This weekend we went up and explored an old cave system in the jungle. Though we followed a road, the jungle is thick! There are part where it would be basically impossible to walk through; machetes are a must. the cave itself loomed black out of a high cliff that itself just seems to appear out of the jungle. (the thick undergrowth reduces your line of sight quite dramatically)
At the entrance we made a torch out of rags and oil and dived in. The good, unbelievable rock formations that look like gargoyles, statues, and moon rocks. The bad, bat guano that pretty much covered anything. the bats were quite funny, they'd peep out at you from their little crags in ceiling and then hide, peep out again, and then hide. They can spider across the walls quite nimbly. When we had our lights on they kept their distance, but then we turned our lights out. At first I thought there was a draft from the outside, but then I realized the bats were flying only an inch from my face! Scary. Other interesting creatures were the centipedes and cave spiders. The latter have extra long legs that they use as feelers in the dark.
Much of the cave we explored by walking, but several sections could only be traversed by crawling through tiny crevices that never looked big enough for your body. I can't believe nobody got stuck!
I had my hero moment of the week when a caught a female volunteer who tripped while descending a steep ledge. Hold your applause, please.
We didn't bring a camera because of the really tight skin-to-rock squeezes and standing water. We didn't want a camera to get broken or wet.
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