Here Diana is entering the coffin tunnel. It starts out low and then gets lower so you have to crawl on jumbly rock. There was more water here than I remembered and the tunnel was longer than I remembered.
After emerging from the coffin we then encounter the "luge." This section looks like the sports track and I can hear the roar of water in my imagination - a roar that carved out this curvy waterway. We are now knee high to waist high in water. I had forgotten how cold it was. When I get migraines I get irritated at nothing, glare bothers me, sound and light bother me, smells REALLY bother me and the cold bothers me. Sometimes I see floating colored circles move from the right to left in one or both eyes and sometimes a pupil will blow out and I get "sci-fi eye." It is creepy. Anyway, I started getting cold.
We went through this area and traveled some more until we met up with the junction where we needed to hang a left. Look at the ceiling of this cave - it is white and smooth and kind of other-worldly.
At the branch I made a critical error and decided to leave my pack. This is always a mistake. I had made an error and brought my non-waterproof "good" camera since the cave was beautiful. I had intended to take shots of interesting features and of surveying in action. Hah! So the camera is in 2 zip locks which are difficult to open with muddy wet hands. The damn thing won't focus and I am starting to have trouble with just the cave climbing itself. I opt to leave the camera and bag at the junction while we survey. Big mistake. (didn't I just make this same mistake in Cueva Lechuga?) So we start the surveying and it is slow going as we have to climb muddy slippery spots and breakdown and the inclinometer is giving us problems (it does this a lot). We didn't bring the measuring tape (which always works). Because this section of cave has some turns and some big piles it is hard to get a line of sight. We do our best and then I just max out and can't function. I go back to the junction for my pack which has water, food, migraine medication and a warm fleecy surf shirt in it. There are enough people to continue the surveying which is good. I go back, pop the pill (which didn't work because I waited too long), put on the warm shirt, ate something (the wrong thing) and drank something and then headed back to catch up with everyone. I got to one spot where it was difficult to tell how they continued on. It had to be over or under and both ways looked a little difficult. I figured it out and joined up with the group at the end of the line. I did manage to push a little passage that Brett couldn't or didn't want to push. I really couldn't go that much further than he did, but it was far enough for me to signal with a light and he could see that the light went to a lower room that was a dead end. There were really nice bacon formations and shields. There was still water. It dead ended and we started the way back.
On the way back all I wanted to do was get out. The physical exertion was not good with the migraine thing and I just wanted to be not moving. Being in the dark was good but seeing the headlamps of the others was not so I basically ran ahead as fast as I could muster so I could get out and just stop. I didn't think I was going to get through the coffin tunnel. Moving my head and crouching was hard. I was going to stop and rest when Jeff told me we were at the entrance. I LOVE caving but I have never been happier to get out of one! Here is the squeeze out. So I went through the squeeze, climbed up the first section of rope and then the second section and ran out to the car as fast as I could. I just covered my eyes and laid on the trunk in the warm sun until Jeff came 20 minutes later with the car keys. I slept in the back seat and tried not to throw up. I rested for as long as I could and was dreading the 2 hour trip back. We had been in the cave for a little over 5 hours. Jeff wanted to eat with the others so we stopped for an overpriced meal at El Taino Restaurant (I brought my own raw food). After that I felt a little better and more able to manage the trip back. Monday still sucked but today I feel pretty good. So it was a great cave adventure that I really didn't have a great time at but that doesn't happen much.
After emerging from the coffin we then encounter the "luge." This section looks like the sports track and I can hear the roar of water in my imagination - a roar that carved out this curvy waterway. We are now knee high to waist high in water. I had forgotten how cold it was. When I get migraines I get irritated at nothing, glare bothers me, sound and light bother me, smells REALLY bother me and the cold bothers me. Sometimes I see floating colored circles move from the right to left in one or both eyes and sometimes a pupil will blow out and I get "sci-fi eye." It is creepy. Anyway, I started getting cold.
We went through this area and traveled some more until we met up with the junction where we needed to hang a left. Look at the ceiling of this cave - it is white and smooth and kind of other-worldly.
At the branch I made a critical error and decided to leave my pack. This is always a mistake. I had made an error and brought my non-waterproof "good" camera since the cave was beautiful. I had intended to take shots of interesting features and of surveying in action. Hah! So the camera is in 2 zip locks which are difficult to open with muddy wet hands. The damn thing won't focus and I am starting to have trouble with just the cave climbing itself. I opt to leave the camera and bag at the junction while we survey. Big mistake. (didn't I just make this same mistake in Cueva Lechuga?) So we start the surveying and it is slow going as we have to climb muddy slippery spots and breakdown and the inclinometer is giving us problems (it does this a lot). We didn't bring the measuring tape (which always works). Because this section of cave has some turns and some big piles it is hard to get a line of sight. We do our best and then I just max out and can't function. I go back to the junction for my pack which has water, food, migraine medication and a warm fleecy surf shirt in it. There are enough people to continue the surveying which is good. I go back, pop the pill (which didn't work because I waited too long), put on the warm shirt, ate something (the wrong thing) and drank something and then headed back to catch up with everyone. I got to one spot where it was difficult to tell how they continued on. It had to be over or under and both ways looked a little difficult. I figured it out and joined up with the group at the end of the line. I did manage to push a little passage that Brett couldn't or didn't want to push. I really couldn't go that much further than he did, but it was far enough for me to signal with a light and he could see that the light went to a lower room that was a dead end. There were really nice bacon formations and shields. There was still water. It dead ended and we started the way back.
On the way back all I wanted to do was get out. The physical exertion was not good with the migraine thing and I just wanted to be not moving. Being in the dark was good but seeing the headlamps of the others was not so I basically ran ahead as fast as I could muster so I could get out and just stop. I didn't think I was going to get through the coffin tunnel. Moving my head and crouching was hard. I was going to stop and rest when Jeff told me we were at the entrance. I LOVE caving but I have never been happier to get out of one! Here is the squeeze out. So I went through the squeeze, climbed up the first section of rope and then the second section and ran out to the car as fast as I could. I just covered my eyes and laid on the trunk in the warm sun until Jeff came 20 minutes later with the car keys. I slept in the back seat and tried not to throw up. I rested for as long as I could and was dreading the 2 hour trip back. We had been in the cave for a little over 5 hours. Jeff wanted to eat with the others so we stopped for an overpriced meal at El Taino Restaurant (I brought my own raw food). After that I felt a little better and more able to manage the trip back. Monday still sucked but today I feel pretty good. So it was a great cave adventure that I really didn't have a great time at but that doesn't happen much.
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