Together with the Americans of the Forest Service and with the staff of the Reserva El Ocote we descended again the canyon of the Rio La Venta in five days’ time, locating more precisely all the springs connected to the rio.
Surveys in the zone of the Selva del Mercadito and Bochil opened new promising fronts.
A tenacious group penetrated in the heart of the Selva El Ocote for about ten days. Beyond the exploration of several pits, it was discovered a big sòtano yet to be descended. The Ombligo del Mundo, reached again, was photographed at nighttime.
Near the rancho El Arco, Los Joaquines colony, we gave an introductory course of speleology to the rangers of the Reserva el Ocote. Two boys of the Adolfo Lopez Mateos colony and a young biologist from Cintalapa joined us.
The territory of the Nueva Jerusalèm colony hosted an advanced camp to explore the Cueva de San Vicente, a large resurgence discovered in the nineties. Huge galleries lead in about half a kilometer to a large siphon: excellent material for our speleo divers and for the next expeditions.
More participated the ten days’ camp at the La Florida colony, which consented to explore extensively the territory of the near colonies Castillo and Mirador. Here the major results came from the Sistema del Castillo, a collector of 5 km with 6 entrances, which was explored, surveyed and documented. There are other caves with interesting developments: the Castillo 4 (800 m), the Cueva del Convento(700 m, maybe a resurgence of the Castillo system), but over all, the splendid Cueva Aguacerca (1,5 km),; the floor of this cave is covered in pisolites, sometimes re-concretioned.
In the Carranza zone a cave of about 1 km was explored. It continues but it wasn’t explored more for a lack of time; moreover, the last day we spotted in the Rio Vertiente a large resurgence: it probably drains the plateau of the Florida.
A strong team of Spaniard-Mexican speleo divers took the siphon of the Cueva del Naranjo (near the rancho El Arco) to 320 meters of development and 30 of depth. They dived also in other places, like the Cueva del Convento and in others siphons of the Castillo system.
A mixed group of nine Italians, two Mexicans and eight Costa Rican completed the transverse route of the magnificent Cueva del Rio La Venta. We managed to improve the equipment of the walls, making them safer and, in some cases, taking them outside the water. At the route took part also Cesare Raumer, thanks to his contribution the whole cave was equipped with stainless-steel material.
Several meetings with the Municipalidad de Cintalapa, with the Reserva El Ocote and with the members of the interested colonies consented to program the next surveys. Some of our members took also part in some assemblies of the local communities.
The work of the latest three years was presented in a crowded public conference at the Casa de Cultura of Cintalapa. It has been an excellent occasion of confrontation with the institutions and with the population. Thanks to the president of the municipality of Cintalapa, Guillermo Toledo and to the responsible of the tourism department, Laura del Pilar.

And now what? We’re all at home and we have to put in order all the material collected: maps, photos, land registry data, various data and information. At the end of the year a project arranged with the Reserva El Ocote is going to end, and for this occasion we are preparing a special publication. The project includes the settlement of the speleological land registry of the area of the Rio La Venta, and with a good chance it will be renewed for the next three years.

So many irons in the fire, and we have already projected another expedition in the autumn. We are deeply linked to these places. And we are grateful to all who keep on believing in our projects. Like the participants to this expedition: Tullio Bernabei, Natalino Russo, Leonardo Colavita, Carla Corongiu, Francesco Lo Mastro, Francesco Sauro, Vittorio Crobu, Barbara Mancini, Norma Damiano, Ferdinando Valentino, Giorgio Annichini, Silvia Gambato, Umberto Del Vecchio, Roberta Tanduo, Elisa Gandelli, Alessandra Lanzetta, Cesare Raumer, Pasquale Calella, Antonia De Vito, Silvia Arrica, Laura Pala, Giuseppe Giovine, Gianni Todini, Paolo Forconi, Clarice Acqua, Luca Sgamellotti, Alicia Davila, Kaleb Zarate Galvez, Cecilio Lopez, Pepe Pez, Lucas Ruiz. Besides Johanna Kovarik with three colleagues, and eight friends from the Grupo Espeleológico Anthros (Costa Rica). Thanks to all our local collaborators, among them Arturo Farrera, Quintin Acosta Cruz, Roberto Escalante, Efren Ramos.

Institutional sponsors and partners: Municipio de Cintalapa, councillorship of tourism, Reserva de la Biosfera Selva El Ocote and with the help of Paolo Forconi
Sponsors: Amphibious, Bialetti, Boscarol, De Walt, Dolomite, Ferrino, Intermatica, New Foods, Powertrek, Raumer, Scurion.

Cesco, Natalino, Tullio, Leo.