Even then we realized the huge potential of the inner sectors of the massif, but we did not know where we could meet the right entrances. During 2011, thanks to a careful analysis of the satellite images, we identified the northeastern area of the mountain as the main candidate to host a vast underground system for the presence of some large collapse depressions. The first attempt to reach this area took place in 2012, but it clashed before departure because of a tragic helicopter accident, which forced us to fall back on a short exploration in the Roraima. However, a further flight over by Cessna confirmed our assumptions, identifying some interesting entrances, although the area was largely hidden by clouds.

So we come to 2013, the fateful year, when La Venta joined forces to the Venezuelan Teraphosa Team from Puerto Ordaz, led by Freddy Vergara, with the aim to try an expedition in that area. Two guards of INPARQUES, the institution that manages the Canaima Park, joined the speleologists, and for the first time in decades an international Venezuelan-italian team was given exclusive permission to carry out explorations and speleological research in this protected area. The expedition fulfilled its goal from the very first day, when a group of four speleologists descended into a large sinkhole named "Iroma Den" (Sima del Viento) and, after a few attempts, managed to go beyond a landslide, intercepting a first great underground river. From this moment on, begins a memorable exploratory race, with the cave literally bursting under our feet, developing along three separate underground streams, in chambers and galleries of impressive size.
The Paolino Cometti room is 270 meters long and 160 wide (885 x 525 ft), the north-western collector extends for a width of about 300 meters (1000 ft)! Let’s just remember some names to understand the uniqueness of this cave: Agoraphobia, Labyrinth of Crystals, Universe of Silence, Gallery of a Thousand Columns, River of the Guachari, and so on...
In just 10 days 15 km (9.5 mi) are surveyed, giving an early form of what appears to stand as the largest underground system in quartzites in the world.
But the time scheduled for this expedition was over, so by the end of March 2013 the speleologists of La Venta and Teraphosa teams have in their hands a cave which, besides being huge, represents a site of high scientific interest, characterized by unknown morphologies and speleothemes that will need a careful study to be understood.

In the following months the news of the discovery travels around the world bouncing from several articles in different Venezuelan newspapers, to the broadcaster BBC Mundo, deserving the cover of the American magazine NSS News, arousing wonder and stir in the packed hall of the International Congress of Speleology at Brno in Czech Republic. Of such vast caves in quartzites only the Muchimuk system it is known, in the Chimantà massif, but Imawarì Yeuta impresses not only for its size, but also for the incredible variety of morphologies and mineralization. Their pictures, taken by the photographer Vittorio Crobu, really leave gaping geologists and speleologists with decades of speleology and scientific research on their shoulders. By the end of 2013 appears on the prestigious international Journal of Hydrology an article presenting the first results of the water analyses carried out in the system, showing also the high quality of the research conducted in those few days of expedition.

So, we plan to get back up there in 2014, this time with the support of the Government of the Bolivar State, to complete the work and start a more detailed scientific study. The expedition is very complex to arrange for the socio-political situation of the country. But in the end everything is defined and we are ready to go with a larger group that will devote several days to photographing and surveying activities. The explorations in Imawarì Yeuta continue, completing the picture already obtained the previous year and discovering two new caves: KauKau Yeuta (Cueva del Gato) and Chiwou Yeuta (Cueva Nieblina), part of the same system but currently separated from the main cave by deep fissures (grietas in spanish). The new findings, however, still focus on Imawarì Yeuta in the area of Piaima Den (the labyrinths), a dry sector of great extent that confuses the sense of orientation of the surveyors.
At the end, the mapped part of the system reaches some 20 km of development (13 mi) (18,6 Imawarì Yeuta; 0,7 Cueva del Gato; 0,6 Cueva Nieblina) (11.55, 0.44, 0.38 mi) bringing Imawarì Yeuta to officially be the longest in the world in quartzites and the longest cave in Venezuela.
Moreover, in recent days, settling a forward camp, we find the access to a new cave in the northern sector, Oköimo Yeuta, the Cueva del Arco. In a single exploration of 36 hours, 2.6 km (1.6 mi) of large galleries are surveyed, emerging in the giant sinkhole of Gran Derrumbe, representing most likely the upstream sector of the Imawarì system.

But beyond the numbers, which count for little in a cave of such beauty, what has more impressed us in the past two years is the excitement of entering a new world, facing a speleological exploration that has left us incredulous at every step. And we have lived all this in friendship and great collaboration between Venezuelan and Italian speleologists.
But that is not all: the documentary material collected (thousands of shots) in the coming months will be the subject of a monograph, while we are already planning the future goals of the project.

In the coming weeks we will publish on this blog some anticipations, regarding speleothemes, exploration and technical problems, but also stories and personal impressions. Follow us!

The participants to the project: Virgilio Abreu, Giorgio Annichini Raul Arias, Daniela Barbieri, Alicia Davila, Tullio Bernabei, Loredana Bessone, Alfredo Brunetti, Leonardo Colavita, Carla Corongiu, Vittorio Crobu. Riccardo De Luca, Antonio De Vivo, Jo De Waele, Luca Imperio, Fulvio Iorio, David Izquierdo, Alessio Romeo, Francesco Lo Mastro, Jesus Lira, Adriano Morabito, Maritza Morelli, Alba Moreno, Francesco Pandolfo, Leonardo Piccini, Francesco Sauro, Lenin Vargas, Freddy Vergara, Jesus Vergara, e i piloti dell'elicottero Julio Testaferro e Victor Lopez.

We thank Ortensia Berti and all the community of Kavak, and Karina Ratzevicius of Raul Helicopteros.

The project has been sponsored by: Tiziano Conte with Fedra S.R.L., Luigi and Francesco Di Marzo with Geotec SPA, Raul Helicopteros, Renato Daretti with ATS, Dolomite, Intermatica, Ferrino, Amphibious, De Walt, Allemano Metrology, Chelab, Scurion, GTLine, New Foods, Bialetti, MountainHouse.

The project has the institutional support of: General Secretary of the Gobernaciòn of the State Bolivar Teodardo Porras Cardozo, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Italy Julian Isaias and Rodriguez Diaz, Direction of INPARQUES Venezuela.

The project has been patrocinated by: Fondazione Dolomiti Unesco, Società Speleologica Italiana, Commissione Centrale per la Speleologia CAI, CONI Veneto, Istituto Italiano di Speleologia.