Cueva Perdida

Some friends who have moved to the states were here for the holidays and wanted to go caving. We of course did too so we had to come up with something that would be new to them, exciting, and safe. This "dry season" has been anything but dry this year which really limits our cave choices. The wanted to do some vertical work but a lot of the caves requiring vertical work are wet. Really wet. We came up with Perdida since we wanted to see it again, Diana wanted to see it again, and Tim and Sherly hadn't been there. There were some other caves nearby Tom wanted to explore but with the late start we just didn't get to them this time. As a surprise Bro decided to show up! The walk is under a mile and since it is cooler now wasn't bad at all! We got to the small entrance and could tell they had no idea what was inside! From outside it doesn't look like much at all. Even the initial entryway gives no clues as to what is inside. Once inside though it is a Disneyland-like terrain of flowstone, chest-high moving water and beautiful formations. This cave is free of trash and graffiti which is another huge plus! We crawled through the entryway and popped out on a ledge above the river. We climbed down into the water and followed it up through formations and between rocks etc. There is some climbing, some crawling, and there are a few surprises in this cave. We came here for the first in 2010 and remembered it a little differently. At that point we had only gone into a dozen caves. Now that we have some experience the cave seemed easy and a lot shorter. It is still one of the most decorated caves we have been too. We went upstream and got to the area where the "white room" was. I had remembered an exciting squeeze under a ledge with low clearance, water up to the nostrils and a small hole leading to a collapse and then the room. This was not where we were. We went up a short climb and entered the room that was white, covered in stalagmites and 'tites and helictites and columns and everything! We marveled at the beauty and took care where we stepped giving Bro a heart attack whenever we were near a white column. This area had been surveyed and we stepped on already mudded areas and tried to avoid clean stuff.

Once we were in the room we remembered all the connecting rooms at the upper level and the tunnels. Instead of going through some nice white connections we went back down to the river level and THEN found what I remembered as the fun part! Under the ledge I went slithering into a little hole so I could find the bigger hole for the others. I shined my light and everyone came up. We climbed the collapse and got up into the pretty spot and had a look around. Then it was back down, into the water and downstream. Bro had gone out a hole downstream from where we came in before so he led the way. It got tighter and tighter and was very wet and Jeff got nervous. He didn't think it went out or at least he didn't want to do it. I went a slightly different way, could see him, could squeeze in a small spot to get to him and traveled down further pretty sure it connected. Bro thought it was the right place too. Since weather was iffy and Jeff wanted to turn we decided to look from the outside, I'd crawl up in there and see if I recognized the spot.

From the outside we went to rinse things off and I climbed up into a little waterfall crack and started following it. I went for about 5 minutes, went back to collect other interested parties (Tim and Sherly) and follow it all the way. We ended up at the spot Jeff had been at! It was a little tight for Jeff but he could probably do it. I really like that kind of maneuvering so it was the highlight of the day for me. I think Sherly and Tim enjoyed that part and the others enjoyed NOT going in there. Turns out there are 3 cracks that lead to that way out - we'll call it the "waterfall way." This is a really nice cave with a little of everything - water, formations, climbing, squeezing. It has everything we go caving to see and the walk isn't taxing. Another visitor is coming in a week and might not want to miss this one...Adam? There are so many caves to see it is hard to choose but I can recommend this one and would return again. Since our time on island is limited I am being kind of choosey with what I do now. I don't want graffiti and trash and starving animals to be what I remember. If Perdida is the final cave I do here I am happy with that (we already have done another one though that would be a good one to end on also!). It does look like we will be here possibly for a majority of the dry season - good to get in as many caves as possible!

Espero Volver de Cueva Perdida!

Sunday's journey was another fantastic one that involved driving a bunch, parking where you know some people, walking for an hour into jungle on "trails" and then looking for a small set of boulders with a little opening as the clue that there is something spectacular underground! You have to go with someone who knows the spot or you will never even stumble upon it. As we found with this one, even going with someone who has gone before there are new treasures to be discovered inside ... especially when you are in the Lost Cave (Cueva Perdida). Why is it called the "Lost Cave?" Well, you can easily get lost trying to find it so in a way it is "lost" out there in the jungle. Once inside, the name of the cave makes a lot of sense when you start taking side holes, or scooting into the water on your belly and coming up somewhere totally different that leads to other tunnels or holes or rooms or.... So here we are at the entrance of the cave (yes, it is those clustered boulders behind us) having some water after hiking for an hour or so. Our little group was Iraida, Bro (the leader), Ron, Jeff, myself and Edward? (sorry I forget)

The entrance of this cave did not give any clues as to what was inside. The opening was small, and white and not really decorated. Definitely we were crouching or crawling (depends on your flexibility and size). Here's a photo of Ron maneuvering into the cave.

After the tight passage it opened up and we could see the river below. We could go up river or down river and we went to the left up river. We went down into the little gorge and looked back to try to remember where the exit was. Things always look different on the way back!

The journey started out with terrain sort of like Cueva Zumbo - kind of caramel colored and sculpted. The water was very cold!

We walked around in the cold water following the river for a while.

There was a lot of flow stone (what I call ice cream sundae formations). It was very beautiful and still gave no clue as to what the rest of the cave would be like.


Many areas had large stalactites and stalagmites and flow stone. Everything was dripping and interesting looking. We got to an area Bro had been before and he asked if we wanted to crawl on our bellies into the water to look at a collapsed area. I immediately said yes which got others to agree. Jeff didn't want to get wet this early in the trip and didn't like the little space. Bro went first and couldn't really see the way in. There was a very little hole so after he came back out I went in and slithered up into that hole and peeked around and found a larger way for the others to enter. This area was a bunch of boulders that were collapsed. I started immediately exploring while the others were coming in and was absolutely amazed to find a startlingly bright, white, fully decorated area leading to another room!!!! This area was super bright white with straws everywhere and extremely fragile formations. I am small and flexible and careful so I entered the area to see where it went. Pictures cannot come close to showing the whiteness and delicateness and expansiveness of this area. I had my pack off and had to go on my belly to avoid breaking off straws.

I am calling it the Icicle Radish Room because of the color and the formations and the gnarly, twisty radish looking teeth growing from the ceiling. We all took a very careful look before going back out. There is some extensive surveying going on in this cave and SEPRI isn't doing it. I would sure love to join in on the surveying. After we were out we continued back up river and Bro found another white room that he had been in. After going farther in there were even more side tunnels and holes that he hadn't explored and we had big discoveries of more beautiful, white, breathtakingly fragile areas.

We turned around when a couple people slipped. When you start getting tired it is easy to make mistakes that will lead to real trouble. On the way back every side hole we could peek into turned out to lead somewhere and have more side passages that did not necessarily connect to places we had seen. Now we understood why this was the "Lost Cave" - you could easily follow your excitement and never come out!

I really wish I could take a better camera here - there are spectacular formations and everything is drippy...some of the sorbetos (straws) were 2 feet or longer. There were so many detours you could make but they were small and you had to leave the pack behind and definitely could not and should not drag or push anything down these areas.


Every tunnel offered a new room or another white area that was highly decorated. Unfortunately there were some broken formations on the ground. I think there must be some compromise between mapping and documenting an area that is this delicate - do you just expect a certain amount of breakage and believe it is worth it to document information about it? Limiting access is a great plan but not everyone knows their limitations or abilities and sometimes sheer excitement takes over before the brain kicks in.

We were in this cave for 6 hours or so - it was almost 8 hours from and back to the cars.

So we had to leave the white rooms and leave exploring other side shoots for another time. We went back to the darker river bed and started heading downstream.

Besides the flow stone this cave had a lot of the "fudge formations" that Los Chorros had - the dark, chocolaty, soft looking stalactites.

The passage looked completely different going back. You start to notice things you didn't see on the way in and start thinking that maybe you could be going a different way? Fortunately the river is the river and it leads us out. We just have to look for the one familiar formation so we can climb up and head out the confined area to the sunlight. Once we were out we went down to another "entrance" to wash ourselves off in a small waterfall and in the river bed. I have never had so much fun or been so dirty ever! This other "entrance" was really constricted and since I had done so much climbing around I left that, too, for another day.