Camuy Caves

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The Camuy River Cave Park (Spanish: Parque de las Cavernas del Río Camuy) is a cave system in Puerto Rico. It is located between the municipalities of Camuy, Hatillo and Lares in northwestern Puerto Rico, but the main entrance to the park is located in Quebrada, Camuy.

The caverns are part of a large network of natural limestone caves and underground waterways carved out by the third-largest underground river in the world, the Río Camuy (Camuy River). The cave system was discovered in 1958 and was first documented in the 1973 book Discovery At The Río Camuy (ISBN 0-517-50594-0) by Russell and Jeanne Gurnee, but there is archaeologic evidence that these caves were explored by the Taíno Indians, Puerto Rico’s first inhabitants hundreds of years ago. Over 10 miles of caverns, 220 caves and 17 entrances to the Camuy cave system have been mapped so far.

This, however, is only a fraction of the entire system which many experts believe still holds another 800 caves. Only a small part of the complex is open to the public. The 268-acre park built around the cave system features tours of some of the caves and sinkholes, and is one of the most popular natural attractions in Puerto Rico.

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