Yikes Readers...never thought I´d try this one....


Cave diving. I have read Dead Man´s Handshake (a very scary essay in Bonnington´s book Quest for Adventure) and The Darkness Beckons (even more scary history of cave diving, written by Martyn Farr ´at a time when many of the original participants were still alive and available for interview´). That, I thought, would put me off for life.



But, well OK, this was only cavern diving (less serious and more spacious than true cave diving), in a cenote in Mexico called Chac Mool.


A cenote is a freshwater pool forming the visible part of a submerged cave system Some of them extend for miles under the flat landscape of the Yucatan.


Random notes....

• Less scary than I had imagined - good visibility, powerful torch, and 1:1 with the dive master.
• Interesting stuff: a) a thermocline, where the warm water below meets the cold fresh water above, together with b) a halocline: a subtype of chemocline caused by a strong, vertical salinity gradient within a body of water. The overall effect is like a floating mirror-mirage until disturbed,which becomes quite hazy when disturbed. Only visible when you are in it, or very close to it.

• Underwater stalactites and stalagmites, formed when the limestone cave was above ground millions of years ago. 

• Swim around in passageways large and small, stop at an amazing air bell (roof decorated with cave straws) where you can take your mouthpiece out and chat, and generally gawp at the darkness.

• Not deep (12m max), very up-and-down dive profile. 
• Fish in the cave seem to be able to swim between the two layers of water with no problems. How do they do that?  

Climbing at Quetzaltenango (aka Xela), Guatemala

These crags are in the Cerro Quenado to the SE of town. We spent a lot of time searching for access and topo info, and then even more time searching for the crags, so here´s what to do if you´re interested.  

Access: take a taxi (50Q each way - the driver will come back and pick you up if asked) from the main square in Xela to Baues (3-4 km), turn right up a cobbled road to La Muela (2 km, steep), and then Chicua (1km, flat). Crag visible on the skyline above and right. You can get a bus to Baues (ask for the Almolonga or Zunil bus) - only 2Q but you´ll have to walk the rest.

 

Main Crag (above Chicua)

Visible from the road. Head up paths through various weird, makeshift shrines of all manner of Christian denomination (very busy on Wednesdays and Sundays) for 20 mins, steeply uphill. 

About 15-20 routes. The face climbs are bolted, and most are hard (5.11-12), with the first bolts missing, and start in horrible pits strewn with garbage and poo.

There are some excellent-looking cracks, but you´ll need chunky trad gear - hexes and big cams.

Also, there are some nice easier routes at the left-hand end, including a superb bolted arete with 2 finishes (about 5.8 on the right, too windy on the left, at least when we were there!).

Plenty of new route possibilities on blank faces, if you have the requisite bolt-kit and steel fingers

Summit Crags (above La Muela)

We went here on our first day, by mistake. From the edge of La Muela, a track leads up to the skyline crags via a football pitch.  30 mins, steep.


Basically, you´re exploring. There are some interesting pinnacles and unprotected faces (bolts needed), and a few cracks around to the right.


The main pinaccle has a few iron spikes on top, so has obviously been climbed. Accessing the summit via a scramble behind this pinnacle, then a pitch of Diff, then more scrambling, makes for a good adventure. Good views.

Bouldering and new route possibilities in Honduras

We spent a few days at Copan Ruinas over the border in Honduras (good Mayan ruins).

For those seeking a little rock action, there are a couple of crags in the area.

This is the only info you´re likely to find. Don´t get too excited

1) Copan Crag. Above the ruins, to the west, is a hill. Facing the Copan ruins, a small crag is visible just below the skyline. There are a few decent aretes (that look unprotected but solid), and some easy bouldering at the far right end. About 10 problems.

Access: after crossing the bridge leading out of Copan Ruinas towards the Mayan ruins, a dirt road leads up left after about 200m (currently signposted for Macaw Mountain). Walk up this for about 400m and then strike up right almost to the summit of a grassy, sparsely wooded hill (popular with kite-flying kids). Contour round to the right, negotiating a coupe of barbed-wire fences, to find the crag. 

2) Macaw Mountain Crag. This is visible from the town, up the valley past the Macaw Mountain park. It´s an orange-grey outcrop inset high above a steep vegetated slope. A path leaves the road at just the right spot, but we didn´t hike up there. Looks good but hard to get off the top. Access rights probably non-existent. Take a bolt kit, watch the roly-poly possibilities, and don´t get shot.

What Afterlife 

Part 17 and a bit - the Maya today

After the last entry in the W.A. canon, in which a rather baffled author failed to see any afterlife benefits available for the ordinary Mayan civilian in ancient times, much was today revealed concerning the fate of their modern counterparts, ie the larger part of the Guatemalan population.



Henry Crow and his crack team of psi-investigators (well, Linda anyway) found themselves at the hill village of Chichicastanega on market day - a bustling, chaotic bazaar of local goods and wares designed by thousands of colour-blind Mayans on acid.

While we recovered from temporary retinal damage, a helpful local guide took us to a hill-top shrine where the locals worship a deity known as Pascual Abaj -  a god of fertility, represented by a small black rock in a fireplace. A couple of the local shamans were out and about, building small bonfires of offerings and doing a bit of chanting.

It emerged that the modern Mayan has many dozens of gods, many varying between communities, with the main ones comprising a constant triumvirate of sun, moon and rain. 

However, all ceremonies, with the exception of a certain amount of ancestor worship, aim to improve matters for the mortal man or woman, and consist of prayers for crops, rain, health and suchlike. There is no concept of a soul, and no notion of rebirth, redemption, salvation or....gasp....afterlife, that are the stuff of most theologies.

Thus, What Afterlife has drawn a blank with this one. No afterlife. When your dead, your dead, and that´s it.  Not the faintest hint of a whiff of metaphysical ether.


So, nothing to see here, everyone back on the bus....