Rio_Camuy_Caves
Parque Nacional de las Cavernas del Río Camuy
Cave system in Camuy, Puerto Rico
The Parque Nacional de las Cavernas del Río Camuy (English: Camuy River Cave National Park) 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.[1][2] 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).[5][6] 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 archaeological evidence that these caves were explored hundreds of years ago by the Taíno Indians, Puerto Rico's first inhabitants.[7][8] Over 10 miles of caverns, 220 caves and 17 entrances[9] 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. After restorations necessitated by Hurricane Maria, a destructive storm that struck Puerto Rico in 2017, the park re-opened on March 24, 2021. It then closed again from September, 2022 until February, 2023 due to Hurricane Fiona.[10]