Haitón del Guarataro

The Haitón del Guarataro is a solutional cave system in the Sierra de San Luis in Falcón State, Venezuela, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) south-east of Curimagua.

It is the deepest limestone cave in Venezuela,[1] and the entrance is a tourist attraction within the Juan Crisóstomo Falcón National Park.

An upstream passage is intercepted which runs south for about 150 metres (490 ft) to the base of a shaft.

It was first explored and surveyed in April 1973 by members of the Venezuela '73 British Karst Research Expedition.

They included cave crickets, phalangodid harvestmen, a depigmented troglophile garnmarid shrimp (Hyalella meinerti) found in a large pool, and a troglobitic trichopolydesmid millipede found on the roof of the terminal chamber.

Three people sitting down at an underground camp site surrounded by their equipment
Camping on a ledge at -223 metres during the 1973 explorations