Man Rescued Alive After 15 Days Trapped in Underwater Cave in Complete Darkness

August 19, 2026

A fisherman who disappeared inside an unexplored underwater cave in Mexico was found alive 15 days later, after specialist cave divers pushed deeper into the darkness and refused to give up hope.

Harry Gust, Erasto Crisanto Valdez and Rosso Rivera / Credit: Divernet.com

Erasto Crisanto Valdez, 31, had been fishing with his father near San Francisco La Paz in the Uxpanapa region on July 23 when he entered a cenote and became lost inside the cave system. Uxpanapa is located in southeastern Veracruz, a state in eastern Mexico.

His father initially tried to find him before seeking help, and a large search operation followed. Relatives, local residents, civil protection personnel and Mexican Navy divers all took part, but the difficult cave proved nearly impossible to search.

The underwater passage was largely unexplored and unmapped, with visibility of less than a meter, sharp rock formations and few safe opportunities to place a continuous guide line.

After more than a week, the mission had essentially become a recovery effort.

Then experienced cave diver Harry Gust joined the search with fellow diver Rosalino “Rosso” Rivera.

On Gust’s first day inside the cave, he spent 75 minutes searching through the darkness. He eventually discovered a small spare air tank roughly 100 meters inside.

The discovery suggested Valdez had made it farther into the cave than rescuers had previously realized.

Gust returned the next day and continued searching near the abandoned tank. About 30 minutes into the dive, he discovered something no one expected.

A large dry chamber.

Gust called into the darkness to see if anyone was there. Then came an answer.

“Yes!”

Valdez had been alive all along. He was sheltering about 10 meters away in a recess inside the chamber, where he had spent the previous 15 days waiting to be found.

“I assured him that I was coming back for him with more help,” Gust recalled.

The rescuers knew getting Valdez out would be extremely dangerous. He was severely dehydrated and had spent more than two weeks in darkness. They also had to bring him through roughly 100 meters of underwater cave passage with almost no visibility.

But there was no question they were going back.

Gust and Rivera returned to the chamber, where Rivera helped Valdez reach the water. Valdez then breathed from Rivera’s diving cylinder as the rescuers carefully guided him back through the cave.

Once they reached the surface, rescuers placed him on a stretcher and carried him up the steep mountain approach to an ambulance.

He was taken to a local hospital, where he remained under medical care while recovering with his family.

Somehow, Valdez had managed to survive the 15 days underground.

He told officials that after becoming lost, he discovered an air-filled chamber and found water he could drink. There was no daylight, leaving him unable to tell whether it was day or night.

“It was pitch black,” he said. “I couldn’t see a thing out there.”

He also said that he kept his faith during the ordeal.

“I kept my faith in God,” Valdez said.

In another account, he recalled the strange way time seemed to disappear while he waited in the darkness.

“Those 15 days felt like only three days to me,” he said.

Valdez said he spent his time sleeping, praying and drinking water while waiting for someone to find him.

On the day he was finally rescued, he said he was praying when he heard bubbles and saw a light before hearing Gust calling into the chamber.

For the rescuers, finding him alive was a moment that turned an increasingly desperate search into an extraordinary rescue.

“The rescue operations involved an unprecedented deployment on land, river, and air, guided by the firm conviction of not giving up until finding him,” the Municipal Government of Uxpanapa said.

After 15 days in complete darkness, Valdez finally saw the light again.

And because a team of rescuers refused to give up, he got a second chance at life.

Valdez in the hospital / Divers emerge with Valdez