{"id":547,"date":"2013-01-29T18:39:42","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T23:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/?p=547"},"modified":"2013-01-29T18:51:30","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T23:51:30","slug":"caves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/2013\/01\/29\/caves\/","title":{"rendered":"CAVES"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was straight up amazing. Started out with another great breakfast (which is key), then without much further ado we headed off to the Grotto Bay Hotel for some exploring… no, really. The hotel is surrounded by sweet caves!<\/p>\n

One cave we wanted to explore was closed off because of some excavation project or something, but we found another sweet one right on hotel premises! It was larger than the first caves we went in, and minimally built up (and therefore safer, which I think Bruce liked). It was great. We found some calcite…. shocking… some limestone… also shocking… and water! Wild! On the way out we met another adorable cat who Sarabeth seduced with some cat food.<\/p>\n

\"kitteh\"<\/a>

kitteh<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

We went on to Crystal Cave, a super commercial cave nearby. Its story is crazy: two 12 year old boys were playing cricket near it back in 1906, and accidentally hit a cricket ball too far. They went to look for it in the bushes and found a hole in the ground. They went in, got a bunch of rope, tied it to a tree, and lowered themselves down 100+ feet into what would be named Crystal Cave! They apparently spent a few hours swimming there (there is water in this cave as well, as it is at sea level), but didn’t find their ball. Wonder why. Anyway, now there are guided tours into it- you approach through a well-lit tunnel, walk down 83 manmade steps with railings the whole way, and come to this amazing cave. There are above-water walkways to the end of the cavern, which is as well lit as the tunnel down, as your tour guide tells you how the cave was discovered and its history in the past century. It’s wonderful that the cave is protected by law but at the same time I find it a little sad that a natural wonder like that has been built up to the point that there are lights, concealed in concrete, cemented to the stalactites. I just wish they at least provided flashlights instead or something.<\/p>\n

\"Cool<\/a>

Cool helictites in Crystal Cave!<\/p><\/div>\n

Don’t get me wrong- it was still spectacular! I would personally just rather see the cave without being a) led down a lit manmade hallway with hanging decorative lamps all the way down, b) reach the end of the cave only to find a little pool of water filled to the brim with coins tossed in for luck, and c) told to observe some great stalactite formations like an alligator, the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>, and a female dragon. I didn’t see any of them. It was like finding shapes in clouds. That being said though, I am really glad that the cave is protected so that all of its amazing stalactites, stalagmites and helictites aren’t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

ANYWAY! The day was beautiful so we headed back to BIOS for a lunch in the sun, and afterward got to tour the\u00a0Atlantic Explorer<\/em>! Johnny, the port captain, showed us all around. By the end of the tour I was a bit jealous of his occupation… the\u00a0Explorer<\/em>\u00a0is pretty much a marine scientist’s paradise!<\/p>\n

After that, Bruce gave us the afternoon off (well technically he gave us the whole afternoon, but we all wanted to tour the BIOS vessel). We went back to Walsingham, where we visited a couple of caves yesterday, and actually got to swim in one of the two caves. It was incredible! Crossed that off my bucket list.<\/p>\n

Tonight are carbonate presentations…. will report back on how they go. Wish us luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was straight up amazing. Started out with another great breakfast (which is key), then without much further ado we headed off to the Grotto Bay Hotel for some exploring… no, really. The hotel is surrounded by sweet caves! One … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108463],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/geologyofbermuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}