I don’t know how many of you remember a post I wrote about visiting a hidden cave last spring. If you do happen to remember that post you’ll also remember that all of us nearly suffocated to death because we were smart enough to light a fire inside the cave lol. So I’m here to redeem myself with another visit to that same cave, only this time I brought a tourist with me.
A while back I received an email from an American girl who specifically remembered my cave post and she asked if it would be possible that I take her there. I was so in awe that A) someone read that post and B) someone actually wanted to go. So of course I said YES!
Here’s the fun part that actually turns this into a real story and also turned this girl into a super hero in my eyes!
This was only her second trip to Jamaica EVER, she was only here for a long weekend and to top it all off, she was staying in a resort in Montego Bay. This cave is located a couple hours away in St Elizabeth. Time and budget were of the essence in this case. For me or someone from my area to go pick her up it would be a four-hour trek there and back, twice in one day. Once to get her here and once to take her back. That was a LOT.
So what was the solution? She decided she’d go rent a car and drive herself down here! I’m not gonna lie, I was a little (a LOT) worried about her doing that. I’d been driving in Jamaica for years before I ever attempted going through those hills and finding my way alone. And the first couple times I tried it I got seriously lost, as I wrote about in this post.
Anyway, to keep a looooong story short, she DID arrive safely in much more time than this road trip should take….because she got lost, just as I did the first couple times. But I was absolutely amazed at her bravery and that she arrived so I bought her a rum and we fed her lunch as a reward. This was no road trip for a first-time driver in Jamaica lol.
After lunch and rum we wasted no time hopping into the car and getting up into the hills to take her to the cave. We also planned to show her some Jamaican “farming” that day *wink wink*. But that’s for another time, another post.
After a decent hike which didn’t seem as treacherous as the last time I came here, we arrived at the mouth of the cave. I didn’t remember the mouth being so small and I insisted this must be a different cave. But once I crawled through the opening and stood up I knew it was definitely the same cave and it was still as incredible as it was the first time.
So without further delay, here’s a new video of our caving adventure with much better footage and photos, without the fire and near-death experience.
The air inside is cool and damp with occasional water droplets falling on our heads. In the silence of the cave we could hear hidden creatures all around us and even though their sounds were very near we never could find what was making the noises. It was a little eerie but fascinating at the same time. As long as a bat didn’t swoop for my head I was alright with whatever creatures were lurking in the darkness.
This trip to the cave was way more awesome than my last visit and it was wonderful to be able to share it with another foreigner! We stayed inside for probably an hour marveling at the rock formations and depths of the hidden parts. The mouth of this cave is far enough away from the inside that when we turned our camera lights off it was literally PITCH black. There was no outside light and we could see nothing.
There you have it! In a couple days I’ll post the “farming” part of this journey as well. We packed a lot into this day and it was a great one!
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