Caving In Panama

It is accurate to state that James Cobbett is directly responsible for drawing Pegasus members attention to the potential of cave in Panama.  With his wife, Marilyn and his three sons, he departed the U.K. at the dawn of the twenty-first century to set up permanent home in Panama City.  Soon after their arrival, now seemingly a long way from any known Limestone, he began to make forays into the interior; often only accompanied by his sons, to investigate rumours of bottomless pits and caves full of treasure. Since establishing his home, (a very comfortable advance base camp, organized and coordinated by the overwhelmingly hospitable Marilyn), he has become the focus for those with an interest in all things connected to Panamanian caves; he has, in turn, amassed a significant volume of data on known caves of Panama. Such is the quantity of data that it may be considered a Panamanian Cave Database.
 
Among these "family" trips James has managed to discover and conduct exploration of Panamas longest and deepest caves; quite the  achievement when one considers their remote location and shortage of available experienced support personnel. Further  expeditions explored cave potential throughout the length and breadth of the isthmus each with varying degrees of success. The Team's publications continue to generate interest resulting with further data being received by James. The first associated Pegasus expedition occurred in 2005, with James, Stuart,(Mac),McManus, Rob and Helen Harper, (Harper & Harper 2005); an American, Keith Christiansen too conducted an exploration contemporaneously; his research emphasis concerning the bat population in doing so he very kindly passed on to the team sites of speleological interest to push to a conclusion. It should be said that the pristine jungle environment has presented physical obstacles yet the fun, laughter and effort to discover cave significantly outweigh the difficulties endured when such trips are conducted in the presence of mates.