Heading North on route #10 the day was still pleasant.  Where the highway ends our tour guide took us onto a mountain road.  As with the mountain roads that lead to Casa Pancho R�stica route #123 was filled with just as many twists and turns.  And with the heavy rains last week there were a number of mini landslides along the road.  The mountains here were beautiful and we made several stops to take some photos.

        Loosing track of mileage and time we connected with the improved highway again.  North of the town of Utuado we stopped at a gas station which is near the trail head.  Here we had a cup of coffee before heading on our hike. I marveled at the terrain and how different it appeared.  This area is the Karst of Puerto Rico I was told.  Karst is limestone deposits of which the north part of the island consists.  In English they are called Hay Stacks and that is what they appear like and in Puerto Rican Spanish M�guel called them �Mogotes.�  And very soon we would be hiking into one of these Mogotes.   

        We headed up over the hill and around the side.  Very quickly we were away form the sound of the traffic on the highway and into a world that not many venture into.  It was obvious that there was some foot traffic to the cave but hundreds of persons were not visiting here on a daily basis.  In places the trial was muddy and squishy but luckily here on the tree covered Karst there were no landslides.

        To get to the window we had to shimmy through a triangular shaped passage where it wasn�t quite high enough to stand up.  And once through the passage in front of us was a huge cavern with the window.  After our eyes had become adjusted to the darkness of the cave the window appeared as a very bright white-light ahead of us.

            There were petroglyphs on the walls in several places.  Unfortunately it was obvious that they were modern ones with the names of the artist inscribe beside the rock drawings.  Did the native Ta�no Indians every visit this cave?  Well that is hard to say.  But one could only wonder what they would have thought about looking down into the valley.  However, Robert told us about some real petroglyphs that were recently discovered down in the valley when a new museum had been built.  Therefore if the native Ta�no never visited this cave they probably were aware that it existed.  Did one of their gods live here in this cave where we trod naked?  And if this was a sacred place of a Ta�no god, did His spirit still live here?  I had a strange thought this morning that in some way we would encounter that spirit today.  Even if it was only that we were entering into his sanctuary.

        Our adventure would continue on our ride home from Window Cave.  As we got back to the Jeep a thunderstorm approached.  Heading toward Arecibo it started to sprinkle.  Once on the highway it rained harder.  Robert exited and we used the shelter of the over pass for a while until the storm passed.  But once on the road it rained again and after seeking the shelter of another overpass, we rigged up a poncho on the Jeep as a rain shield.  You should have seen the people laughing at the four of us driving down the highway holding onto a poncho to keep it from flapping to badly.  And we just smiled back at them.

        If it wouldn�t have been raining we were planning on stopping at Poza del Obispo Beach.  However, beaches and thunderstorms just don�t go together, that sight would have to be saved for another trip.  It was a long drive to get to this cave and peer out the window on the world below.  Protecting ourselves with a poncho as a make do �roof� added to the adventure on the way home and seemed to shorten the trip.  What an awesome adventure visiting a cave that has not fallen in to the hands of commercial development.  It was a pleasure visiting a place where bat guano and ancient spirits, for the most part, remain inside �Cueva Ventana� undisturbed.