British Cavers and the Mexican Army...
March 27, 2004
Well, two things actually...
First, there are new pictures on the same web page:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=fqyvc1l.5g8f54h&x=0&y=-14s7do
Second- 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
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