Caves

What does going Underground mean to you? 

In London, you ‘mind the gap’ whilst you step on to the underground subway train systems.  There is the Underground Film Festival in Minneapolis. How about the Hiawatha underground power line in South Mpls. Then just when you have discovered why us geezers exists, and the complicated facts of life; our time is up and we are going underground.

Here, in Puerto Rico, our attraction is a sculpted rock formations for view in Caverns. At the third largest cave system in the world, Parque de las Cavernas del Rio Camuy, (North Coast in Puerto Rico) demonstrates jagged-shaped pieces of rock standing, hanging like giant thumbs upside down (some folks even call them stalactites).  You would think plants and shrubs would be shy and retiring, but we found trees growing upside down in some area seeking light and water.

It looked like no man’s land when I viewed the caves.  There is no way the cave’s walls should ever be so smooth - a jumble of rocks shifting subtly fore and aft. Over millions of years underground streams and surges from the sea render them like an underground cathedral where ancient Taino Shaman once prayed to their sun god, the Lord of the Dawn.

Caves are not my favorite place to visit. I’m content to know that from rocks & boulders, the ground we walk on are made from these tough customers.

I think of the weather when the mention of caves come up.  The climate in Ireland is very far to the North and actually at the same latitude as the glacial terrains of Norway. Cold and damp—like an aould cave!

Thankfully, the Gulf of Mexico Stream current carries huge amounts of warm water from the equator as it sweeps past Ireland's western shores.

So, cold Arctic airs near Ireland react with the warm, blustery moist air over the Gulf Stream to produce the famous Irish mist.

Well, mist is a euphemism. There is plenty of mist during the year, but there are also plenty of ‘soft’ rains, heavy rains, showers, squalls, fogs, dews, frost and water in all its forms. Two or three times a year the skies open and the Atlantic Ocean tries to dump itself smack onto your head. Nonstop rain-bearing nimbus clouds for endless hours.

For educational purposes I will visit caves. 

In addition to the Weather, & the constant wet feet, we Irish are born with a dread of dampness and wetness. The underground is likely to bring many a memory to a lot Irish people… like unemployment, having no central heating, the harshness of the Christian brothers & nuns way back then, etc. Precipitation ruined many a picnic and trips to the beach.

However, this does not dour the natural optimism of the Irish populace all the same (hey, we overcame both the spud famine and the Brits somehow).

We just turn up at the Pub, dew dropped faces lickin’ the chops for a pint!   More than likely ‘tis for the company, (not always for drinking). It is for the coziness, a toasted cheese sandwich, a bottle of minerals (orange, lucozade, coke-a-cola) or indeed a pot of hot tea; and most of all - to get out of the ‘mist‘.

Now, crawling out of the Irish pub, we descended into the Puerto Rican dew. A fascinating guided tour began with a tram ride into the mouth of the vast cave and the weird and wonderful dripstones formations began. I felt overwhelmed by their unspoiled beauty, the almost reverent quietness of the caves (except for the soft Coqui Frog chirping their neek-breek or co-key chant). At certain times the mouth of the caves, if I watched closely, became so luminous from deep inside.  I witnessed their splendor in so many ways.  It was the first time I did not mind having wet feet.

We were introduced to a colony of a half million bats that live in this cave, hosting 13 different species of Bat. Luckily, most were sleeping and we only ran into a few.  But the 12 million smell receptors in my nose detected their home right away and the temperature of the cave increased by 10 degrees as we approached their excluded expanse.

There were even a few amusing looking rock illusion / formations - a gorilla sitting at a table, a Witch as well as a Chieftain.   These limestone caves were sacred ground for the Taino Indians.

From deep in its belly to its outer layer, the stuff of rocks reminds me that there is so much to understand about our planet… that it boggles my head. Our generation is one of immediate gratification, as if we are out of time. The Earth, however, is patient and almost ageless, the Universe seemingly infinite, and God—perhaps outside of time. Scientists now reckon that there are 11 dimensions. If our eyes only pick up three dimensions and our brain has been trained to pick up a fourth of time; perhaps we shouldn’t put so much emphasis on just one of our eleven.

The cave knows this.