Caving

Looking into the narrow passageway that our guides called the "Birth Canal".

They took us into a sculpted, limestone cavern they called “Twins Cave”. The entrance was large, but, for those with the predilection, there were narrower passageways that required crawling, wiggling, and a definite lack of claustrophobia.

Apart from the wonderful speleotherms, the cave was home to some charismatic fauna.

An owl sits amid the stalactite formations near the roof of the cave.
A salamander wanders the floor, picking its way through the limestone debris.

Though I did not capture any pictures of bats, they flew around us, and we found evidence of their presence just under the cloying red mud that covered most of the cave floor.

Much of the cave was floored with a sticky, red, residual clay, which, in places, covered deposits of bat guano.

The limestone precipitated cave formations were quite beautiful: fluted, cathedral-organ-like stalactites;

Fluted stalactites reminiscent of Gaudi.

thin, precise straws hanging from the ceiling:

Looking up at the crystal encrusted straws hanging from the ceiling.

The juxtaposition of the beauty above us and the mess beneath our feet brought into focus the idea that happiness is not an absolute thing, but rather comes from the difference between misery and joy.

(Eminence Immersion)