Another fantastic cave trip! This one was especially good because it was just the two of us and two guides. So we got to ask lots of questions and take our time. It's about 15 minutes down a bumpy road in the back of a truck to get to the trail head. Then about another 15 minute hike to get to the cave entrance. This is through thick, dense jungle. at the cave entrance we found two different types of bats, small fruit bats and even smaller insect bats. They create these round holes in the ceilings from their guano. The holes are usually around 10 to 12 inches in diameter and maybe 6 inches deep. You can see the guano collecting on the floor and you look up and there they are hanging from their feet. the ceiling is only about 10 feet high so they are really close to get great views of what they look like. The fruit bats stay real close together in a ball in the hole. The insect bats were spaced very symmetrically apart, like they ad a specific amount of territory for each bat. We saw many clumps of the fruit bats. I'm guessing 10 or more clumps and maybe 10 or more bats in a clump. We only saw only a couple groups of the insect bats each with about 8 to 10 bats spaced in two rows. You could tell what kind of food they ate because when you looked down in the guano the insect bats left insect skeletons and with the fruit bats they left seeds.
We also saw crickets and scorpion spiders. The scorpion spiders are not considered spiders because they only have 6 legs. they have two large pincher's in front that look like a scorpions, thus the name. There was also this huge cockroach about 4 inches long. I've seen these in zoos before but, never in the wild. It was huge! We also saw a big toad a little further into the cave. He was about 6 inches long and 3 or 4 inches high.
We walked through a dry section of the cave and then started skirting a creek that was running through another part of the cave. Yet another beautiful case with tons of tiny straw stalactites and curtain stalactites, stalagmites and huge flow stones formations. at times we waded through the creek when you could not avoid it but, it never got above our knees. The cave was, I'm guessing 1 1/2 to 2 miles long. They told us it was three miles but, it didn't seem that long to us. Many times the ceiling came down so low we had to crawl on hands and knees. One spot was so low I had to crawl on my belly to get through. we had on backpacks and did not want to hit the straw stalactites hanging from the ceiling for fear of breaking them odd. We stopped at one spot, took off our packs and climbed up to another dry chamber where they still had fire pits fro the Mayans. We saw some animal bones that were used as needles with small holes at one end to thread the needle. there were also small blades made of obsidian that were used to cut tattoos and shave their faces. Beautiful formations many similar to the ATM cave but, this cave really had a different feel to it. We climbed back down from the dry section and continued up the cave following the creek. One formation that was really different had these terraced flowstone formations that caused small terraced pools to form. this one area reminded me of a miniature grand canyon. Some of these formations were really large with dozens of tiny pools terraced along the surface reaching 20 feet or more high. I have never seen anything like these even in National Geographic specials. they were unbelievably beautiful. At one point we actually had to climb up of these terraced pool formations. I felt really guilty for walking on these. I tried to take a few steps as possible. At one point one of our guides, Arnold, spotted a crayfish. I guess they can get a foot long in these caves. This one was more like the normal size for a crayfish. He picked it up so Dave could get a good picture of it.
When we got about half way through the cave we stopped to take off our packs and put on our harnesses and life jackets. There is one waterfall that we climb that is hard and high enough that we have to belay each other. Rock climbing in a cave. Never thought I'd be doing that. We also have to swim a number of pools to get to the next waterfall. there are six waterfalls in all. Dave fussed around a while trying to get ready. We had him take off one of the shirts he was wearing so he'd have something dry to wear when he got back. We jumped into the first pool and swam across to the first waterfall. The river was flowing strong enough that I had to swim hard to get to the waterfall. Then I climbed up to the next pool. One of the guides had gone on ahead of us to set up the belay for the second waterfall. We swam the second pool, one at a time and were belayed from above the second waterfall. Dave came behind me and when he got up to the next pool, he wasn't wearing his life jacket. Somehow, in all his fussing around, he forgot to put it back on. So, one of the guides had to go back for it. The second climb was pretty hard. It was about 20 feet high and you were parting in the waterfall while climbing up. The force of the water made it really hard to lift up my foot to the next foothold. I finally had to use my knee because I didn't have the strength to lift my foot as high as I needed to to reach the foothold. it's wasn't really a technical climb. the handholds were really beefy but, it was slicker than snot and the water force was so strong it was all I could do to bring my arm through the water to get to the next handhold. That was quite a feeling. The chamber of each pool was about as wide in diameter as the pools but much higher. It was exhilarating, let me tell you. We waded and swam across four more pools and waterfalls until we got to the last pool. Then we jumped into the pools and swam back the way we came. A couple of them were a little nerve racking to jump. One of them you had to maneuver yourself above the waterfall using the rocks on the sides of the fall and then push off the sides of the rocks far enough out not to hit any ledges right below. Another one we had to hit just the right spot without hitting this rock wall that jutted out right above where you wanted to land. The 20 foot jump was just very high not very technical. I was more concerned about the ones where you had a narrow landing spot with rock outcroppings you had to avoid. :-) I felt pretty waterlogged by the time we got back to our packs. I managed to get one good nose douche from the jump where I had to push off the rock sides with my hands and feet. I couldn't get my hand to my nose fast enough to prevent water from entering that time.
We got back to our packs and met the other guide who gone on ahead to do something. We found out that he had been setting up for lunch. We came around a corner and there he was with lunch all laid out. There was this huge triangular flat rock in the middle of the trail and he had spread a white linen tablecloth across it. There were plates, utensils, cups and all the makings for lunch. Fresh tortillas, shredded cabbage, sliced tomatoes, cheese and cukes, ham, boiled eggs, mayonnaise, mustard and juice. What a glamorous setting. That was my first lunch in a cave and what a lovely experience it was. All the hard hats were positioned around the eating area with the lights pointing at the table. It felt like a candlelight dinner. After lunch we packed it up and headed back to the cabana.
When we got back there was a troop of military personnel getting ready for survival training. Apparently, Ian Anderson's also does survival training in the jungle for the military. As we were getting cleaned up and resting in our cabana, some of the personnel came out of the jungle behind of cabana a pair at a time. One had his lg in a kind of splint with a stick and Velcro straps to hold it in place. He was using another stick as a crutch to get around. He was leading his partner who had his head all bandaged up so that he was blind. So it was the gimp leading the blind. A pretty funny site to see.
A little later, just before dusk the howler monkeys started howling. Wow! Are they loud! It's also a really eerie sound. What a great way to end a terrific day! Unfortunately, Dave has all the pictures of this trip. I didn't take my camera since it is not water proof.
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