The Cave of voices.
Tamara Caridad Mesa González 27 julio, 2018
Entering the cave make you feel as if you were getting into the beach step by step. The change of temperature is felt, gets the whole body.
Down the stairs many people leave traces of worries and uncertainty. “I am afraid of getting in. It’s that many things are heard”, explain a lady to her husband
“You have to be careful because if something happens, in the group always to the first that something happens is the… ”, argument, one on his thirties.
At Bellamar Cave you can hear voices, breathings and clapping
“People say that The Youth Fountain is here”.
“Who told you that? My old lady visited this place in 1982 and look how she is” debate two other people.
“Keep moving”, insist the guide after saying that we are walking through the most ancient touristic place in Cuba-make a pause- still being exploited-points out without making emphasis in the word “still”.
“It is not easy to be a speleologist; getting deep into a cave in the darkness it´s like being at the wolf mouth”, expressed the crowd-
“How beautiful”, says a woman with tenderness; her son with no more than six years asks: “¿Do you like it Mam?”
The wind changes. “This air conditioner is getting better”
“¡How nice! Isn´t it?”
“Hey, a selfie”, advise just in case.
Three water ponds; the guide refers to them as Fountains. The Fountain of Youth, of Love and Divorce. None wants to be old, everybody wants to love and in the other fountain-poor emarginated few wet their hands.
Steps ahead: “Love…, youth…! Oh people! I will grow up later now!” says a young and tall boy.
The guide asks them to stop walking.
“¿Is it the biggest of America?” someone wondered. “No. It isn´t even the biggest of Matanzas”, replies.
“¿And are there bigger in Matanzas?” asked again r. “Yes, but not so beautiful.”
They keep on walking.
“Wow…,”Look at that”
The cave has any kind of “inhabitants” between calcium carbonate and magnesium you can see kids, budas elephants, butterflies, fairies … But of everyone living there, only cockroaches can move, affirm the guide. “No way!”
“At least I have a good memory of Matanzas because I still have in mind that we lost the press soft- ball game”, mumbles one from Pinar del Río.
“Daddy, take me a picture”, says a kid.
“Oh god, There is no enough light here”, expresses who tries to take every detail from the cavern.
The turning back commences, the people walks faster. The line begins to be clear.
All of a sudden, one finds himself all alone. The shadow, the silence, your own steps. The net of water, the mud. The drop that bring about casualties wets the cap, the arm or the notebook. The first of the line are gone. The ones of the back are here.
The stairs up inspire fear. We cannot believe how easy was to go down there. “Now it´s that the feet hurt and there is lack of air”, I heard a man on his fifties.
The chest starts to be heavy. We need a lot of will. Get out of this cavern is like emerge from a river. The body all wet, the adventure, it´s too hot…
And the question if still without people inside, in the cave voices will be heard.
