North Coast - Puerto Rico - page 390

underground formations either. Your visit begins with a film at the visitor center and a trol-
leybus through the jungle into a 200ft-deep sinkhole to Cueva Clara de Empalme (Clear
Cave Junction), where you take a 45-minute guided walk. Here you walk past enormous
stalagmites and stalactites, and into rooms littered with boulders. At one point the ceiling of
the cavern reaches a height of 170ft; at another you can see the Río Camuy rushing through
a tunnel.
After leaving the cave from a side passage, you take another tram to the Tres Pueblos
sinkhole , which measures 650ft across and drops 400ft. Forty-two petroglyphs that you
can now inspect have been found in Cueva Catedral (Cathedral Cave).
The last tour leaves at 2pm if you want to see all three areas, or at 3:45pm if you want to
see just one sinkhole. All told, the fun of the visit here depends on the size of the crowds,
your patience and the tour guide (some of them seem bored stiff).
You can get off the beaten path underground by joining Expediciones Palenque (
823-4354, 306-4382; www.expedicionespalenque.com ; full-day $90) , which offers
daylong caving trips, and a host of other cool trips hiking, rappelling and body rafting the
Río Camuy.
Parque Ceremonial Indígena Caguana PARK
( 894-7325; adult/child $2/1; 9am-4pm) Like the archaeological site at Tibes near
Ponce, this Taíno ceremonial site, off Hwy 111, has no monumental ruins; the power of
the place comes from the natural botanical garden of ceiba, ausubo and tabonuco trees that
shade the midslopes of the central mountains. There are 10 ceremonial bateyes (Taíno ball
courts), dating back about 800 years to original Taíno inhabitants. Stone monoliths line
many of the courts; some weigh up to a ton, but most are small. Quite a few have petro-
glyphs, such as the famous Mujer de Caguana, who squats in the pose of the traditional
'earth mother' fertility symbol.
Caguana is a place to walk and reflect, not to be thrilled by exhibits or enormous ancient
monuments. Nevertheless, there is a small museum with artifacts and skeletons on the
property, and a gift shop that sells inexpensive but attractive reproductions of Taíno charms,
including the statues called cemíes .
Lagos Dos Bocas & Caonillas LAKES
These two lakes - each more than 2 miles long - fill a deeply cleft valley at a point where
karst country gives way to the jagged spine of the central mountains, east of Hwy 10 and
north of Utuado. The lakes are the principal reservoirs for the north-central part of the is-
land, and they can provide a tranquil escape if the beaches are too congested.