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A Guest Experience: Cave Exploring! |
A great tip for anyone who is in search for an exciting activity on the island is the Cave Exploring tour. I got the information about this tour from the helpful receptionists at the information point of the Caribbean Club Resort. They told me about the interesting tour trough two of the biggest caves of Bonaire, one cave with impressive rock formations and another cave with an enormous underground lake with beautiful snorkel opportunities.
Caribbean Club booked me and my friend in the tour and the next morning we were picked up by Henk, the Cave Exploring tour guide. Henk appeared to be an experienced cave explorer who has studied caves around the whole world. He has an extensive amount of knowledge about Bonaire and the history of the island and turned out to be a great storyteller. Henk drove us to a parking nearby the first cave we were about to explore. After a short walk we reached the opening of the cave. Via a steep ladder we went down. The room we entered was impressive, with large stalactites and stalagmites and a lot of dark corners around us. With our flashlights we followed our guide over rocks and underneath very low ceilings to another large underground room with a higher temperature and less oxygen then the first room. Here we saw some small bats and again impressive rock formations and interesting fossils. Henk told us about the protected bats and their surviving methods, and about the tunnels that connected this cave with other caves. After a walk around the room we went back via the first room to the steep ladder, were we could welcome the sun on our skin and the fresh air.
We followed Henk back to the car, from were we headed to the second cave. To get down into the cave, we used a strong rope that we had to hold on to while climbing down the steep rocks. Once we were down, we were facing a silent and very clear underground lake. We took off our clothes and put on our snorkel and mask. Trying not to disturb the bright water we swam alongside the rocks. Underneath the surface, we saw an amazing world of rock formations that are millions of years old. After a short swim we got to another rock formation above the water where we had a short break. Henk told us about the “ghost canal” trough which we could snorkel if we wanted to. This canal ended in another pool, discovered by Henk himself. We went back in the water again and snorkeled trough the ghost channel, only a few meters but without the opportunity to raise you head above the water because of the large amount of stalactites that hang down just above the water. After this exciting swim we headed towards another underground room. This room can be entered only by swimming underwater, underneath a big rock formation. Again we were surprised by the beautiful rocks, underneath the surface of the water as well as above. After snorkeling around we swam back to the entrance of the cave were we took on our clothes again and climbed out of the cave with the help of the rope. From the cave, Henk brought us back to Caribbean Club, were we thanked him for giving us such a great experience. After the tour, we sat down to relax at the intimate pool bar/restaurant of Caribbean Club where we enjoyed a good lunch.
I recommend this adventurous tour to anyone who wants to explore the island from a new point of view and is not afraid of narrow spaces.
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Cloudy (79 oF • 26 oC)