Cueva YuYu on Saturday

This is a nice cave we have been in more than a few times. It is really neat but full of water and very cold. There was a short section of cave we hadn't finished surveying and that was the point of the trip. This cave is probably the furthest from our house - about 2 hours. There is no good way to get there by car and even the jungle walk is kind of convoluted. We drove, parked, hiked and arrived later than usual due to a later start. Tom, Diana, Brett, Jeff and I were on the trip. There is a rope coming down the "wet" entrance. There is also a "dry" entrance to the cave that isn't really dry...just drier.

After we were all down the rope we found the first station and started the survey leap-frog style. I'd find the station, Diana would come and take over, measurements would be taken and recorded and I'd hop to the next one.

The water in the upstream section was only ankle high - just high enough so we'd have wet feet the whole time. The water in this cave is very cold. Here's some nice flow stone. Photographing in this cave is hard because it is so wet and misty. It is hard to survey because the water is loud and you can't hear yelling over the water sounds. More formations.

I thought these layers were very interesting. Wish I could make a waterfall like this in my yard! Flow stone always looks like dripping candle wax or ice cream sundaes to me. The rock is wet, colorful and at interesting angles. More ice cream cone stuff.

What started out as a "short" (we know better) trip turned into a bunch of hours as we fully explored some previously unexplored little holes. Brett is coming down this one. I went up it and Jeff got tired of waiting for me and left. I went up, and up some more, and over in a small crawl and up some more, up some more and it was very interesting. I got to a place that went up again but I needed some rope and someone else around if I were going to scale it. It was a vertical rock about 6 feet tall that might have gone even further up! On the way out it was difficult since it was muddy, I was alone, it was part breakdown (which is like a maze) and hard to go down things I had come up since I could only fit feet first and with my stomach to the rock - which meant I couldn't see. Thankfully Brett was there as I was working my way out. He answered my calls and then fit through this hole to shine his light so I could work my way out! Then we both backed out and joined the others. These small spots always seem ok going in but are difficult coming out of! There is something creepy about coming down when you can't see what you are doing and it is too small to turn or anything. You just have to commit. Here's the river level passage.

So after all our investigating we headed back up the ropes. After an error on the rope I lived my 9th life I think. I thought Tom was off the rope, and he was but his pack wasn't. The pack was stuck and I headed up a loose rope. Thankfully the carabiner on it was wedged firmly between a couple rocks and there was a ledge for me to teeter on so I could get off rope, dislodge the pack, he could pull it up and I could get back on and continue up. It was precarious on the ledge and I will be much more careful listening for "off rope" and shouting "on rope" next time. There is always someone on the trip who is "insurance" (the person things happen to) and today it was my turn. Stupid me. Here Jeff is coming up. Once we were up we wandered around the jungle looking into different cracks and holes that didn't go far. When we were tired and hungry we worked our way to the cars and off to the mofongo mobile. It was a long day but very interesting!

Downstream Cueva YuYu - Water World

Jeff, Tom and I headed back to Cueva YuYu to pick up the surveying where we left off the last time. Mapping is time consuming and difficult when you are floating in water over your head so the last time we didn't get really far. I forgot how long the drive was just to get to the walk-in spot. Tom drove and it seemed like we went round and round all these back roads forever. Once we parked the weather looked good, the river was low and it was a go!. I remembered the hike. First we had to basically walk in boggy tall plants and up a slope before getting to a kind of "real" trail which then disintegrated into a "kind-of-trail" that would be hard to get out on alone in the dark. Tom knows the way which is great, but it would be better if we knew it too! We rigged up the rope, tossed it into the hole and one by one went down. Our hundred foot rope brought us to the first landing. We put another rope down the final drop that ended in the river. Here Jeff is on the final drop. This ladder I suppose was used at one time or another but isn't usable now. We try to avoid touching it.

Once we are in the river we head downstream. This cave is wet, foggy, drippy, waterfally (like that's a word) and kind of gargoyly. This giant stalactite was a waterfall making lots of noise, mist and beauty. In wet caves like this with moving water and lots of drops it is hard to hear because the cave acts like an echo chamber. This makes it hard when reading out numerical measurements. On this trip we went low tech and used a tape measure for distances. After a while we get to the waterfall where we have to go up and over and do a second drop down a rope into the river. The mist makes it look like Tom is getting beamed up like on Star Trek.

When we descend we continue on. Lots of water and lots of great formations. Lots of water. This cave is cold and this section requires being in water about a third of the time. A lot of that is water over our heads. It is physically harder for me than the climbing-type caves...I have a hard time with all the arm work required for the swimming. I had a wetsuit, surfer shirt over that, life vest over that and my cave pack. We also kept the harness on for a lot of it since we needed it for drops. Once we took off the harnesses we had to carry them and when you are in the water the packs get heavy despite the drain hole in the bottom.

We liked this formation that just touches the water surface. Wet caves always have nice, clean formations since the water levels rise and fall and clean them. If you think too much about that (and about all the recent rain) sometimes you wonder what you are doing inside an underground water chamber!

After a while we get to the dreaded "sump." A sump is a spot where the water ends at a wall but it has been explored past that point and is an area you can dive under and arrive at the other side so you can continue on. In a swimming pool it is easy to swim the length under water, but there is a mental problem about being underground in total darkness (except for your lights) going under a wall that has a hard ceiling (rock) and you don't know how far you need to swim to get out from under it. Add to that the problem that we are wearing flotation, entering the sump from a floating position and carrying a pack that can snag on formations we can't see and it can be a mental challenge. When we arrive though, it turns out to be our lucky moment and the sump is just a "duck under" of sorts requiring only a small breath hold. So under we go. Crazy, huh?

Here's Jeff in another "duck under" type spot that actually has room.

Now we travel via swimming and it starts to get cold. The formations are interesting and clean and we are trying to make good time and look around at the same time. I am trying to take some photos, but you may notice that things are a little blurry since the shots are taken while floating around!

The coolest thing about caving (besides the physical work) is the geology. It is like an adult amusement park with slides, dripping water, waterfalls, huge formations, lots of sound and it lets your imagination take over. You can't say that about many places you can visit. We love diving, but you don't imagine things when you dive. Caving lets you imagine and observe and do physical work. It is also a mental challenge at times.

This area had a low ceiling and the squareness of it was intriguing. The way the stalactites drip down from the ceiling is pretty neat. While floating I looked up into the high areas and could see immense formations. I imagined gargoyles flying down and fighting with each other. Gargoyles can fly, can't they?

The rock was all polished but dark. The water adds an element of "creepy."

More formations.

To get an idea of the scale of things you have to look at the yellow blip on the left. That blip is Jeff traveling past some gigantic blocks.

(continues with part 2)

YuYu 2

So there he is going between the giant boulders.

The scalloping on the rock is smooth but at the same time very sharp. Everything is wet and slippery. The easiest path here is through the water.We get to another area and have to climb up and over.

After all the rappelling and traveling we encounter a tire. Man's reach touches even the most remote of places.

Lots of watery, drippy spots.

This next view is taken by me from in the river below Jeff, and Jeff is looking probably 60 feet up at something embedded in the ceiling. Holy shit! It's a red and white plastic cooler! At some point the water rises THAT HIGH? We were hoping that area was a safe spot to climb to if the water levels started to rise. Guess not.

Now we are back at one of the neatest formations. We are cold and tired but at least heading back. Usually the trip back is shorter than the trip forward, but in this cave it seems incredibly long probably because we are cold and tired. I start imagining I smell hot coffee and popcorn (of all things).Just look at this formation!

More formations.

We have to climb up little pools of swirling water and mini waterfalls. Doesn't this just seem wrong?

This formation almost looks like flowing drapes. Now it is time to go up the rope from a position floating in the water just down from a big waterfall. It kind of looks like Tom is walking on the wall, but the reality is that the rope just hangs straight down into the water and you can't touch the wall until you are at the top.

Then it is back in the river until we return to the entrance. The rope is still there and we take turns going up it. We can tell it is raining above and getting dark. Up the first rope to the landing we go, then up the second rope and into the regular world. Now all we have to do is hike out, drive out and home. We stop at La Familia for some great mofongo and are tired with fat mofongo bellies.

We left the house at 6am and got home around 11 pm. That did include an hour long stop for dinner but....a long and tiring and rewarding day. We were clean until the end when we climbed up and over the muddy lip of the entrance hole. We also had a few slips in the jungle on wet grass that landed us flat in the mud. Next stop is in a week or so...Cueva Camuy! I can't wait!

A Few More Pictures of the Yu Yu Trip

Katrina's pictures are a lot better than mine but I have a few to add with her in some of the shots. Below is some of the gear required for the expedition.



Katrina and Diana watch Tom rappelling down first to make sure the rope is long enough!


Katrina rappels through a tight spot.

We have to rappel through that small hole?! This is deep inside the cave.

What I still can't get over was that it took us about three hours to get as far as we did in the cave. Then it took only 15 minutes of walking and swimming to get to the exit ropes. We had fun.

Cueva YuYu - an Adventure

Tom Miller invited us to do some surveying in Cueva YuYu on Sunday. There has been a flurry of cave activity because it is the dry season. Like a lot of our adventures it did not turn out how I had imagined. The first part of the adventure was hiking through the jungle to find the hole. We passed many holes including the hole that was the dry part of YuYu. Tom used his machete to forge a new way to the hole we would be going down and I stayed in the back placing survey tape on our "trail" so if there was a problem I could find the way out. We arrived at the deep pit. There was already a rope thrown in but we decided to hang our own so it would drop more vertical instead of going over the ledge - usually an easier rappel that way. Tom tied our 100 foot rope to a tree and dropped it in. It landed on a ledge and we would then drop it down the other part to get into the cave. One by one we rappelled down into the hole.



From the ledge we could see that our 100 foot rope wasn't long enough to get us to the bottom so Tom did some knot work and connected ours to the one that was there that did go to the bottom.

Here Diana is on the ledge and the ball of light below is Tom at the bottom.

Jeff makes his way down.

This ladder has some historical interest (not sure what) and it is right where you have to come over the ledge. We tried our best to avoid it but every one of us ended up straddling it at some point.



This part of the cave was the only part with shallow water. Here I am across the water taking a photo of them near the drop zone. There were some beautiful formations, but we didn't get to look much since this was a survey mission. Immediately we head into the very cold water. Jeff is using the Disto (is that how you spell it?) thing to take distances and inclinations. Diana is taking the compass readings and I am holding the white card with my light on it at the "station" we are taking readings to. All of us are in deep water and it was very difficult.


This water feature was at the beginning of the wet stuff...at the beginning of the day. We are all submerged. I am floating and trying to grasp the edge while holding nail polish (to mark the station) and survey tape in one hand and the white card in another all day. My rack (no not boobs-rappelling gear) is swinging between my legs, my harness is pinching and my life vest and pack are floating up around my head. It is not comfortable. The Disto thing is fucking up and not recording so it takes forever and my little fingers are getting fatigued and I am cold. I HATE being cold. Then I start shaking and that just makes it worse. We get to a tall formation we climb onto because under it is a steep waterfall we can't go over even with ropes. From up top Tom rigs some rope so we can slip into a tight crack and rappel down around 25-30 feet into the river below the falls.

Here Diana and Tom and rigging the ropes so we can go into the crack they are standing on the edge of. Meanwhile Jeff goes further from our up-top perch and finds a rope already in place with a carabeener in the wall. It goes straight down and into water a little further downstream. Someone else is maybe surveying or exploring. Here Tom makes his way part of the way down to the waterfall base. After this point we can't see him.

Down below the water is freezing and over my head the whole time except for a tiny ledge I can balance on at the bottom of the rope. We float around trying to make the dam Disto thing work for what seems like forever before I just have to stop because I am frozen. Jeff was cold too. Diana and I decide to climb up the little hole we had all come down and Jeff and Tom float over to the bottom of the other rope and ascend there. No way did I want to connect everything up in the water.

Here's a view of Diana in the water getting ready to come up. I just want out at this point because I am so cold. We were in the cave maybe 4-5 hours but somehow the return trip was short! We looked around a little, but now it was after 4 and we still had two ropes to ascend and a hike out.

Coming up wasn't a problem for me or Jeff or Tom, but since Diana was last no one was there to hold the end of the rope and she was having trouble coming up. Tom went back down, she went up and then he came up with a pack on the bottom of the rope for weight.

The cave was beautiful with Zumbo-like formations but much wider passages and a lot more water. I do not want to see this cave in the wet season - I'm pretty sure you don't even attempt a trip here if there has been any rain in a week or more.


Beautiful walls and flowstone. Then we are headed up the ropes. For some reason (probably coldness and tiredness) we were all a little snippy. Jeff went up the rope to the ledge so he could help Diana up the overhang if needed. Diana made it just fine and then I came up. I had a mini melt-down because my equipment just wasn't rigged right. Pissed me off! It was fine for the other ups and downs and now for some reason my Croll was up around my boobs instead of near my bellybutton....I couldn't get good extension to work my way up the rope but I was already on the rope. The &*$#%@% straps for my feet are simply annoying (way too long and a tangle problem) and I am pissed because this is the part I am usually really good at. And I am COLD. I do get up, then Tom comes up and Jeff starts his way up. Oops....Diana doesn't have her pack. Where is it? Well, Jeff looks around on the ledge and it isn't there, which means...you guessed it...it is all the way at the bottom. She forgot it there, Tom assumed she had it on and Jeff and I just kept track of our own stuff. So back down he goes, having to go over the knot to retrieve it. Now he is on the very bottom and no one is there to hold the rope. Climbing up as the last person is always a little harder. So he gets to the ledge (it is getting dark now), takes a rest and then makes his way back up. Hooray! We gather up all the gear and head into the jungle.

On the way out we pass by the dry part of the cave and don't get to see it since it is now getting dark. We get back to the cars and no one has taken tires or batteries or anything so we are good to go. We stop for food at Sizzler and then make the long journey home. Jeff is probably dozing at work and I am rinsing rope and gear and doing laundry. I'd like to see more of this cave and now know I need to wear more than just my 2mm wetsuit if we are totally submerged in water. If the water is waist high and you can get out of it I do fine -- but I get bitchy when I am really really cold and am not an enjoyable person. I probably just shouldn't go into over-my-head-for-long-distances caves. We all did get out and Tom did get some data. Hopefully we can see more of this cave at some point. Maybe the dry part.