I was understandably disappointed when I pulled up to the parking booth at Parque de las Cavernas del Río Camuy. “The big cave is closed until further notice,” the attendant informed me apprehensively. “The tour just goes to the sinkholes.”

She was surprised when I said it didn’t matter, I’d go anyway. But what else was I going to do? I wasn’t due in San Juan until the next day, and I had nothing else on my plate.

To be fair, I enjoyed the tour. What’s not to like about donning a hard hat and riding around on a trolley to look at giant holes in the ground? And we did get to peer into the opening of one very impressive-looking cavern. But I still left feeling…hungry.

So the next morning, before beginning the boring highway drive to San Juan, I struck out once more on those spine-tingling secondary roads and made my way to Bosque Estatal de Guajataca. Part of the short guidebook description of this forest reserve had caught my attention: la Cueva del Viento.

While lacking the dramatic extremes of El Yunque national rainforest and the dry forest reserve of Guánica, Guajataca forest was scenic in its own way. Tall trees, moist earth, and shapely limestone.

A relatively short, flat hike brought me to the entrance of the cave, or rather the slick wooden stairs down to it. From above, it looked like a simple hole in the rock face, an awning of chain link fence shielding it from debris.

Bracing for new disappointment, I rounded the final bend in the stairs. I gasped. The unassuming opening had expanded, revealing a massive pillar of stone against a background of deep blackness. The forest was suddenly silent, and the stale, wet air of the cave fogged my glasses.

Inside, the stairs dropped sharply to the flat stone floor. A few steps more and the darkness began to engulf me. Palms sweaty, I quickly reached for my headlamp.

Blue light flooded the cavern. Shadows of rock formations danced on the walls. The light beam penetrated far into the black distance, then faded to nothing. The cave was huge.

Unbridled, free from the weight of tour groups, rangers, and paths, I explored la Cueva del Viento at my own pace, marveling at the stone sculptures and listening to the quiet rhythm of dripping water and squeaking bats. I’d gotten my cave experience after all.