BOERNE, TX—At a popular site for cave explorers throughout the U.S. and much of the world, we reached out to the men and women who spend their free time wandering around inside holes in the rock to see what it is they love about their pastime.
"Well you see, there's lots to like about spelunking," shared veteran spelunker Justin Corazon, 44. "There's the restaurants on the way there, some of the hotels are pretty okay. I like sending postcards to family from the local towns. But I guess the main thing that drew me in was the chance to say the word 'spelunking' all the time."
It turns out that the actual cave exploration is not often the appeal for its fans. "Think about it," continued Corazon. "How often does spelunking come up in everyday conversation? Like, hardly ever, right? But it's a really fun word to say. 'Spelunking.' 'Spelunking.' It's like your tongue is doing a somersault inside of your mouth, or you're drinking a cool glass of lemonade at the beach. Or it's like that feeling you get when you finally get out of one of those godforsaken caves."
Corazon is not the only one whose main goal in cave exploration is using its associated vocabulary. "Spelunking," replied Arizona couple Ted and Marsha Shelby. "Call it 'spelunking' or we won't answer your questions."
In fact, out of the 50 spelunkers with whom we spoke during our visit to Boerne, 47 of them revealed that the main attraction of spelunking was the word "spelunking."
Veronica Zander, 30, who was next going to visit Carlsbad Caverns, put it this way, "Sure, there are a few psychos out here who actually enjoy the caves themselves. But even for them it was an acquired taste. Think about it. Caves are usually cramped, too cold or sometimes too hot, they're usually wet, they're always dark, and there're creepy creatures lurking in the dark. Nobody in their right mind says to themselves, 'Hey, let's go have an awful weekend crawling on our hands and knees through some holes in a hill!' It's insane."
Zander continued, "but you say to me, 'Hey, want to go spelunking?' All of a sudden my ears perk up, my blood gets flowing a little, and I'll do anything to get to say 'spelunking' myself. 'Yes, spelunking sounds delightful,' I'll say. 'Spelunking it is.'"
Many of the locals seem to understand the verbal draw as well. Tina Garrett, 54, has owned and operated a gift shop related to spelunking located near the cave destinations. "You see, I'm smart. I love saying 'spelunking' as much as the next girl, but I figured out a way to say 'spelunking' all the time without ever going inside of a cave. To this day, I've never seen the inside of a cave with my own eyes. I just operate this here gift shop, and then whenever anyone comes through my doors, it's 'spelunking' this and 'spelunker' that. I once said some form of 'spelunk' 324 times on a Saturday back in '02. Now that was a good day for spelunking talk."
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