Cacahuamilpa is the best known cave system in Mexico and one of the largest in the world, and it is alive: groundwater still filters down into it and the formations are still growing. Inside the system are ninety large chambers.
It sits in the Sierra Madre del Sur, mostly in the northeast of Guerrero state, southwest of Mexico City and close to the silversmithing town of Taxco. The rock is largely limestone formed under oceans millions of years ago. The caverns run under the municipalities of Pilcaya, Tetipac and Taxco in Guerrero and reach into Coatlán del Río in Morelos, and the national park around them covers 2,700 hectares.
The park holds more than the headline cave. There is a second, smaller system, the Grutas of Carlos Pacheco, and two subterranean rivers that have cut their own tunnels through the rock and can be explored. Above ground there is rappelling and rock climbing in Limontitla Canyon, a small botanical garden, a pool and camping.
About 350,000 people visit each year, generating roughly 8 million pesos, which makes it a significant piece of the regional economy rather than a curiosity.
Scale rather than decoration is what people remember. The chambers, called salons, average about forty metres wide and run anywhere from twenty to eighty one metres high, and most are named for the formations in them: the Goat Salon, the Throne Salon, the Cathedral Salon. One of the drier ones has been dubbed the Auditorium, has a large flat floor, has been fitted with seats, and is rented out for events.
It pairs naturally with Taxco, close enough to make one day out of a colonial silver town and one of the largest cave systems on the planet.
Mexico
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