Senior Gallardo's cave

The internet was down last night here on the islands, so I was not able to post to the blog.  Yesterday (Monday), we sent two survey teams back to Cueva Gallardo to continue the survey there, while Theo and I stayed behind in town to speak with the Galapagos National Park regarding our permit to survey caves on Park property.  Unfortunately the person we needed to speak with was out (on the mainland) and will not return until Tuesday afternoon.  We will try again!  Afterwards, we returned to grab our caving gear and head out to the cave and meet the other teams.  Upon arrival at the cave, Theo and I had the pleasure of meeting Senior Gallardo.  Gallardo discovered the cave we are surveying in the 1940s after coming to the islands to teach school.  He has been here ever since, and gets around amazingly well for a 96 year old gentleman.  I am sure that he has done his share of cave exploring in his day.

The team with senior Gallardo

Everyone was at the cave and surveying by 11am.  We split in to three teams and pushed the cave down the flow to another entrance.  As previously mentioned, the down flow section of the cave is closed to tourists.   The passage is mostly elliptical, with short sections of rock and breakdown on occasion.  the lava is very unforgiving, and the slightest slip can lead to badly bruised areas and/or severe cuts.  Adding to the scene, the rocks can be very unstable at times, easily leading to turned ankles and falls.  The expedition carries a large first aid pack at all times.

Some of the passages today were exceptional, with a favorite being the oddly alternating wall patterns that resemble zebra stripes.

Rick T. and Theo work to photograph an unusual spider

Other passages were quite large, including a near oxbow, not dissimilar to those found on rivers.  One major challenge in photographing lava tubes are their dark colors that seem to soak up all available light.  These photos were taken at 15sec. exposure, so the people in the frame have to stand very still. 

oxbow area of Cueva Gallardo

At the end of the day we headed back to camp, and Cueva Galalrdo was over 1700m of surveyed passage.  Tuesday promises to be a good day, so stay tuned…..