Finca Ixobel - Part II

We join our muddy, sweaty cavers just as they enter the cave and the water …
That’s when we lose the Dutch girl. She is not a very good swimmer. She turns the corner into total darkness, meets the strong current and decides that this is more than she is prepared to do. She turns around to wait two hours at the mouth of the cave for us to return. Her boyfriend is continuing on. I don’t know his name, but I think of him as Dutch.
We scramble, chest deep in the rushing water, clinging to the left wall of the cave. Fifteen minutes pass and we reach water too deep to walk in. It’s time to swim. This is a welcome break. The hike to the cave has been strenuous and it’s a struggle to stay balanced in the heavy flow of the water. It’s an easy swim with the current. It’s more that enough to propel me forward. I kick and paddle only enough to keep myself away from the porous, jagged, muddy walls of the cave. Most people are struggling with the 3″ flashlights that they bought at the Finca for 18 Quetzals ($2.00 USD). Some are clasping them in their teeth; others are swimming with one hand and holding the flashlight above the black water with the other. Geoff and I have our headlamps. When we put them on at the opening of the cave we were given funny looks by our twenty something companions, but I’m sure they are looking like a great idea to them now. The guide places candles in opportune crevasses in the walls so that any stragglers can find their way. But the light from the candles, just like the light from our flashlights, is consumed by the encompassing darkness. The cave is about 50 ft wide and so high that the beam from our flashlights barely reaches to roof. We swim about 50ft.
There are three rounds of swimming followed by walking waist deep in the cool current. We swim to a dead end. The darkness of the cave makes it hard to tell how fast or how far I’m traveling. It’s very disorienting and I’m losing all sense of time. I’m treading water, then the guides’ points out an opening about 8″ high and 12″ wide - too small to cross without going under water. This must be the one mentioned during our intro. I look up, there are bats hanging upside-down on the ceiling. There are no verbal instructions. I tread water and watch the guide and a few other people go before me. The drill: grab the piece of rope put there for crossing, duck under the water to the other side. My turn comes and I’m not feeling so sure about this. I’m a little winded from swimming and treading water, and it’s so damned dark. I can see some light from the flashlights on the other side coming through the small opening, but I can’t hear anything over the echoing sounds of the rushing water. I take a few seconds to think about this. I can see that I’ll only have to swim for about 3ft, but I’m going to get jostled around - need to be careful to not get scraped up by the rock walls on either side… need to be careful not to come up too soon or I’ll crack my head open on the rocks. I’ve wasted enough time and other people are waiting. I gasp in a winded breath and duck under. I have a white knuckle grip on the rope, nothing is going to make me let go of this thing. I kick with my legs to move forward and us my free hand to keep a safe distance from the rocks all around me. The water rushes even more strongly in the narrow passage and it comes at me from all directions. Even though it’s only a few feet I’d be disoriented without the rope. I rush to pop my head out of the water as soon as I feel with my hand that it’s safe. My heart is racing. I’m gasping for air. It’s only a few feet, but it felt like ten. No time to rest. Geoff crossed before me and we need to catch up to the main group and the guide.
We all swim to the other side and climb unto a flat area. So far we haven’t come out of the water but for this five foot stretch. Back into the water to shimmy waist deep along the wall. The river is turning into rapids. I don’t look around at anything but the wall passing by under the light of my headlamp. I’m not wasting my concentration on anything else. I plan each step carefully along the cave wall: feel around in the dark water for solid footing, find two good hand holds in the crevasses of the rocks (sometimes under water, sometimes above), release my standing leg and balance myself while pulling forward. I’m careful because if I loose my grip I’ll be swept down river into the pitch ahead. I guess I could grab at a wall if I fall, but that would mean serious injury. I can tell by the pattern of the water that their are frequent shallow spots. The rock so jagged and porous that it reminds me of a coral reef. It would cut me up. And grasping at the wall while I was getting swept away wouldn’t be easy. Don’t slip either - there are pointy rocks that could easily impale a knee or calf. “Don’t think about it” I tell myself a few times. “It’s only going to freak you our and you won’t pay attention to what you’re doing”.
The guide stops frequently to let us regroup when we are too spread out. I only lose him completely from sight when we reach a 40ft wide wall that I have to shimmy across above the water. I didn’t see it coming because I am so intent on my current position. Geoff’s in front of me at this point. We climb out of the water and move slowly across the wall on 1″ foot-holds and hand-hold. I realize that I am rock climbing for the first time in my life and there are no ropes, no carabiners, and there are now white water rapids raging below me. That’s why we are climbing the wall. The rapids have turned ugly and it would be impossible to swim or walk along the wall in them. That is where we almost lose Dutch and Mike the 24 year old Canadian we had gone out drinking with the night before. Dutch is a timid guy of small stature that has been struggling to keep has glasses on through all of this. There are so many water drops on his glasses that I wonder if he wouldn’t be better off without them. He gets about five feet and mutters in German, then he shouts over the sound of the rapids that he’s had enough. He will wait here for us to come back. Geoff and I cling to the wall and look at each other. Struggling to be heard above the noise of the rapids, Mike yells “This is a lot more than I expected. I’ll wait here with him”. Geoff shouts at me “What do you think?” I yell back “I don’t know” …