The Sauce Caves constitute one of the geological wealth that we can find in our Cordoba Hills which are one of the few formations of this type opened to the tourism in our country. Sebastian Ceballos, an specialized speologist, with a group of speleologists and collaborators, invite us to introduce in the depths and discover its secrets.
History of the discovery:
At the beginning of the 60s, the excavation of the quarry (place where the sodium carbonate is extracted) started and approximately in the mid of the same decade, the cave was discovered. Even though they continued working an important part of the cave phenomenon, and one of the highest parts of it was destroyed because of the extraction of the mineral.
At the beginning of the 80s, the low profitability of the mining activity led to the end of the exploitation in that quarry, ceasing its deterioration. From that time, two openings were opened which constitute the entrance and the exit that we have nowadays and there is also a third opening by which the cave has a lot of ventilation and oxygen inside.
What are the caves?
UFrom a geological point of view, a cave is a cavity in the rock which it is formed by that action of water in a soluble rock that could be mechanic or chemistry. The caves are made from vary types of minerals: salt, gypsum, ice, etc. Punctually, The Sauce Caves made from sodium carbonate.
The caves are formed by the action of water prom underground rivers (mechanic action) or by the action of water that penetrates through the rock crevices and dissolves slowly the cave (chemical action), letting to the creation of underground spaces. At the same time, as the time goes on, these spaces are ornamented by the natural phenomenon of precipitation or crystallization which set formations or speleothems, that is to say, stalactites and stalagmites, an unparalleled spectacle.
They have a steady temperature that is the external annual measure of the place, in the Sauce ranges between 13 and 14 degrees with a humidity that reaches from 94 to 96 %.It is the longest cave in the Province of Cordoba; it has around 1000 meters leaving some parts without relieve.
The high vary in its different stays. But the top which would be the deepest point is approximately at 26 meters from the entering opening. The high of the roof reaches the 8 meters at times, and it sometimes very low in other parts.
The formations and espeleothems are very revealing in the geological scope as according to the experts, the caves have a lot of information from the outside part where they are.
Because of being an important scope of study, some people are working together with the Argentinean Society of caving for installing in the cave a laboratory of monitoring which will help to develop measurement tasks and investigation. That will contribute more details about our geological past.
The cave phenomenon has been opened not a long time ago, that i8s why the cave has not let to the development of flora and fauna inside of it, so it has not got any kind of animals. It is important to take into account that the fauna of the cave is special or atypical because it has certain own characteristics of the absolute darkness (albinos and blind).
Can the cave be toured?
Yes. Not all the caves are safe for guided tours, for example, there are caves under the water that can only be traveled by specialized people. This is not the case of the Sauce Caves, because they are not submerged under water, if we decide to get into the Sauce, we should know that there, there is complete darkness, and the spaces are sometimes very wide, but more or less reliable. That is why, we provide you with specialized equipment for the speleoturism and a guide who accompanies the visitors in the tour.
For those who have never had an experience, and want to know this kind of natural formations, exists a basic circuit of approximately one hour (1 hour). But for those who would like to have a more intensive adventure, they could descend for hidden places for the majority of the visitors, in a circuit of one hour and a half approximately.
To top it off, there is also the possibility of visit the cave during the day or at night. Even though inside the cave reigns the absolute darkness, the guides recommends to visit it at night because the experience is totally different, because of its adaptability to the darkness and we get off the cave we will find a sea of stars in a unparalleled sky. Colors and textures which can not be imagined will wait you in the inside of these caves; we invite you to be part of this marvelous experience.