Cueva del Guácharo
Venezuela · Monagas · 1000 m
Description
The Cueva del Guácharo was the first natural monument Venezuela ever declared, on the fifteenth of July 1949, and it carries Humboldt's name because he came through it on the eighteenth of September 1799 and described the birds inside. Those birds are oilbirds, nocturnal and echolocating, and the scientific name Steatornis caripensis comes from Caripe four kilometres down the road. Fifteen thousand of them leave the mouth at dusk in a stream that takes half an hour to pass. The surveyed cave runs ten and a half kilometres and guided visits cover the first twelve hundred metres.
Length of stay
Recommended length of stay: 1 to 2 days (optimal 1 day)
Travel season
Best time to visit: December – April
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Highlights
- Guided walk into the Humboldt gallery
- Oilbirds leaving the cave at dusk
- Salón Precioso and its three vaults
- Galería del Silencio
- Museum and interpretation centre at the entrance
- Salto La Paila, a forty-five metre fall
- Caripe and its coffee and orange groves(Day trip)
- Cool cloud forest of the Monagas hills
- Blind crickets and rats of the dark zone
- El Guácharo National Park around the cave