Green Grotto is one of the largest yellow limestone caves in Jamaica...with an amazing history.
Used as a hiding place by first the indigenous people, then the Spaniards to escape the British, then the runaway slaves to escape sugar cane plantations, used as a cool place to store rum casks, and even a large underground nightclub in the early 2000's...now a major natural tourist attraction and the home for many many many bat species.
...seriously...if you have a problem with (literally) hundreds of bats chittering overhead...this is NOT the tour for you...
For everyone else...let's explore!
Not to worry...they are nocturnal...eat fruit...bugs or nectar...and just want to be left alone and sleep.
...relax...he's just unhappy because he got woke up...
To adorable flying sky-puppies...they are everywhere down here!
The slight greenish tinge to the cave is from algae growth...the sporadic natural openings are the flight windows for night-time food forays for the bats...during the times of hiding the beach passage was a way for hiding people to escape and sometimes make their way to nearby Cuba.
Try as I might, I could find no photographs of the nightclub...but the evidence is still inside and you can see the man-made stone structures inside the opening. Also learned that there are other functional cave clubs on the island...so we will have to explore one while we are here!
A well-worn cave, the stalactites and stalagmites have long since stopped growing because of centuries of human touch (oils) and the Wishing Well grotto is more than a little campy...but it was cooling from the 90+ degree heat outside and the history was neat.
