Exploring the Caves of Xilitla, Mexico

About an hour walk from the main area in Xilitla is some of the most amazing caves I’ve ever seen (OK, to be fair I haven’t seen a lot of caves yet, but that doesn’t detract from the beauty of this place).

It’s called La Cueva del Salitre, the Cave of the Mineral Salts and is home to thousands of wild parakeets that swirl around the cave entrance at dusk to enter their homes. In the morning they come spiralling out of the cave filling the sky with with their aerobatics. Even during the day there were many birds playfully soaring in and out of the cave and hiding in tiny holes in the sparkling stone walls where they nest.

Upon entering the cave in the warm afternoon I once again I had the sensation of being very, very small. I came face to face with massive boulders the size of cars that were dwarfed by the enormous mouth of the cave entrance, even the plants were larger than it looked from the outside. After a semi-steep climb down I was shown a large hole that went about 500m straight down… it took a rock about 5-8 seconds to hit the bottom, maybe longer as it bounced along the sides in what seemed like an eternal decent. I was very grateful at that point that I had a local friend to show me the way safely around this cave!

Many times we stopped to catch our breath from the strenuous effort and to simply listen to the sound of water drops falling, birds chirping playfully and to look at the stalactites and plants living inside and wonder at this amazing hideaway nature had created.

It costs 20 pesos to go through the gate leading towards to cave entrance and the view even from the gate is well worth stopping for a moment to take a look. I would advise going to the caves with a guide or a local that knows the area well, the climb in and out is very steep and the rocks and often sandy / muddy paths down are not always as solid as they look. There were more than a few times I was grateful to have someone reaching down to steady me and to help navigate the safest way through.

After we left the darkness and back out into the humid heat we sat for a while looking at the entrance and talking, he in Spanish spattered with occasional Nahuatl and English words, me with Spenchlish. Somehow we were able to communicate fairly well for the most part and we even taught each other a few of our own words.

Photos From the Mineral Caves of Xilitla, Mexico

Looking in at ‘La Cueva del Salitre’

From the outside it looks quite unassuming, and doesn’t look like it’s hiding an enormous cave.

Inside the Cave

*Gulp* When I took this shot I realized that the rope the guide brought was in case I fell in the deeper parts and needed help out.

In the mouth of the cave looking out

I took this photo partially because the scenery here was beautiful, and partially because I started to realize how far down the cave went and was buying time to get my brave face on. ;) Past this my camera couldn’t get a decent shot most of the time since it was very dark, but I can tell you it was amazing!

Wild Parakeet

Here’s a zoomed in shot of one of the thousands of wold parakeets that make their home inside this massive cave. Sadly it’s very grainy because my camera had some troubles with the extremely low lighting.

Stone formation

One of the very tall mineral formations in the lower part of the cave caused by water flowing over it for thousands of years during the rainy season. The photo’s a bit grainy since I had to use a low light setting.