Los Tayos Cave

The authentic Cave of the Tayos is located in the canton of Limon Indanza, province of Morona Santiago, Ecuador. Its name is due to the Tayos birds, which nest in it.

 

The cave is located in the middle of the virgin forest east of the Coangos River. The site belongs to the indigenous people of the Kuankus Center, of Shuar ethnicity, from whom permission must be requested to visit them. There are several access alternatives: on foot, on horseback or by boat.

 

To enter the cave, one must descend through "La Chimenea", a vertical rocky tunnel 63 meters deep. The entrance is made by taking all the safety measures. Los Tayos is a complex of caves measuring 17.9 km of which only 4.9 km have been explored.

 

It has natural formations that look like human structures. A giant lintel, geometric walls and tunnel, the huge gallery. Stone formations with right angles and very smooth symmetrical shapes. Stalactites, stalagmites and stalagnates. All created by water erosion.

 

The oldest human occupation dates back to 12,000 years BC. The cave remained inhabited until 500 BC. The Shuar, waterfall and cave worshippers, believe that the spirits of their ancestors inhabit it. Once a year they go in to hunt tayo.

 

For decades, the cave has been the source of conspiracy theories. Many relate them to the Italian Carlos Crespi, a Salesian priest, who is said to have received from the Shuar a set of strange pieces, supposedly from the Tayos. Followers of occultism, however, connect them to the Freemasonry and the metal library that the Hungarian-Argentinean János Juan Móricz (1923-1991) would have found in the cave. Móricz was the main source for the Swiss Erich von Daniken to write "The Gold of the Gods".

 

The Ecuadorian Army, researchers from national universities, a team of archaeologists and several foreigners, including former astronaut Neil Armstrong, carried out the best known expedition to the cave in 1976. The results of this expedition are found in reports and books in libraries in Ecuador. This and other later explorations concluded that the cave is of geological or natural origin. Its occupation was human.

 

However, the halo of mystery and romanticism that surrounds it has never been able to be dissolved. Tourists from all over the world dream of visiting it in search of adventure.