Tours of the open cave system run every hour and last about two hours. On the walkway to the entrance there are a couple of amate trees (Ficus insipida) with their roots wound around the rocky walls of Limontitla Canyon. The entrance is a large arch about forty meters wide and twelve meters tall. From the entrance, one descends about twenty meters to the level of the caverns. The path has a mostly level cement walkway, and there is artificial illumination on both the path and parts of the salons. However, since it is a live cave, the high humidity can make the trek uncomfortable for some people. At least parts of the cave system have been known for centuries, and parts have been occupied since pre-Hispanic times. Excavations in the caverns have produced fragments of pottery. This area was home to the Olmec people, and later the Chontal tribe. Both peoples used the caves for ceremonial purposes. The original name of the caves was “Salachi.” The current name, “Cacahuamilpa,” comes from a location near the cave entrance and means “peanut field.” After the Conquest, the existence of the caves was kept hidden from the Spaniards by the indigenous peoples. Credit for the “discovery” of the caves is given to Manuel Sainz de la Peña Miranda, who used the caves in 1834 to hide from Spanish authorities, which prompted a thorough search of the area. In 1866, Dominik Bilimek and Maximiliano von Habsburg made the first biospeleological visit to the cave. F. Bonet surveyed and mapped the cave up to 1,380 meters in 1922 and it was opened to the public during that decade. The first scientific expedition to the caves was organized by the Secretary of the French Legation in 1935, and the national park was established in 1936 by President Lázaro Cárdenas. Guided tours began in 1969, and a second survey in 1987 established the cave system’s length at between four and five kilometers. In one of the salons is a gravesite. The story behind this grave is that an Englishman got lost exploring the cave and eventually died of starvation. He was accompanied by a dog, which he sent to get aid. However, no one on the outside paid any attention to the dog, so it returned to the cave to die along with its master.