British Cavers and the Mexican Army...
March 27, 2004
Holy small world. We went into Cuetzalan again, last Saturday night with some friends, expecting to find our British friends again- which we did, but found them in a rather intense mood as six of their friends (two of which we had gone out with before) had been trapped in the cave that they had been waiting to go into for the last three weeks (couldn't before, due to rain). Our friend Jon asked us to not tell anyone (although he managed to talk rather openly about it all in a bar, granted, in English). The next day we went to check our email and again, found the Brits in there, totally stressed out since the word got out somehow, and that the Mexican military had shown up- all of the locals were very angry since the Brits weren't accepting Mexican help when really, not a single one of them speaks Spanish and hadn't a clue what was going on. That, and they had better equipment and knowledge anyway. And then, the story got out that since they hadn't asked for permission to do their training there and were on tourist visas, they must be doing something bad, and that "something bad" came out on Puebla news as mining Uranium for nuclear bombs for England!!! They were held under military control (unfortunately robbed of their personal things, including a digital camera that had a picture with us with the Brits in it that made the news for all of San Miguel to see)... The last bit was that Reid and I were taking our break between morning classes (actually, our students hadn't showed up since half the town went down to the cave sight instead) when we ran into three british reporters who interviewed us about the whole thing. crazy.
Anyway, after 11 days of being in the caves, they were saved last Thursday, and flew home yesterday. Aubs and I saw an army truck go through San Miguel yesterday, but no army guys have come knocking on our doors yet (our students and locals were ready to put up a fight for our ligitimacy here!). Whew, well, I just had to get that one out. If you're interested in some photos or the story, check out either the BBC or CNN website, and type in "Cuetzalan Cavers." There's a map and a ton of pics (non of which we are in though...).
Hope all is well with you all! Talk to you soon,
Rachel
