Camuy River Cave
My apologies for the long delay twixt my first Puerto Rico post and this one. It's been a very busy month what with us packing up our home and moving to temporary housing on Jacksonville's Southside. Steve is back in Puerto Rico, so now I'm trying to get these blogs written. I go back to the island myself in four days, so I'd better get with the program!
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I've always enjoyed visiting caverns. I've seen caverns in California and Tennessee. Luckily, Steve enjoys them, too, and together we've visited caves in Virginia, Kentucky, and England. So when we heard about the caverns near the Camuy River, about an hour's drive from Aguadilla, we decided to go see them. Christa had never been in a cavern before, so it added an extra layer of fun to the journey.
This cavern system is the third-largest in the world, and the River Camuy runs through it. The cave is nestled within a 300-acre park. A trolley takes you down to the cave entrance. You're given an audio player and headphones as part of the tour. Unfortunately, my unit's battery went dead about ten minutes into the tour. It would have been nice if the people bothered to check battery life. But then, the place really wasn't well run.
The lighting was minimal and essentially useless. It didn't really highlight any of the features. And you weren't allowed to use a flash, so the bulk of my photos are too fuzzy to use. The tour guide, while pleasant, seemed a bit bored by it all. She spent a lot of time chatting with a local family. The path was extremely slippery because the rocks are always wet (90% humidity does that), but the only safety feature available was an equally slippery handrail. And about 25% of that was unusable because it was covered in bat guano. It cost $18 per person to visit here. For that price, I expected more.
As we left, I said that this cavern ranked at the bottom of all the ones I've seen. Steve agreed. Even Christa was underwhelmed, which was a shame since it was her first cavern. Don't get me wrong, there was some beauty to the place. It's the first cave I've visited located in a tropical location, and the exterior points were interesting and pretty. It just wasn't presented as well as it could be. And I'm really frustrated with the poor quality of the photos. I really need to make time to learn to use my new camera!
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I've always enjoyed visiting caverns. I've seen caverns in California and Tennessee. Luckily, Steve enjoys them, too, and together we've visited caves in Virginia, Kentucky, and England. So when we heard about the caverns near the Camuy River, about an hour's drive from Aguadilla, we decided to go see them. Christa had never been in a cavern before, so it added an extra layer of fun to the journey.
This cavern system is the third-largest in the world, and the River Camuy runs through it. The cave is nestled within a 300-acre park. A trolley takes you down to the cave entrance. You're given an audio player and headphones as part of the tour. Unfortunately, my unit's battery went dead about ten minutes into the tour. It would have been nice if the people bothered to check battery life. But then, the place really wasn't well run.
The lighting was minimal and essentially useless. It didn't really highlight any of the features. And you weren't allowed to use a flash, so the bulk of my photos are too fuzzy to use. The tour guide, while pleasant, seemed a bit bored by it all. She spent a lot of time chatting with a local family. The path was extremely slippery because the rocks are always wet (90% humidity does that), but the only safety feature available was an equally slippery handrail. And about 25% of that was unusable because it was covered in bat guano. It cost $18 per person to visit here. For that price, I expected more.
As we left, I said that this cavern ranked at the bottom of all the ones I've seen. Steve agreed. Even Christa was underwhelmed, which was a shame since it was her first cavern. Don't get me wrong, there was some beauty to the place. It's the first cave I've visited located in a tropical location, and the exterior points were interesting and pretty. It just wasn't presented as well as it could be. And I'm really frustrated with the poor quality of the photos. I really need to make time to learn to use my new camera!
The view as the trolley approached the cave entrance.
The cave entrance.
A natural skylight
I've not yet had time to learn much about my new camera. I started using just automatic presets, but they couldn't handle the low light of the caverns. The settings I made enabled me to get a few quasi-decent photos inside the cavern. Like this one of the main chamber.
What appears to be a profile of an Indian located on the roof of the cavern is only discernible as you enter. The angle on exiting fails to cast the right shadows.
This is the cave's largest stalagmite. It's easily nine or ten feet tall.
It looks like you're looking out of a mouth with jagged teeth.
The guide joked that the cave even had a "Star Wars" feature: Jabba the Hut.
The misty exterior. It wasn't hot at all, but the 90% humidity clung to me like a wet blanket.
Another cave entrance that's not part of the tour.
Steve taking photos with his iPhone (which I think look better than the ones I took.) That's the cavern we toured behind him.
This fresh mountain spring is claimed to be the Fountain of Youth. Christa and I tried it. It was cool and refreshing. Steve initially declined, but he finally gave it a try when we didn't die.
Water cascading down the mountain side.
A view of the rock face as we sat in the tram ready to go back to the park entrance.
A view of the forest. The roof of the cave entrance was covered in purple Wandering Jew.
Bromeliads grow all over the place here.
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