Fisherman Found Alive in Underwater Sinkhole 15 Days After Vanishing

A fisherman who vanished while fishing with his father was found alive 15 days later inside a pitch-black cave that rescuers could reach only by swimming through a long flooded passage.

Erasto Crisanto Valdez, 31, disappeared on July 23 near San Francisco La Paz in Mexico’s Uxpanapa region after entering a cenote while fishing.

Crisanto later said he had followed a fish farther into the cave system than usual before losing his way back out. Local reporting said he was pursuing a snook when visibility deteriorated and he eventually ran out of air. He later recalled losing consciousness before waking inside an air-filled section of the cave.

For more than two weeks, his family, local authorities, civil protection crews, Mexican Navy personnel and specialist divers searched the difficult underwater system. Search efforts involved land, river and air resources, but initially produced no sign of the missing fisherman.

At one point, searchers reportedly located Crisanto’s harpoon inside the cave system, offering an important clue that he had traveled deep underground.

As the days passed, hopes of finding him alive began to fade.

By the time specialist cave divers Harry Gust and Rosalino “Rosso” Rivera joined the operation, they were preparing for what was expected to be a body-recovery mission rather than a rescue.

Then came an incredible discovery.

While penetrating farther into the underwater cave, Gust found a small emergency air cylinder roughly 100 meters inside the system. The clue suggested Crisanto had gone much farther into the cave than previous teams had been able to establish.

Gust returned and continued searching.

On Aug. 7, after reaching the end of the underwater section, he called out into the darkness.

Someone answered.

Crisanto was alive.

He had somehow survived for 15 days in a substantial air-filled chamber beyond the flooded passage.

The area was completely dark, with no daylight or other way to determine whether it was day or night. Crisanto later said his sense of time became so distorted that he believed he had been trapped for only about three days.

“I couldn’t see a thing out there,” he later recalled, saying he could only hear the water around him.

He survived without food, spending much of his time sleeping, praying and drinking water available inside the cave. Reports described a flowing water source within the dry chamber that appears to have made his survival possible.

Crisanto said he never gave up hope that somebody would eventually find him.

On the day of his rescue, he reportedly heard bubbles and saw a light before hearing Gust calling to him from the flooded passage.

The discovery immediately transformed what rescuers believed would be a recovery mission into a highly technical rescue.

Gust and Rivera provided Crisanto with breathing equipment and began guiding him back through roughly 100 meters — more than 300 feet — of submerged cave passage to reach safety.

Once outside the cave, rescue workers carried him on a stretcher up the steep terrain to an ambulance. Video released by local authorities showed crews transporting the exhausted fisherman following his remarkable rescue.

Crisanto was taken to a hospital suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition after going more than two weeks without food. Authorities said his condition would remain closely monitored by doctors.

Despite everything he endured, Crisanto was reportedly recovering and was finally able to reunite with his family.

Speaking after the rescue, the fisherman credited his faith with helping him survive the ordeal.

“Thank you God for giving me another opportunity at life and letting me see my kids and family again,” he said in a local television interview. “It was a miracle — an unbelievable miracle.”

Officials also praised the enormous rescue effort, which brought together government agencies, local crews and specialized cave divers.

The Municipal Government of Uxpanapa called the operation a “historic achievement,” saying rescuers refused to give up during the 15-day search.

And for a mission that rescuers believed would end with the recovery of a body, hearing one voice answer from deep inside the darkness changed everything.