Colombia, South America caving.

[barabootom]

Last week I visited a cave few people ever enter. The cave was Carracos Cave near Peñón, Santander, Colombia. The hike to the cave was 45 minutes through highland rainforest. Daytime temps about 75 with nighttime temps about 50 F. Altitude about 8000 ft. The cave has three levels. The first two are well known, but the bottom level, known as the basement, is rarely visited. To get to the basement, you must squeeze through an less than 2 foot tall opened for about 10 feet. Then there is a 6 foot slope, a 2-3 foot ledge, and a about 50 foot drop into the cave. The only way in is to rapal in. I was with my wife, stepson and two guides. The cave is deep and there isn't much life in the basement. I did find some harvestman that fluoresced in the upper levels.

A few photos of Opilión Cavernícola, a large specie with easily 3 inch leg spans.
View attachment 20220721_114148.mp4

 

[barabootom]

Into the basement of Carracos...
View attachment 20230720_111412.mp4

 

[barabootom]

More cave and some harvestman...

 

[barabootom]

The entrance to the basement
View attachment 20230720_104917 (1).mp4
...

I also found lots of spots on the basement cave floor that glow
View attachment spots on floor.mp4
under UV light.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

What a fun vacay!!

 

[viper69]

Wow thanks!! The formations are gorgeous and some large, quite old I suspect

were you concerned you might not make it back through the narrow opening- that was small!

What were the spots from? I imagine certain mineral filled droplets falling from ceiling?

 

[barabootom]

Wow thanks!! The formations are gorgeous and some large, quite old I suspect

were you concerned you might not make it back through the narrow opening- that was small!

What were the spots from? I imagine certain mineral filled droplets falling from ceiling?

I was quite exhausted by the time I squeezed back through that opening so I was mostly thinking about the hike back to the cabin. I was the first one back through the opening so I squeezed into a large open completely dark chamber and couldn't see the end of the squeeze. The spots on the floor were interesting because I couldn't find any on the ceiling.

 

[viper69]

I was quite exhausted by the time I squeezed back through that opening so I was mostly thinking about the hike back to the cabin. I was the first one back through the opening so I squeezed into a large open completely dark chamber and couldn't see the end of the squeeze. The spots on the floor were interesting because I couldn't find any on the ceiling.

Not on ceiling, that’s interesting.
Keep posting!

 

[Wolfram1]

thanks for sharing, this is the tipe of vacation i'd love to have

 

[Kada]

Very cool. What other species were you able to find? Caves really are an alien world!