Organized explorers probably first visited the pit in 1957, when the people of Tamapatz say a group of Mexican and French climbers saw the entrance, but did not descend. Cavers first reached Sótano de las Golondrinas on 27 December 1966. Charles Borland, T. R. Evans, and Ranald Stearns set off from Aquism—n to search for pits and caves and almost randomly located one of the marvels of speleology. After trying to find two leads by themselves in the jungle, they obtained a guide near La Laja who took them up the hill to the pit. Looking in, they could vaguely see the floor in the blackness. It seemed to them to be at least 100 meters deep, so they could scarcely believe it when the sound of the rocks they dropped in took 10.5 to 11 seconds to reach their ears. They knew it was bound to be a pretty deep pit, and with some understatement T. R. wrote in his trip report that "it should prove interesting upon further investigation". Once back home, he estimated the depth of Golondrinas with the aid of a computer at 244 meters.

Further investigation was not long in coming. On 1 April, T. R. led a group of well-equipped cavers to the pit, including John Cole, Sandy Cole, Bill Cuddington, Bill Deane, Dan Hale, Bob Hugill, Squire Lewis, Jon Morse, Sandino Techo, Nancy Walters, and Sid West. Bill Cuddington brought his 360-meter braided Samson rope; all of the rope belonging to the Austin cavers was then being used to push Sótano de San Agust’n in Huautla, Oaxaca. The next day the pit was rigged, and as a group of local Huastecans watched in disbelief, T. R. Evans made the first descent, a half-hour rappel. Gazing around the pit floor, he radioed up, "You won't believe the size of this place!" After 10 minutes or so, the cavers on top called down to T. R. to give Bill Cuddington a bottom belay. But T. R. had wandered so far he could no longer see the rope. Only by following his footprints across the guano did he relocate it. Some of the others came down, and although the whole entrance room was explored, it was not surveyed at that time.

BASE jumping, the sport of parachuting from stationary objects, was inaugurated at Golondrinas by jumper Mark Hewitt in July 1995. BASE jumpers are now the second biggest users of the pit after cavers, with 82 jumpers reported to have done it by 2002.

At the time of this publication, at least two base jumping companies were offering trip packages. Jumpers have used both high side and low side jump positions. Both the landing zone and hazard areas are marked temporarily with yellow caution tape. Typically a jumper will rely on a single parachute, and not carry a back-up chute. After a 4-6 second delay, prior to the halfway point, the jumper opens the chute. In February 2002 a jumper with the Russian Extreme Project tried to set the record for the longest delay. In that he succeeded, but he didnÕt leave enough altitude for his chute to inflate properly before impact, and he broke his leg. He was hauled out with a winch and hospitalized the same day. This is said to be the only jumping injury to date at the pit. Even multi-person jumps have become common, with up to six people at a time.

Since BASE jumpers aren't typically familiar with single rope techniques, jumping companies use a winch to haul jumpers out of the pit. Mark Lichtle of Aerial Extreme and partner Randy Pacheco of Adventure Quest use a custom made winch with gear reduction and capstan heads, powered by an 8 horsepower Honda 4-stroke engine. Custom-made edge rollers pad the lip, and when the passenger reaches the lip, they switch to a rope ladder with belay line to reach the top. Two people plus gear can be lifted in 10 minutes. Mark says that they require that first-timers do a rappel into the pit before jumping. They always have a stretcher on bottom, and they usually remove several bags of trash tossed in by tourists each time they visit.

Perhaps the oddest things to come out of Golondrinas are the so-called "flying rods". These have received considerable publicity on television, radio, and the Internet. An Internet search will reveal a number of sites showing still images taken from video showing rod-like objects with multiple sets of wings. It is said that these do not show up in still photos and cannot be seen with the naked eye, only being detectable on video frames. In the authors' opinion, they look suspiciously like what a green conure in flight would look like, given that the bird would take several wingbeats during the exposure of one video frame.