Contact!

Sometimes all you have to do is put your doubts in writing and they are suddenly, miraculously, relieved. I returned to the hostal after writing my last post to find that Rosio and her assistant, Flor had just arrived there to meet with us. They have to coordinate with one other person, and hope to leave tomorrow with us to arrange for the mules and horses, and then head up to the cave on Wednesday. I'm so relieved I could melt right here.

We have permits in place to survey, take photos, and document the surface materials, but the permits for excavation have not come through yet because the government agency which controls such things (the INC) has a new director, everything has been restructured, and paperwork has become extremely backlogged. So, someone will have to come down from the cave periodically to check the status of the permits. But, at least we know what we can do for now, and even that portion will keep us plenty busy for a while.

I will post again before we leave to catch you up on whatever transpires for the rest of the day. Oh my gosh, what a relief.

Karen