La venta

Underground worlds, remote areas, awesome corners of paradise; this is what the explorers of the La Venta speleological association have continued to seek for more than a quarter of a century. The name derives from the gigantic Canyon del Rio La Venta in Chiapas in southern Mexico (stage of the group’s first major undertaking), but also the site of the La Venta Olmeco archaeological site, famous for the monumental head in granite with Negroid features, whose origins are still shrouded in mystery.
With the valuable collaboration of leading archaeologists and assiduous film making and reportage of their work, the founding members have won this Italian association well-deserved international notoriety and prestige over the years. Among the best-known of the La Venta expeditions are the exploration of the Venezuelan tepui, gigantic quartzite massifs lost amidst the forest, the descent into the underground world of the Selva El Ocote (the famous “black hole” in Mexico), and the challenging surveys on the Viedma glacier in Patagonia and on Vatnajokull in Iceland.
Since 2001, the main efforts of the association have been dedicated to the exploration of the Cueva de los Cristales, in the depths of the Sierra di Naica in Mexico. For this scope, collaboration with Ferrino and the Department of Physics of the Torino University proved fundamental in the designing of Tolomea, the cooling suit with conditioning breathing devices that allow researchers to tolerate the 50°C in the cave for about 80 minutes. An eternity under such conditions.

www.laventa.it