I am delighted to announce that my wife, Susy Pint, the co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico,” has penned a new book entitled “Una Mexicana en Arabia” (A Mexican Woman in Arabia).
The title in itself suggests an unusual perspective, but the pages of the book reveal that the author was the only woman ever to have participated in field trips of the Saudi Geological Survey aimed at seeking out and studying the country’s desert caves. Her participation was at the instigation of her cave-happy spouse, but her perspective is more than that of a Mexican woman – it is also that of a gifted writer and philosopher. She’s the only person I know who can wax poetic after crawling on hands and knees through a tight cave passage filled with mud and bat guano.
“Una Mexicana en Arabia” is written in Spanish and was published a few weeks ago by Editorial Agata in Guadalajara. It has 184 pages well-illustrated by 57 color photos and costs 250 pesos. A book launching is expected to take place in October.
A native of Zamora, Michoacán, Susana Ibarra de Pint and I set out in 1973 to teach our way around the world.
“We began in South Korea where we knew neither the culture nor the language,” she says, “working at Yonsei University as teachers of Spanish and English. After two and a half years, we moved to Spain, then to France and eventually ended up in Saudi Arabia where we lived for some 12 years.”
In her Introduction, Susy says, “When I arrived in Dhahran, I encountered an unexpected surprise: our housing compound at the University of Petroleum and Minerals was lush and green, filled with trees I didn’t think could exist anywhere in the country. The following morning, not long after the muezzin’s call to the dawn prayer, I began to hear the songs of an incredible number of birds. I opened my eyes trying to determine whether or not what I was hearing was part of a dream – but it was real! To this chorus of birdsong was then added the strident chatter of parakeets. Now, this was surely impossible ... but it too was for real. Thus I learned that this compound was an oasis created by the families of the first oilmen in the country, who, by trial and error, had discovered plants and trees that could thrive in this extreme climate. As for the birds, some of them were migratory species which, while passing over Arabia, had decided to stay and had adapted so well that they were now reproducing without problem. Other non-native species had got there for other reasons. In the case of the parakeets (Psittacula krameri, the Ringneck Parakeet), which are from Africa and South Asia, they most probably escaped from their owners and little by little formed their own social groups. At any rate, considering that I am a fervent bird lover, I must say that these first moments had a very special importance for me, and more so because I was beginning to know beforehand that my life in this country would be unlike anything I had ever experienced before ...”
The book can be purchased from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Fortunately for those who don’t read Spanish, Susy and I plan to present some joint Powerpoint shows in Guadalajara and Ajijic on our experiences and discoveries in Arabia. Watch the Reporter’s calendar pages for an announcement.
(If you don’t know Spanish, you will find an English version of the story of the Dharb al-Najem in Chapter Seven of John Pint’s book “Underground in Arabia,” available from Amazon.)
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK (Translated from the Spanish)
CHAPTER III: DHARB AL-NAJEM (THE PLACE WHERE THE STAR FELL)
It was a Wednesday – the last day of the Saudi work week – when we left Dhahran in the middle of a heavy rain that kept the Land Rover’s windshield wipers operating at top speed. It was five-thirty in the evening; our destination: Majma’ah, a city located 280 kilometers northwest of Riyadh, the capital of the kingdom. Fortunately for us, through the falling drops, we could glimpse on the far horizon a limpid blue sky tinged with rose and orange, indicating that this phenomenon, so uncommon in this part of the world, would soon leave us behind.
Inside the Land Rover were the four members of our little expedition, whose goal was to explore Dharb al-Najem, a deep pit not far from Majma’ah, to which the local people had attributed various legends. On top of that, because it had never been explored, some tales insisted that it had no bottom.
“One day I threw a Pepsi can full of stones into that pit and I could hear it clattering and bouncing off the walls for 16 seconds,” a British geologist had told John, and ever since, he had been obsessed with the idea of finding that mysterious abyss.
Curiously, all four members of our group had different nationalities: Ron Kummerfeldt was from Kenya; Abdulaziz Al-Agili from Saudi Arabia; John from the United States and I from Mexico …
A few kilometers ahead of us we could distinguish a dirt rampart forming an enormous circle about 60 meters around. That was our destination. This rampart was a barrier built by the local people to avoid driving into a huge black gaping maw in the desert. Excited, we immediately got down to work. Ron parked the Land Rover just beyond the rampart so we could attach our ropes to it – the normal method for anchoring a line in the deserts of Arabia. The main rope measured 110 meters and the backup 50.
John and Ron prepared their rappelling and ascending gear. John would go down first and Ron would follow him. It was impossible to see the end of the rope far below, but the two adventurers imagined it could not be more than 100 meters to the bottom. As John began his rappel, several rock doves fluttered out of the black hole in disarray, surely not happy to witness an invasion of their home, which for generations had remained inviolate. I now took the camera and through the telescopic lens I could follow John as he disappeared into the distance, until he seemed transformed into a tiny spider suspended from a delicate thread ...