MoxieLifestyle

In Bocas Del Toro, Panama there is a bat cave called La Gruta. According to Lonely Planet it was about a 6km walk and you paid a dollar to get in and got a water proof flashlight. Now I know why Jen always refers to it as the Lonely Liar.

After walking about 3km to save .50 cents on a taxi (other backpackers are so cheap!) we hop in a collective taxi and pay a dollar to be taken to La Gruta. At the start of the path there is a sign that says there is a dollar fee for “cave maintenance”. The entrance to the cave is pretty interesting, it was surrounded by Virgin Mary statues.

At the entrance to the cave there was a lady doing her wash in the water with her son. They told us we had to give them a dollar to go in. I asked about waterproof flashlights and they looked at me like I was loco. We gave her a dollar because we’re rich gringos and were on our way.

Going into the cave we knew that there would be waist deep water but unfortunately none of us had water shoes so we just wore our flip flops. What we didn’t count on, was the copious amount of bat shit everywhere. Every surface was covered with it and the water was full of it, every step you risked either slipping or pulled up a huge cloud of bat guano in the water.

After rounding a corner in the cave we came upon the exit which Jen and the other girl that Anthony and I were with ran to. We walked through a little bit of forest before coming upon another cave. Anthony and I went in, the girls were too scared. We trudged through more bat shit and saw some pretty cool things, including a little overflowing rock formation. I can’t really describe it very well so here is a picture.

We went as far as we could until it got so dark that the headlight Jen brought wasn’t doing much good so we turned around. We came back out champions and made our way into town.

Filed under: Adventures, Panama on June 25th, 2008