"Slip sliding away" (and along)
Yesterday we met in the morning to take a bus 2 hrs away to a town called taza. From taza we took a very scenic grand taxi ride up the mountains and through a countryside area. We passed many herds of sheep and goats, many of whom wander in and out of the ride oblivious to the fact that cars are zooming by left and right. The surrounding land was quite beautiful and obviously a big change of scenery from the city.
We finally reached the mouth of the caves where we hired a guide to take us through the dark, mysterious caverns. We strapped on our head lamps and headed in. At first, it was just lots and lots of stairs with railings heading down and deeper into the mouth of the cave. Then the lights stopped, the railing stopped and the real adventure started. With headlamps illuminating the way, we literally squeezed and slithered ourselves through a little opening, which brought us to the interior of the cave. We explored around the caves on various "paths" with the guide leading the way with his two flashlights. It was completely dark down there, so you needed your headlamp to see as well as free hands to balance yourself and grab rocks as handholds durin steep parts. It felt kind of like an obstacle course in the dark with a gymnastic influence from when we crossed along some suspended wooden boards or what we called balance beams.
Along the way, we would stop and our guide would shine the flashlight along the cavern walls which revealed these incredible calcium diposit "statues" and almost sand-castle like structures along the ceiling and all around us really. There were crystal, shining and shimmering minerals dispersed along the calcium/rock formations and walls that twinkled when the guide shone his light.
We explored the caves for a few hours, taking little routes here and there, squeezing under rock where we had to and always (atleast for me bc I'm so tall) watching to make sure I wasn't goin to hit my head. We emerged much dirtier than we entered since it was quite damp down there which as a result made the clay within the caves muddy and therefore us too as we slid and rubbed along their surfaces.
It was a very long day with lots of traveling, but the caves were very interesting and beautiful inside! I know all of us have pictures to show- some revealing quite well the scary structures, that look like some sort of halloween monster, that are created within the caves.
Can't wait to have you all see them!