Cueva Chorros, San German Puerto Rico

Some exciting times right now. This weekend Cassie and Britton (blog friends and now real friends) arrived 2am Sunday morning to purchase their home in Rincon, Puerto Rico. To take their minds off of the anticipation of waiting until Monday to close on their house we invited them caving. Another friend, Mar, is leaving the island so she came along as a farwell activity along with her boyfriend and another friend. I had also not been to this cave - Jeff went with our friend Rob a couple months ago while I took a break from a heavy week of caving.

The trail was lined with mother-in-law's-tongue (sanservia) which is a houseplant in the US. Always cracks me up to see "houseplants" in the wild jungles here! Britton is making his way on the path.



The caves on this part of the island are older than most in the north which makes them interesting even though they are not river caves aren't as extensive as the northern ones. It seems like there are more obvious geological striations. The light colored material makes them seem brighter also. This looks like a seam or zipper ready to peel the wall open.

 

It is always interesting to see all the different angles that rocks have shifted into or grown into. I really enjoy looking at the design of the caves. There is a lot of natural "art" below ground. Cassie seems to enjoy looking around at all the interesting things. This cave is quite open with big rooms and not much crawling or climbing. Not quite as interesting for me, but any cave I haven't been in is interesting because you never know what you will see. Someone spotted this baby tarantula creeping around on the Maria Tree nuts. It was perfectly symetrical and had furry little legs. Then there were some large formations that looked like alabaster  sculptures or porous leg bones or maybe a bent over swan neck of...endless possibilities if you've got an imagination!

 

I thought this looked like a city-scape with a waterfall, pool, and some landscaping. In reality the "water" is just calcite on the rock and the pond is maria tree nuts with some seedlings nearby. Still, I get a lot of landscaping ideas from natural scenes like these.

No cave is complete without bats and this one has a nice room with a lot of bats in it. I love feeling the wind from their beating arms and I like hearing their busy little chirps.One of the entrances had some "beam-me-up" sunbeams coming through it. It was either a "god" or "sci-fi" moment. Sci Fi for me. Bring me up with the tractor beam please. I'm not sure if Mar is avoiding bats or peeking around here.

Here the wise old owl guards to passage-to-somewhere. A nice afternoon that wasn't too long or too strenuous. Some pizza and a Cofresi dark beer at Faccio's...good company and many great days ahead.