Río Secreto

[expedition_retirement]

Before we left on this trip, we were talking to a friend about it and she mentioned staying at this resort and said that she had enjoyed an excursion to the "Secret River", an underground river that you walked and swam through as you visited the cave. This was not something we had done before, so we looked it up. The cavern is called "Río Secreto", and was only discovered in 2006 and opened to visitors in 2008. Located inside a private nature preserve, the owners of the cavern and the sanctuary appear to be deeply committed to preserving both and seem proud of their ability to preserve the water quality of the river that runs through the caves.

We booked the excursion at the resort, and our tour included round-trip transportation to/from the resort and lunch after our cave tour. We were picked up at the resort about 9:30 and rode south on the main highway for 30-40 minutes to reach the sanctuary, where we checked in and had a little time to relax before our tour. Soon enough, the others in our tour group arrived and we were introduced to our tour guide, Hugo, who escorted us to a van that carried us back into the sanctuary to the cave entrance. Here, we were equipped with helmets, water shoes, and life vests. We were required to shower before entering the cave, and for those who felt the water would be too cold (about 77F) they offered wetsuits. All of our personal belongings were left behind in lockers. We also each received a walking stick, to help us keep our balance, minimizing the chances we might touch the walls or formations to avoid falling.

As we entered the cave, we were accompanied by a professional photographer who took a lot of photos as we worked our way through the cave. The cave itself is almost entirely unimproved, with no cleared or paved walkways and no permanent lighting. The only light we had was the light on our helmets and our tour guide's flashlight. For most of the tour, we either walked in the water, or swam when it became deeper. It was unlike any other cave experience I've ever been a part of, and it was a great deal of fun.

After the tour, we enjoyed a buffet of Mexican food before boarding a van for the ride back to the resort.