Friday, August 8, 2008

Camuy es Mal y Arecibo es Bueno

We knew that part of Camuy cave was still closed (since January) but thought that at least some of it would be open. It took us two hours to get there. At least there were signs to get there from the highway. You drive in and pay $4 a car to park at the gate and each of you get a ticket with a number. Then you park and buy another ticket at the ticket booth for $12. Then you wait. It wasn't crowded at all but we still waited close to an hour to watch the 15 minute video about the cave. It was in Spanish of course. After the video we waited again for the trolley ride through the park. This time there was an English option. It's a beautiful park like setting. The ride through the park was nice. The guide was good and what we saw was nice but it was not a cave. Kris and Katrina as they start the walk down 200 steps to the "cavern".


Steps leading down...


This is it. The end of the tour. At the platform at the bottom you have a view a of a big cavern but that's it. Big disappointment. Camuy is probably one of the biggest tourist attractions in PR. It's been closed for since January's freak accident and isn't going to open til maybe next year. Its a beautiful area and I am sure the cave is really something to see. PR could make some money with this asset but I think even if it gets fully opened again it still won't come close to it full potential. The tour was nice and probably even worth $12 each but it wasn't worth the drive. Fortunately Arecibo Radio telescope was only twenty minutes away so we decided to go there as well. Getting there is part of the fun. Just another day driving in PR.

Kris and Katrina hiking up from the parking lot at Arecibo.


Look at the size of the reflector/receiver. Can you spot the people up there?


I enjoyed this more than Camuy. I didn't expect it to be that big. Again, this attraction wasn't run as nicely as it could have been but it was better than Camuy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Guys,
I wonder what the freak accident was. We went there when we were on our honeymoon and it was not safe even then. It started to rain a little bit and a bunch of boulders started to tumble down (this was 3 years ago in August 2005). Luckily we were in the trolly train thing and it didn't hit anybody, but it was still scary. Although inside the cavern is probably totally safe, it was actually outside of it that wasn't. The cavern is pretty neat inside with lighting and stuff, but nothing compared to Carlsbad in NM.

Jeff and Katrina Kruse said...

A California woman was killed by a falling boulder in February I think. Note that we had to carry hardhats. No one told you to put them on or anything. If this were in the states there would be waivers, helmet monitors to make sure they were on etc etc. Nice that you need to be responsible for yourself, but ridiculous to close it for a natural accident sad for the woman, but unpredictable and no ones fault). katrina

Anonymous said...

It's just interesting because we saw that coming three years ago and they didn't do anything about it. The rocks were actually hitting and denting the trolley tops. If the trolley didn't have a cover on it, we would have all been hurt. If you saw boulders tumbling down every other week, you'd think they'd put netting up to catch loose rocks, or a carefully planned rock fall like they do to prevent avalanches. That's what they do up in the Rocky Mountain parks where a lot of boulders come down. A little bit of prevention goes a long way. It's just another example of PR's strange ways...