After not a lot of sleep last night, we arrived early for our meeting with the architects. This first picture is the garage floor showing where it fell into the cave. They were jackhammering out the hole for a water cistern and that added a lot of stress and probably caused it to open up.

First thing he told us is that it is not uncommon for them to find caves under these old houses, the Yucatan is riddled with them including in the city. He then pointed out the lighter layer above the hole, he says that is a very thick limestone layer and is very strong. If we hadn't broken through it with the jackhammer we would not have known the cave was there.

You may have to click the first pic to make it larger to see the detail.

The dark band above that is dirt and above that is cement and a layer of old pasta tiles and then the concrete of the garage floor.

Then he told us they had found momposteria columns in the cave supporting the floor above. It's the same thing the walls are made of, chunks of limestone and cement, and shows that the builders did know the cave was there. You can see one of the columns in the second picture.

Heather wins the prize for wondering about this in the previous comments. What's the prize? How about our new tour of Merida underground?

This next picture shows a close up of another of the columns. There are several back in the cave under the office and garage.

Mimi took these pictures today. She really got down inside there. Yes, Rachel, I thought it was awesome of her too. Kathe, she didn't go far back into them, just enough to get the flash in there a bit. It was clear that the masons or maybe even one of the architects had also been in there and looked around.

There are shelves in there (pic at right) that are very similar to ones we've seen diving in cenotes here, cenotes are just caves with water from underground rivers in them. It was damp in this one but that could have been from the recent rains that came in the front door - which is a whole 'nother story.

So, what is the solution you ask? The plan is to build a perimeter wall inside the hole, using the same techniques used for the columns when the house was built. It will be made of momposteria, chunks of rock and cement. Then the opening under the cistern will be filled with rock taken from the back. Then rebar and concrete flooring will go over that and then the cistern will sit on that floor. They are confident this will hold the weight of the water in the cistern and the Jeep parked on top of that.

What about the weight of the house? That was my next question. They tell me that the wall that is load bearing runs the width of the house and that it is supported by the original columns and by solid rock on either end, the cave is not that wide. I agree that the lenghwise wall is not load bearing as that is the one we moved when they made the hallway slightly smaller and enlarged the garage. Mimi also said the end of the cave she could see did not go near the sides of the house. So, it sounds good. What the hell!

As for the spot in the hallway where the floor collapsed into the cave, they are going to break it out more to see the extent and then fill it with rock and concrete.

One plus, with the bottom of the wood door frames exposed we could see some termite damage so while everything is open before the floor goes in, they are going to call in the termite guy to spray and put some kind of poison barrier in there against termites. The only place that has wood are the old door frames and I want to keep them so this will help. Everything else is built of stone and seems in good shape.

So, the saga of Jonna and Mimi's cave is about to end. We both wished there was some way to keep it and use it for something but it is in a bad place for that. I suggested a large fish pond in the garage but no one seemed to think that a good idea. Mimi said we could use it as a root cellar but then, what roots and in the garage? It's the Colorado winters making her say that. She did say that it was very cool in there. Mainly, I still wish it had been in the backyard and we could have used it for a pool or a pond. More house updates to come, this is too long already.