A number of years ago, I was chatting with the guard at Guadalajara’s 1,000-year-old Ixtepete Pyramid, located at the west end of the city. As is my custom, I naturally asked him if he knew of any caves in the area.
“Right up there,” he replied, pointing toward a high ridge above us, “That’s el Cerro del Colli and people say there’s a deep cave with smooth walls somewhere on top.”
Of course, the following weekend found my caving friends and me at the foot of Colli, trying to figure out how we were going to get to the top of the nearly vertical 200-meter-high wall facing us.
Eventually we found a very steep trail and we reached the top, where we discovered a beautiful forest and several lookout points offering spectacular views of Guadalajara. Fortunately, we did not find the cave, which a University of Guadalajara professor later told us was, in reality, a vent through which hot gases occasionally escape. “You could easily have been cooked alive had you gone inside it,” he warned.
Please login or subscribe to view the complete article.