We Might Not Be Back: Spelunking in Camuy Caves and Cleaning Up Puke

There just seem to be a lot of hiccups in this trip (or in this case throw ups). Over the weekend we’d planned to do both Guavate and the Camuy Caves. Guavate had some slight detours but in general everything went ok. Sunday in order to get to the caves we needed to be up and ready for the first ferry back to our car. I’d read lots of places that the cave tours fill up quickly and once they’re full you are out of luck. Since this was going to be quite a drive we wanted to make sure it didn’t end in disappointment. We made everyone go to bed early with the intention of being up with the sun.

Sadly my kids apparently felt it necessary to remind me that travel with them is completely unpredictable and they are amazingly good at destroying even the best laid plans. Both girls have been hacking up a lung since shortly after we arrived. Gabby’s cough was so bad that she ended up throwing up in the middle of the night, which meant I had to be up stripping the bed and she had to sleep with us. A few hours after that trauma Lottie was up crying about a bug bite, which meant she ended up sleeping with us. They each took turns waking back up to reposition themselves in what became a very crowded bed. We barely dragged our behinds out of bed when our alarms went off. We were running a couple minutes late and missed the first ferry. We finally go on the road and of course got a little lost once we got into San Juan. Thanks to directions from a very nice security guard we got back on the right track. We luckily managed to get to the caves by 900am, which was only a half hour later than we’d hoped for.

We got our tickets and made the first trolley down into the entrance. Sadly we all (including the girls) had to sit in a single seat by a stranger, which didn’t make the youngest child very happy. After the trolley ride things improved greatly. The cave was beautiful. And what’s not to love about saying you went spelunking and saw guano? Carmen Sandiego was the BEST!!!!!

After the tour I thought it’d be cool to try and see the Arecibo Observatory, which is featured in some James Bond movie I’ve never seen. As our luck on this trip would have it, we made the winding journey through the mountains only to find it is closed until March. Dan suggested I just walk up where there was a break in the fence. Generally speaking I try not to break into government run facilities. In my state of complete exhaustion I was pretty sure I couldn’t outrun even the least physically fit security guards, so I ignored that suggestion.. Just to make the most of our long drive I brilliantly suggested we stray a little from our path home to see the “historic lighthouse” further up in Arecibo. A few wrong turns later we arrived and realized it looked more like a mini theme park than a historic site. That was the point where I waved the white flag and begged to just go back. I was really just dying to get home and wash puked on pillows and blankets, and start on bottle of rum number three for the week.