Saturn And Santa Catalina Caves Trip

Description Featuring an attractive environment, this cave is found along the road that leads into the city of Matanzas and to Varadero beach, exactly four kilometres east of the town of Carbonera. This natural site was declared a National Monument in 1996. It is characterised by eleven kilometres of subterranean galleries and features the most extraordinary secondary formations, especially interesting are the mushrooms, zinolites and aboriginal pictographs. Nearby, there is another place known as the Cave of the Dead (Cueva del Muerto), right next to the drawbridge of Varadero. It is a cave of great natural and archaeological value, due to the fact that in over eight kilometres of galleries there is ample evidence of pre-Columbian communities and many species of fauna and secondary formations. The cave is also of archaeological interest, because Indians once lived in ita fossilized skeleton was found here, and there are rupestrian drawings, as well. Bats, blind fish, reptiles and other mammals live in the area. At the entrance to the cave, visitors are provided with helmets and lights, which are required equipment. Groups may consist of up to 20 people; each group has a leader and an assistant, who tell visitors about the evolution of caves and the history of mans exploration of them. The main attraction of the tour is the great variety of the caves formations,; which have been called the reign of stone mushrooms because of the shapes of its stalagmites, which run from a few inches to 10 feet (3 meters) in height with some of them standing in solitary isolation while others form veritable forests. The roof of the cave is literally covered with stalactites, and youll see formations in the shapes of columns, cloaks, gours, helictitas,; curtains, cave pearls and bells during your tour.