Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By Jessie Kwak
Photos By Robert Kittilson

The drive from Tarma to the cave is along a narrow gravel road, where taxis whiz past the irregularly-shaped terraces of manzanilla, corn, artichokes and flowers. Workers fill the fields, harvesting vegetables by hand and loading them into giant woven baskets. In the midst of all this agriculture, we pulled into a parking lot that could be in front of any other farm house in the valley, except that the mouth of the Gruta de Guagapo gapes high above it, and its trout ponds are fed from the river that cascades from a secondary mouth of the cave.


Although known locally for thousands of years, the cave was put on the modern map in the 1920's by José Otero and a group of high school students from Tarma, who explored the first 100 meters of the cave and found prehistoric fossils. Guagapo's depths were revealed in increments for the next 63 years, as technology improved and groups were able to pass through the first squeeze with scuba gear and submersible lanterns. The last group to increase their knowledge of the cave--a conjoined effort of Peru's CESPE (Centro de Exploraciones Subterraneas del Perú) and the French Club Meandres Roven--entered the cave in 1994 to reach 2800 meters, where they found another squeeze.  This has yet to be passed, so no one knows for certain how deep Guagapo really goes. 

For casual visitors to the cave, there are three commitment levels. Without a guide or lights, one can easily walk in about one hundred meters on a clearly-marked path. The path follows the river, whose clear water shimmers over mossy rocks. Stalactites cling high above, lumpy, gray and delicate.

After about 100 meters, the path separates from the river.  A sturdy bridge and ladder make this part easy for the casual spelunker, but to go any farther it's advisable to hire a guide, who can provide you with expertise, lights, and ropes. 

The cave splits into two chambers, with the river running below the footpath. Visitors climb above the river in a sometimes nerve-wracking series of ascents and descents, all a bit tricky for the unexperienced, but our guide gave good instructions and under his careful guidance all felt safe, even as we rappelled four meters of slippery dirt to a window in the cave floor that looked down to the rushing river below.

Only about 300 meters of the cave are accessible on dry land, but according to both our guide and our taxi driver, the most impressive scenery can only be seen by entering the river and swimming the 800 meters to the first squeeze.  What we saw without putting on our bathing suits was impressive enough:  intricate formations of stalactites and stalagmites, towering columns, and fantastic, naturally sculpted gardens of stone.

When we had gone as far as we could without entering the river, our guide had us turn off our lights and listen to a story.  During the invasion of the Incas, he said, the Tarma people who lived in the Palcamayo Valley made a desperate decision. The Incas were approaching rapidly, so they hid all their women, children, and elderly in the depths of the cave to wait until the warriors returned.

In the darkness they waited. And waited. But the Incas were too powerful, and the warriors never returned. The legend, our guide tells us, is that the water that rushes from the cave's mouth is the combined tears of so many mourning for their sons, husbands, and brothers, and that the mourning Taramas froze into the stalactites and stalagmites that people the cave today. 

We stand in the darkness and listen.  The echoing of the water sounds like voices crying.

Getting there: Collectivo taxis leave Tarma for Guagapo and San Pedro de Cajas, costing four soles a person. For 30 soles you can rent the car and the taxi will wait for you so long as you agree on a specified time to wait ahead of time. One hour should do you well, unless you want to take it slow and take photos, or have lunch at the several restaurants who offer trout grown on site.

It costs 1 sol to see the cave, and local guides are available for a tip. It is busier on the weekends, when more organized tour groups come.

If you're interested in going deeper into the river, PeruTravels.net can put together a spelunking trip including transportation from Lima, or you can ask the guides who live near the cave. I found no local tour companies who offered deep-cave trips.

To read more by Jessie Kwak, and to see more photos by Robert Kittilson, click here.