Approach any tricycle driver in town to barter for a fee for the 5km drive straight east out of town. When the cache was placed, the CO (Cache Owner) paid PHP 200 to a tricycle driver to drive approx. 7.5km out from Santa Cruz town center, wait for 2 hours, and then drive back down to town again. At the parking/trailhead, follow the wide grass/gravel path to the obvious end. Then turn left onto the very wide, very obvious steps that pave the way all along to the caves. Expect a 25min easy hike. Remember to bring a torch, as powerful as possible. You will be extremely disappointed if you rely on the torch function of you mobile phone.
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Caves can be formed by a number of different geological processes. Karst Caves like the Sagrada Familia Caves are formed by the dissolution of limestone by water containing CO2 (carbon dioxide). Such caves will typically take hundreds of thousands of years to form.
CO2 can enter water in a number of natural ways;
-As the water falls through the atmosphere it will pick up some CO2 that is naturally present in the atmosphere, some of it exhaled by living creatures.
-As it seeps through the soil, water will pick up much more CO2 originating from biological processes.
-Recent industrial activity, such as burning coal in power plants, or gasoline in car engines, will put a lot more CO2 in the atmosphere, helping processes that require acidic water.
Theoretically, such a cave could be just a single "hole" or "slot" in the mountain. However, the limestone is often deposited in strange layers and shapes, giving rise to intricate and exciting cave formations. The water containing CO2 will seep through cracks and passages in the limestone, dissolving it and thus creating holes and caves. After a little while, the CO2 naturally leaves the water (this is called outgassing), and the dissolved limestone has a tendency to re-solidify. This usually happens in shapes called stalagmites and stalactites at the point where water drips from the ceiling. Stalactites are limestone re-formations that look like icicles hanging from the cave ceiling, and stalagmites look like icicles growing upwards from the floor. Sometimes the two form in one place, thus you have two icicles growing towards each other. In these caves you can observe both. Unfortunately, most of the nicest ones have been broken off by souvenir hunters. But if you look up, you can still see stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
All of this makes each cave uniquely shaped and interesting, and caves can be "dead end", or open by having two openings like a tunnel, or an open ceiling/roof. The open roof may be formed by the limestone simply having been dissolved away, or the covering layer of rock being too thin after the underlying limestone has been dissolved, and thus the roof caves in.
All of these conditions for creating a Karst Cave will change over time; to start the formation of a new cave, or to stop the continued formation of an existing cave. The presence of water inside such a cave, especially at the end of stalactites or stalagmites, is a good indicator that the cave is still alive and forming. Can you see water at the end of a stalactite or a stalagmite in this cave?
As an added bonus, in the open-tunnel cave you can see places where parts of the ceiling and a few surrounding stalactites have a strong green discolouration, which indicates a nearby presence of copper.
It is uncertain whether this is just a copper oxide contamination, or fully formed Malachite, a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral that will form as a stalactite.
This cave system has one of each of the three types of mentioned caves; one tunnel with 2 openings, one short cave with a collapsed roof, and one dead-end cave.
To log, you must answer the following question in an email to the cache owner:
1) When you come to the coordinates, keep to the right and go slightly DOWN and then turn slightly left. Does the end of this cave have a roof or not?
2) One of the three caves in this system does not have a roof. In your own words, describe the possible reason for the missing roof.
3) Are these caves formed in "a natural way", or is it a result of man-made pollution (CO2) in the atmosphere? In your own words, explain your answer.
4) Look at the ends of the stalactites you see in the caves. Are they all dry, or are some of them saturated with water? Explain what the wet or dry stalactites could indicate.
5) You may choose to upload a picture of yourself at this place, showing your GPS in the picture.
Write and post your log at the same time as you send email to the CO. If there is a problem, you will be contacted. Logs without emails to the CO will be deleted. Please post pictures from your trip and experience.
As you come to the parking area you should be able to see this sign:
You may be met by this stout gatekeeper, ...
... and the village idiot.
Walk upwards to the very end of the grass/gravel path, until you see this on the left:
When you are almost at the caves, you will pass this viewpoint.
One view of the "tunnel" cave, that has two almost equal end openings.
The caves are home to a number of bats, ...
... and the occasional (grumpy) owl.
Some of the stalactites are green from copper contamination.
Mind your head and hands, not to cut yourself on these serrated edges.
