft at the base of the crack. people were emerging out of the cave with their headlamps on. i could see them shining their lights on the rock walls as they came back into the light and rowed to the shore where we were standing. helby whispered, “i think we might be next”. giddy, i climbed into the boat putting my equipment in a dry bag, and our guide started rowing us into the cave.
the cave went about .3 miles back. as we traveled we left all light and sound behind. i asked how deep the water was. One of our guides told me it was about 60m deep.
at the end of the cave, we turned off all the lights and i let out a gasp as darkness surrounded us. i felt myself come alive as if i was in a sensory deprivation tub. i was on high alert, in complete blackness with my eyes wide open, and no sound. our guide turned the lights back on and showed us the end of the cave, then we turned around and started rowing back. helby and i glanced at each other. we were both thinking how crazy this was.
we got back to the little sandy beach we started from. the locals were jumping off the rocks along the shore to cool themselves after a long, hot day. i didn’t realize how sweaty i was. it was at least 100 degrees now, so we decided to jump in. the turquoise water felt good on my skin, washing all the sweat away. helby changed into his riptide shorts and jumped in after me.
We didn’t want to leave and spent the rest of our time swimming through the still waters and watching boats go in and out of the cave, like clockwork. finally, it was time to go. we visited with some more locals on our way out and decided to find a celebratory margarita and explore the streets of zongolica when we got back to town. it was the end of yet another perfect day.
