Caves Exploration

During your caving experience you'll experience 8 separate caverns with different rock formations including stalactites and stalagmites.

Venado Cave

The amazing Venado caves were formed during the Miocene period, 15 or 20 million years ago.  For many years they were under sea level and due to tectonic movements, they surfaced.

The Guatuzos aborigines discovered them. Limestone rocks, stalactites, stalagmites and corals, form most of the caves. The whimsical stone formations are formed by the underground river.

The length of the Venado tour is 1 1/2 hour, during this time we will find marine fossils, bats, spiders, crickets and other interesting insects.

Barra Honda Cave

Barra Honda Peak, rising 1000 feet above the surrounding plains, is composed of reef limestones formed near the end of the Cretaceous period, some 60 to 70 million years ago, when the area was still part of the ocean floor. More than 42 caves of varying depths pock the hill, but only 19 have been explored. The deepest, Santa Ana, drops 790 feet below the surface. Terciopelo, the only one open to the general public, is said to be the most beautiful and to hold the greatest number of formations.

Pino explained that four rooms compose Terciopelo, and that we would climb down a ladder (standard aluminum type this time, firmly anchored) to get to numbers three and four, reaching a final depth of 200 feet. Hard hats in place and flashlights beaming, we continued our descent into the bowels of the hill.