Cave of the lighting Cueva del rayo

Caving, study and exploration of caves, is a fascinating activity, of course, not suitable for claustrophobic (phobia of enclosed spaces or small rooms.)

On this occasion, we went to Huehuetenango to visit this interesting cave. Respective questions but did not give us any reason for why its strange name "Ray Cave."

The route is quite long, so it's worth to have information in advance, with a planned route with multiple destinations to make the trip worthwhile, which ultimately leads to a couple of miles to the border with Mexico.

There you will find two cenotes near dry, the Cimarron and another that was not possible to find another name than "the other bighorn ...". You'll also be near the road leading to Laguna Brava Yolnabaj (use the site's search engine to locate the note of this fate.)

A long journey

To get there, you should take, from Guatemala City, the Interamerican Highway, leaving the way to Xela, the head of Huehuetenango, La Democracia, Nentón and finally reach the Villa Trinidad, which ceases to be such, for Community now become Trinity.

The entire road is paved except for a stretch near Guaxacaná, which is passable dirt car sedan. 4x4 is not necessary to finally reach the destination.

To all this, and in La Trinidad, you are just a couple of miles from Mexico and you're in the stores and find Mexican beverages. In fact, from the top at the entrance to the cave you can see Mexican towns nearby.

It is advisable to arrive well prepared because no cell signal is achieved with any company, always carries oil, spare tire in good condition and tool box. Traffic throughout this section is not plentiful so I emphasize, is the preparation of the case.

For rock climbers, Huehuetenango is a paradise. In the entire stretch of dirt will find plenty of training provided to boulder (climbing difficulty at low altitude, cordless).

But there is clearly a warning to travel along the roads between the semi-dry vegetation: it is common to find snakes.

When you get there

The cave is located less than 5 kilometers from La Trinidad, once there it will begin the descent.

You should not make noise, either talking loudly or scream, or take music and much less hit the rocks or rock walls ... There are bees. Nor should use perfumes.

The loud buzzing was the first thing we noticed upon arrival at the place. It was a rather large swarm. Near this is a makeshift altar in a rock cavity.

After traveling for a semi-rugged descent, we reach the entrance to the cave. In fact there are several inputs but only one has significantly inward.

The first chamber is spacious and leads to an inner journey in which you have to squeeze between the rock forward.

Deeper

The cave itself is a multi-camera system less space than the input.

After spending the early passages crawl, where other cameras we had candles, bottles and marks on the walls with prayer and ironic phrase "take care of the cave" ...

Was sorry to find so many scratches on the walls and trash from machine guns (fireworks for celebrations).

In total there are five small passages through which it is necessary to drain. We passed them all and finally found one that challenged the art ... but the lack of helmets and ropes prevented us to enter to explore.

This cave seems to be frequently visited for religious rituals as the walls were completely ash by the use of candles.

Mineralization

Nevertheless, among the broken pieces and contaminated by smoke, was able to find several stalactites and capricious mineralization still show growth.

It is recalled that takes hundreds of years to increase its size by inches, and touch the formations, the polluter and stopping the accumulation of minerals, and therefore growth.

Finally, this cave remains a destination shy and did not reveal much about its history, by itself or by locals who live nearby.