Cuevas de San Miquel

Useful Information

Location:	Carretera de Puerto Esperanza, La Curva del Tarro, Viñales 33406. North east of Viñales on the road 241 to San Vicente, a few km before the Cueva del Indio and on the left. (22.6538098, -83.7161316)
Open:	All year daily 9-17:30. Cave Bar: All year daily 9-23. [2023]
Fee:	Adults CUP 120. Cave Bar Evening: Adults CUP 250. [2023]
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	L=250 m.
Guided tours:	self guided, L=120 m, D=10 min.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:
Address:	Cuevas de San Miquel, Carretera de Puerto Esperanza, La Curva del Tarro, Viñales 33406, Tel: +53-48-796290.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

Just beyond where the road passes through a narrow canyon between two mogotes, the left hand side of the canyon has some fine stalactites where a bisected passage can clearly be seen running along the cliff wall.

Not really a show cave but a bar-cum-discotheque/cabaret built into a series of natural chambers in the side of the mogote. The lavatories are in their own little entrances - hate to think about the plumbing arrangements though!

Behind the main chambers is a network of small twisty passages that a few of us spent half an hour exploring with torches in 1988. About 5 or 6 years ago one of these was enlarged, and a few sections blasted through, to create a route of a few hundred meters through the mogote and out the other side where there is a palenque which serves as a restaurant - a palenque was a place where runaway slaves lived in the mountains and carried out small-scale farming. This one is definitely modern though.

Text by Bob Wilkins (2003). With kind permission.

The Cueva de San Miguel (Cave of Saint Michael) is located in Valle San Vicente. A triangular portal is followed by an entrance chamber with numerous stalactites. The floor is paved, on the right side is a bar and the rest of the chamber is equipped with tables and chairs. On saturdays there is coloured light and party, and an entrance fee. During the day the bar and café is free, and the entrance for the small show cave. It is a rather short through cave which leads across the mogote to a restaurant named Palenque de los Cimarrones (Hideout of the Maroons). At the end of the tour there is a dance performance.

This place at the cave exit is surrounded by mogotes on three sides, and was once the hideout for runaway slaves. Today there is a restaurant, which is sometimes wrongly named Cueva de los Cimarrones. The cave bar is on the other side, this restaurant is a group of huts. The Cueva de los Cimarrones is actually the cave exit which was used as a shelter by the runaway slaves for some time.