Cueva Monte Grande

Jeff did some research and found an article about a cave, Cueva Monte Grande in San German/ Cabo Rojo. He mentioned it to Tom who of course knew all about it and on Sunday Jeff and I went out to search for it with some general information about its location. We drove past a quarry and then started looking up and saw a limestone rock face with a suspect crack. I figured we should talk to neighbors to confirm it before climbing up and also to kind of let them know why the white ass gringos were roaming their streets. We found a couple men working on a car and Jeff of course wouldn't try talking so he turned around so my side of the car would be closest to them - no problem. They knew about the cave but as always just gave a general hand wave in the direction of it (this is not always helpful). The woman painting upstairs spoke English and had more to say, mainly that it was "closed." We read that it was an archaeological site. We headed off, parked kind of near some houses, and started up the slope near a dry creek bed. When we arrived up top there was indeed a chain link fence kind of blocking the entrance (or at least at one time it blocked it). There was a big slit of limestone that just seemed out of place and once in it the cave entrance was to the left.

There were some petroglyphs. Some of them appeared "real" and others look like maybe real ones had been tinkered with. This one looked real. There was a small group of them at the entrance and we didn't see any inside nor did we see anything else that looked like an archaeological thing. The cave was good size, but really was one big main room with an upper side room that didn't go anywhere. There were two skylights that let a little light in.

The most impressive thing about this cave was the sound. It sounded like the sci fi shows where the replicators are taking over the space ship...lots of clicking and rustling of cockroaches...BIG cockroaches.

They were hatching out of these little pods on the floor...not really, these are Maria Tree seeds the bats have brought in and the cockroaches were crawling all over them making creepy replicator sounds.

There was evidence of a lot of bats but we didn't see many. Here's Jeff inside the main room. I think it looks like eyes.

After exploring we headed out to explore the limestone for more possible caves, the skylights, or in general the unknown. Tom had told us about a spring and we found this on the backside of the cave.

I found one hole I couldn't drop in to and then Jeff found this one that he wanted me to check out. I don't know why I always get sent in...he could have fit in to at least peak and see if it went.

It required me to take the helmet off and do a tummy crawl but then it opened up and I could stand.

I went about 30 feet maybe and there were some formations in it. Then it dead ended after curving to the right on one side and left on the other.

I have no doubt that I am the only person who has gone into this spot. That is what caving is all about...scooping the booty! We didn't see any more holes to explore so our short afternoon of exploration was over and we were home in 35 minutes.