We made our epic return trip to a cave named "La Llegada" yesterday. This is a huge lava tube system that we first visited in 2011 with two brothers that work for the Galapagos National Park. They have grown up on the islands and have a lifelong intrest in caves.
La Llegada would be like any other cave, except for the hike that is required to get there. The length is only 1.2km, but it is over extremely rugged terrain (lava flows) that are then covered over by some of the most angry plants known. One person compared the hike to "walking on bowling balls you cannot see". The other aspect to the hike is the heat. Everyone carried at least 3.5 liters of water, and most ended the hike with none left. Going in to the cave took 1.5hrs, coming out we made it in 1hr.
We made it to the cave with several goals in mind. The first was to fix a survey error caused by a GPS location. Typically we GPS entrances to the lava tube segments and then connect our cave survey to those "fixed" points. Occasionally this results in errors that are introduced by poor GPS locations. One method of correcting this problem is to survey over land (or in the lava trench) to connect the two surveys. This task was accomplished by Bob, Scott, Ei and Rick T. It is decidedly unexciting work, but pays the reward in better data.
The second team of Aaron, Rick H, Theo and 2 park interns headed in to the down flow segment of the cave that they surveyed in 2011 to take some photos. During the last expedition, all available time was spent on the survey and no photos existed of that tube segment. There are some unusual secondary formations in this area, so we wanted to photograph those as well.
Once the teams had completed their tasks from the previous expedition, we agreed that Bob's team would hike up flow looking for more entrances, while Aaron's team would continue down flow searching for entrances.
Bob and crew located another entrance just 200m up flow and started surveying again. Scott found and measured (with a disto) a 7m pit, but no one had rope or vertical gear to descend. He reported that air could be felt coming up out of the pit. We are hoping to make one more trip out to the cave this week, so it is possible we could investigate the pit at that time.
The down flow team flowed a large lava trench for 250m before reaching an enormous entrance. We began our survey and were able to set 11 stations for about 200m of survey before needing to turn around and head out. Everyone had agreed to meet at 4pm to start the hike out so that we would not be in the jungle after dark. It is always difficult to do, but we left a 9m tall continuing cave passage where we turned around.
We hastily finished our survey notes, and retreated to the agreed upon meeting place. The hike out was uneventful, and we shaved 30min. off the total hike time. This is largely due to being able to follow the trail that we made hiking in to the cave. Overall we added 250m to the cave in just 1hr of survey, brining the expedition total to 9.1km.
La Llegada would be like any other cave, except for the hike that is required to get there. The length is only 1.2km, but it is over extremely rugged terrain (lava flows) that are then covered over by some of the most angry plants known. One person compared the hike to "walking on bowling balls you cannot see". The other aspect to the hike is the heat. Everyone carried at least 3.5 liters of water, and most ended the hike with none left. Going in to the cave took 1.5hrs, coming out we made it in 1hr.
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| water break near La Llegada |
We made it to the cave with several goals in mind. The first was to fix a survey error caused by a GPS location. Typically we GPS entrances to the lava tube segments and then connect our cave survey to those "fixed" points. Occasionally this results in errors that are introduced by poor GPS locations. One method of correcting this problem is to survey over land (or in the lava trench) to connect the two surveys. This task was accomplished by Bob, Scott, Ei and Rick T. It is decidedly unexciting work, but pays the reward in better data.
The second team of Aaron, Rick H, Theo and 2 park interns headed in to the down flow segment of the cave that they surveyed in 2011 to take some photos. During the last expedition, all available time was spent on the survey and no photos existed of that tube segment. There are some unusual secondary formations in this area, so we wanted to photograph those as well.
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| Theo observing yellow deposits in the cave |
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| Sunlight enters via skylight in La Llegada |
Once the teams had completed their tasks from the previous expedition, we agreed that Bob's team would hike up flow looking for more entrances, while Aaron's team would continue down flow searching for entrances.
Bob and crew located another entrance just 200m up flow and started surveying again. Scott found and measured (with a disto) a 7m pit, but no one had rope or vertical gear to descend. He reported that air could be felt coming up out of the pit. We are hoping to make one more trip out to the cave this week, so it is possible we could investigate the pit at that time.
The down flow team flowed a large lava trench for 250m before reaching an enormous entrance. We began our survey and were able to set 11 stations for about 200m of survey before needing to turn around and head out. Everyone had agreed to meet at 4pm to start the hike out so that we would not be in the jungle after dark. It is always difficult to do, but we left a 9m tall continuing cave passage where we turned around.
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| Newly discovered entrance |
We hastily finished our survey notes, and retreated to the agreed upon meeting place. The hike out was uneventful, and we shaved 30min. off the total hike time. This is largely due to being able to follow the trail that we made hiking in to the cave. Overall we added 250m to the cave in just 1hr of survey, brining the expedition total to 9.1km.
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