Speleology in Costa Rica

The "old times":

In the 1904 edition of the "Geographic Dictionary", by Felix Noriega, under the name Barra Honda, we find the first reference known to a national karstic phenomena ; it goes like this: "Barra Honda: small, town in which’s jurisdiction it’s found the hill with the same name, almost entirely for med by limestone, and that has in its top 2 holes, type of craters 4mts. wide, whose bottom cannot be seen, and thus, it is thought to be an extinct volcano".

No matter how paradogic, this incompatible duality of limestone origin versus volcanic craters was long kept and even in 1940, geographer J.F Trejos sustains it.

The first attempt of Speleo exploration dates to 1912, when Professor Lucas R. Chacon and a few youngsters visited a small grotto in the vicinities of Cangrejal de Acosta. After the visit, Chacon published a magazine-note entitled "Los cerros de Candelaria" (the hills of Candelaria) (journal of C.R Vol lll) later reproduced by Carlos Goicoechea Carranza. (Pg. 73, "Limestone massifs and karstic phenomena in Costa Rica")

The next data takes us back to Barra Honda, close to Nicoya, since professor Alejandro Porras visited this karstic area, as he details in the article entitled "El volcan Barra Honda".

Starting in 1942 and for about 10 years, Costa Rican hydrologist Alfonso Segura Paguagua, as a result of casual discoveries in Guanacaste Province, felt interest in the kartic phenomena of Costa Rica.

During 1962, french caver and explorer Robert Vergnes, who at the time had the world’s depth record (Pierre San Martín,-900mts) came our country to do Speleo exploration. He got in touch with newspaper man and mountaineer Yehody Monestel, who tells him briefly about the pits of Barra Honda. Vergnes puts them aside and becomes interested in "Gabinarraca Cave”, at Venado de San Carlos.

In between Nov.1956 and Dec.1957, Vergnes had launched several expeditions to Languin Caves (Guatemala) and had reached the top of volcán Izalco (El Salvador), in the company of famous geologist Haroum Tazzief, to film a movie. This was done with the volcano in full eruption!.

Vergnes, Monestel and half a ton of gear moved themselves to the cave and proceed to explore it. They manage to explore some 350mts only, doe to high waters and log-plugs blocking the way, but he recognizes the large possibilities that this cave has and all its mysteries. Today the cave is 2.741m long and still hasn’t been finished, due to tight passages with intermittent water flow.

In between 1964 and December of 1968, diver and explorer Christopher Westenknight (C.R) began a systematic study of the Karst phenomena of Cocos Island (C.R). He wrote a short paper about his findings, published by the Association of friends of the Museum. He describes some of the numerous caves of the island, including some insurgences, (underwater caves and one river cave).

The "Grupo de Espeleologia" (G.E) comes up as branch of this "Club de montañeros de Costa Rica" (CMCR), founded in 1962 and officially recognized on April 23, 1967.

 A first class enthusiast and responsible for the creation of the GE was the Spanish spelunker (of cataluña) Julián González Mateos, member of the "Grupo Espeleológico de Badalona" (Geb-Spanin) who, with his large experience and knowledge about the subject, convinced several members of the CMCR to penetrate the depths of earth.

The first " grand-step" was the discovery and partial descent of the "Pozo 110", at Barra Honda, during September 15,16 and 17,1967 (now only - 98mts).

The enthusiasm of the group (GE), at the return, was enormous, and contaged a serious of individuals, which accorded to establish the "Grupo Espeleológico", within the CMCR. The "forever" leader then chosen Guillermo Cortes, still in charge (2004).

The began caving in Costa Rica actually there are at least 2 organizations AEC (Asociación Espeologica Costarricense) and "Asociación Anthros C.R. Grotto", as part of the NSS in USA.

Association "Anthros CR. Grotto" was created in order to give a legal status to the "Grupo Espeleologico Anthros", which is a part of the national Speleological Society (NSS) (www.caves.org ), in the USA, under the name of "Anthros CR Grotto", since April 16, 1998.

During March 2003, the "GEA" assumed the representation of Costa Rica unto the FEALC, Federación Espeleológica para America Latina y el Caribe and the UIS (Union Internaciona de Espeleologia). At a national level, "the Group" has been active since 1998, launching explorations to Costa Rica’s southern area or "Zona Sur", Venado of San Carlos, Barra Honda, Belize, Mexico and Honduras.

In the year 2004, the GEA was trained by Bruce Hagen, instructor of the Belize Institute for search and cave rescue, establishing the second rescue trained unit in Central America: “Anthros Rescue Unit”.

International expeditions in CR:

Karst Regions in Costa Rica:

Limestone Karst extends to about 8% of Costa Rica's surface: we have divided it into 7 regions or Groups, with further divisions into sub-groups, localities and sectors ("Guía Karstica de Costa Rica" Vol. IV of "Caves of Costa Rica", by Carlos. Goicoechea). The 7 Groups are as follows: Guanacaste (1), Central Pacific (2), Central Valley (3), Turrialba –Pacuare (4), Atlantic (5), South Pacific (6) and Isolated (7).

By definition, "Karst" is the name to regions characterized by a rocky physiographic abundant in steep hills, rock towers, blind valleys, dolines and others, including sinking rivers (in-surgence) and resurgence, when they come out of the rock, after being subterranean.

Karst in general and of course caves, is the product of the dissolution of limestone massifs by the carbonic acid formed with rain water and the CO2 present in the air. Limestones are formed by the deposition of sediments and marine organisms at the bottom of shallow seas, through billons of years.

At some moment(s) through time, these platforms were uplifted, molded, tilted and sculptured by strong and slow geological processes.

Karstic regions contain large numbers of species of flora and fauna that are endemic to it, and our country has its own that are exclusive of our patrimony. They also constitute very important water reserves, know as aquifers. They are regions hard to or practically impossible to reconstruct, once the balance is broken. No t having taken of this will make us pay greatly and seriously in the future.