This week I have been mostly sending of applications for sponsorhip and writing emails to the rest of the team. Got some good news today that PowerTraveller - https://powertraveller.com/ are going to sponsor us!

We've also had a new team member join the expedition - Jon Lillestolen from the U.S.

There are only just over 3 months to go until we leave and so much to do that I seem to be spending each day writing long lists of everthing to work on - not enough hours in the day, but we'll get there!

Been another busy couple of weeks since the last blog. Firstly Laura Trowbridge has joined the Mexico team so now our whole team is looking really strong. The website has been updated with her picture, Artur’s picture and Gary Jones so you can have a look at their mug shots! Then last week Artur and Chris were in Spain doing some rebreather exploration dives. Good practice for Mexico, the first dive was 5 hours long with a max depth of 80m and the second 4 hours and down to 63m.

Another busy week (well almost two weeks since the last blog but it's been that busy!). Last weekend was Hidden Earth - the annual caving conference so I was busy getting ready for my Culiembro presentation and getting the video from this years expedition ready for the video competition. I also used the presentation on the Sunday to promote the Huautla expedition and get even more people behind it. The weekend was excellent and we also gathered a large group together for the Xitu-Culiembro dinner to celebrate the connection we made this summer over a curry.

As most members of the Huautla team were there at Hidden Earth we took the opportunity to discuss some of the arrangements for the Mexico expedition and there are a few actions points for everyone to come out of that.

Also in the run up to last weekend, Analox -(providers of diving gas analysers) - www.analox.net agreed to support the expedition which is great news. We are pleased to have them on board! Mike Bottomley delivered the brochures we are going to be using to raise more sponsorship and these have been printed for us by Johnmasonprinters www.johnmasonprinters.co.uk

Finally we also got work that the Ghar Parau Foundation have agreed to support the expedition as well so now things are really starting to take off!

Wow - what a week it's been. Firstly Artur Kozlowski - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0910/1224278569802.html said he wanted to join the team, which is great news.

Then we got news that Jason and the Pozo Azul team had laid another 3,650m of line in sump 3. This makes them a world record breaking team!http://www.metro.co.uk/news/840950-british-led-dive-team-break-record-with-8-8km-cave-dive 

At the same time i've been getting more sponsorship applications off and engaging with companies. Brett at DiveLife is now involved in supporting us which is fantasic. DiveLife have supported several cave diving expeditions recently and it's a pleasure working with them. http://www.divelife.co.uk

 The brochure for recruiting new sponsors has gone to the printers and should be ready in a few weeks - they are helping out and supporting us as well. www.johnmasonprinters.co.uk 

Finally - I've been discussing expedition logisitics with Bill Stone (what an honour) and then have started reading 'Blind Descent' which tells the story of exploration in Cheve led by Bill and features Jason Mallinson and Rich Hudson (who are part of the Huautla team).

The Expedition goes into the field in less than 5 months - wow that is soon and there is still a lot to do. Recently I've been sending off grant applications to various bodies and we have more of those to go. Then it will be on to the commercial companies to try and get some sponsorship from them. Our brochure should be printed off pretty soon so that it can be sent out to these companies - so fingers crossed - We'll be updating the website when people offer to support us.

We'll be having our first proper expedition meeting fairly soon and i'm sure the rate of progress will pick up after that, however there are still some big things for us to sort out before then so we'll be working on those in the mean time. Our current plan is flying to Cancun with lots of excess baggage - buying / renting what we need there then getting it all to the cave. So big issues are sorting out someone we can borrow/hire kit off and how we transport it across Mexico. Hopefully some local contacts will come up with the goods here!

This is the first blog entry but this should become a regular thing. Some weeks it will be text like this, some times we'll have pictures and I'll also do some video blogs. I'm hoping that we'll also be able to get other members of the expedition to contribute so that this is a team blog (though I suspect some people will be better than others!!).

cheers,

Chris