Hike to the Caves

Clarissa has been keeping a journal of our vacation that she writes in with a giant blue pencil from the Guanajuato market. She wrote an entry about our hike to the caves on Saturday. Clarissa, Skyler and I enjoyed them deeply.

We climbed the road to the Bufa for a half hour checking out the view of Guanajuato. We went straight to the deepest cave which is called either Garrett's Cave, Skyler's Cave or Two-way cave, depending on which one of us you talk to. The entrance is a tight squeeze and quickly separates into two passages. The left tunnel slopes down into a subterranean pool of water. The right tunnel continues deep into the mountain, but we turned around after forty yards. Skyler turned off the flashlight for a second so we could get freaked out by the darkness.

This reminded me of the time I visited a commercial cave in Chiapas in which the lighting system wasn't working. I rented a weak flashlight from an Indian woman who was selling jewelry at the entrance. It gave off less light than a lit cigarette and I had to thump it against my thigh avery ten steps to jiggle the batteries when it went out on me. Altogether, I went in about half a mile. I was never worried about getting stranded inside. I just assumed that some tourist with another weak flashlight would eventually come along and step on me.