Lava caves, who knew?
I had never heard of lava caves before our trip to Ecuador, but they make sense. Molten hot lava flows from the peak of the volcano and makes tunnels when the outside cools due to outside air, but the inside continues to flow. Eventually a hard shell is formed on the outside and the inner lava has stopped flowing, leaving a cave. We explored one briefly:
Our group entering the cave…
A mother and son owl pair hanging out in the cave.
View through the cave. Because the lava needed a way out, the cave also has 2 ways out - but when I heard you had to “crawl” the last section, I immediately turned out. Brave Husband, however, continued all the way through and the tour bus picked him and a few others up on the other side. Two kids followed them all the way through - younger kids, they were under ten and hadn’t told their parents where they were going - but turned around when they got out because they didn’t see anyone. Anyway, our bus spent 20 minutes going back and forth to the entrances trying to find them, and the guide had to run through the cave again. They found them in the end, of course.