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For a long time I tried to find a reasonable way to get to the famous Cueva del Guacharo, about 300 miles east of Caracas in the mountains of eastern Venezuela. The nearest airport is at Maturin, which is only about 50 miles from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, served by Eastern Airlines' famous unlimited mileage special; the fine Venezuelan domestic airline Aeropostal now connects the two. When we were in Trinidad on the Eastern Airlines special, however, there was only a local airline, flying two or three times a week and on varying days, so I never figures out a way to do it without jeopardizing the rest of our caving tour of the Caribbean. Late in 1978, however, an advertisement appeared in Seattle newspapers for a charter to Caracas (including a hotel package on the beach) for a very low total cast for one week. Len and I signed up, and it worked out well.

In Caracas I had considerable assistance from the Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleologia and the local equivalent of the national park service. I was given a special pass for the developed section of the cave, and could have had another for the undeveloped part if I had been able to remain an extra weekend to obtain the essential signatures (the undeveloped section is a marvel of beautiful speleothems). Cultural differences and language barriers simply eat time! Even airline reservations procedures are different and difficult, and my Spanish is muy malo!

Once on the place at 7 am, however, all went well. I flew Avensa (the other domestic Venezuelan airline) to Maturin, where nobody's English was as good as my Spanish but I was able to get a taxi without difficulty. It took me to the local por pueso terminal -- por puestos are cut-rate taxis that run back and forth over fixed routes, more or less, usually with optional side trips to one's exact destination. The trip to the town of Caripe required almost two hours and cost $ 4.50 (petrol was 18 $cents per gallon). "You can go anywhere in Venezuela on por puesto" the SVE had told me, and I believe it.

Immediately I checked into the Hotel Saman, recommended by the SVE. It is a delightful family-style hotel, spotless, and with excellent food. The proprietress kindly drove me to the cave where it turned out that I was the only visitor that entire day (Monday). Because of my special pass, I was allowed the unusual privilege of taking photos on the part of the commercial section not inhabited by the famous birds. Nobody gets permission to photograph there, because it disturbs the birds, and this is a national park, so the cave belongs to the birds.

The commercial section consists mostly of one enormous gallery along the strike of steeply dipping beds of porous limestone, with the trail winding because of massive columns and stalagmites. The scene shown on the 1960 stamps (0.35 regular mail and 0.65 airmail) is looking toward the entrance from 150 or 200 m inside, at a time of intermittent flooding. This part of the cave was dry when I visited it. A little daylight is present for perhaps 300 m.

The nests of the guacharos begin about 100 meters inside the cave. Their inhabitants kept up a vigorous commentary on our presence, manners, morals, parentage, ancestry, and related topics the entire time the guide and I were in sight. The birds have even stronger language for their neighbors, however. They are strongly territorial birds, and loca1 air space constantly is being renegotiated. The cave is so high that only occasionally could we see those in flight by the light of the single lantern, but a constant CLICK-CLUCK-CLUCK of their sonar told us what was going on in the high shadows. I obtained some good tape recordings of the sonar and of the bird’s comments.

At the end of the guacharo section is a narrow lead, down to the usual stream level (ankle-deep at the time of my visit). Beyond is a section with several hundred meters of smaller passage and larger rooms with massive speleothems. The commercial section ends at the Wind Pass, a near-duckunder.

Down cutting segmented and opened the cave. On the far side of the canyon is a small segment of the original cavern with an artistic little shrine and the entire area is very photogenic.

After I had taken all the photos I wanted, I caught the next por puesto back to Caripe (50 c for a 20 minute drive), cleaned up and rested, then took another por puesto back to the cave for the evening flight of the guacharos out of the cave on their way to feed. As it turned out, the sounds are much more impressive than the sight. The birds fly much later in the evening than do bats from the famous bat caves of Texas and New Mexico, and it is difficult to see them against the darkening sky. But what an up-roar in the cave as all the guacharos are violating everyone else’s air space as they prepare to leave for the night! Truly these are fascinating birds, and it would be appropriate for Venezuela to picture them on some future stamp.

They do not appear on the 1960 issues showing their part of their cave--- at least I think that they do not. But with a hand lens, an interesting feature can be seen near the lower left of the scene. A part of the rock wall jutting out above the cave stream looks a little like the head of a guacharo. It would be interesting to know what the artist intended. Does anyone know?

I had expected to catch another por puesto back to Caripe, but four Danes were there to observe the flight of the guacharos, and gave me aride. Next morning I hiked around town, caught the por puesto to the Maturin airport, had a good lunch, and flew (by Aeropostal) back to Caracas, right on time.I hope to return some day to see the undeveloped part with its fine helictites, crystalline stalactites, and other beauties. But next time, I think I’ll go by way of Trinidad rather than Caracas.