Let's Travel: Camuy River Cave Park, Rio Camuy, Puerto Rico

After spending 2 days in San Juan, it was time to move on to the next level and start our road trip across Puerto Rico. Thanks to the greatest trip planner in the World (also known as my hubby :) ) everything was perfectly planned so we didn't waste any time.

On January 3rd early morning we went to Charlie's Car Rental in Isla Verde to pick up our ride. By the way, this company is the most popular one in Puerto Rico.
After picking up our car, we hit the road for the first stop of the day: Parque de las Cavernas del Río Camuy


We used the PR-22 highway since it's the faster way. There are 2-3 toll plazas between San Juan and Camuy. While renting the car, we recommend you to get E-Z Pass enabled. Most of the toll fees are around 1-3 USD. 

We arrived the Cave Park around 10AM, purchased our tickets and started waiting for the guided tour.
After 10-15 minutes of wait tour guides started loading us into two orange trains to get to the Clara cave. 

They don't allow visitors to roam around by themselves between the Welcome Center and the cave entrance since it's neither safe nor convenient. They also provide audio tours before visitors get onto the train.

I like how organized they were. The audio tour was well planned and divided into checkpoints and these checkpoints were clearly marked throughout the cave.

Cave floor is, naturally, a bit slippery; Other than that it's very child/elderly friendly walking tour and the tour guides are very attentive.

The following is the first view we saw before entering the cave and we immediately loved the place. 

This cave is a composition of thick stalagmites and long stalactites. Former are the ones coming from ground and the latter are growing upside down from the ceiling.

Here is the labrynth inside the Cueva Clara. This cave has a natural light inside because of the openings on both ends. The audio tour said native American Indians used such caves (with natural light) for their rituals.

Throughout the cave, we listened to the beautiful background music performed by Coqui frogs. Coquis are tiny frogs endemic to Puerto Rico and there are 16 different species of them. It's amazing how each species has a different sound. The most common one calls out it's own name "Co-qui --- Co-qui" :) And this is the most frequent street noise you will hear when you visit PR (aka Isla del Encanta). 

A navigation tip (learned from the audio guide) for the cave enthusiast: While navigating in a cave listen carefully for crickets. If you follow the cricket sound, you will reach the entrance/exit. Because crickets live right near the cave openings, but not inside.  

Below are beautiful views of the entrance from inside. 

This is la Bruja, the cave witch. Bruja means witch in Spanish. This is one of the challenges given in the audio tour (it said "look around carefully and find La Bruja") and this is really easy to spot. :)

Couple of feet from this point is a corner where we make turn and start walking on the parallel path towards the starting point. We noticed the temperature significantly raised when we got closer to the corner. Then the audio guide explained that Clara is the home of thousands of bats who were sleeping right near the corner and they increase the temperature with their body heat. Luckily, the visit was at their beauty nap time so that we didn't have to stay and chat. :-P

Here is another view of Clara. 

All in all, it's a must visit attraction if you're visiting San Juan/Arecibo/Lares area.
While you're around, don't forget to buy some fresh fruits from roadside fruit sellers. We thought we would find plenty of them during the road trip and postponed, but couldn't find anywhere else. :(

Hope you enjoyed this post.
Next post will be on Arecibo Observatory, home of  the World’s largest single dish radio telescope.