After exploring some of the most remote cave systems in Venezuela, Andrés Palladino Sisto crossed borders on an unprecedented expedition: the exploration of the Sơn Đoòng Cave in Vietnam, considered the largest cave in the world by volume. Located in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, in the Quảng Bình province, this cave was only discovered in 2009 and has since become a global reference for speleology.

An Expedition That Changes Perspectives

“Sơn Đoòng isn’t just a cave—it’s an entire world encapsulated underground,” Palladino recalls. The expedition, organized in collaboration with local experts and indigenous guides, required several days of trekking through the Vietnamese jungle. To access the main chamber, the team descended through a vertical tunnel over 80 meters deep that opened into a gallery so vast it could fit a skyscraper.

Inside, the team encountered an unfamiliar ecosystem: underground rivers, internal jungles fed by natural skylights (dolines), and a persistent mist that hovered among trees growing within the cave itself. “The scale is overwhelming. You're walking in darkness, with a headlamp lighting only a few meters ahead, knowing the ceiling is more than 200 meters above you,” he explains.

Life and Silence

One of the most striking moments for Palladino was discovering a colony of bioluminescent insects living in total darkness. The team also documented mosses and ferns adapted to extremely humid environments with very limited sunlight. “It’s a natural laboratory to understand evolution,” he said.

An Unexpected Connection

Beyond the technical side, this was also a deeply human experience for Andrés. “The Vietnamese guides spoke of the cave with the same spiritual reverence that Indigenous peoples in Venezuela show for places like Autana or Kukenán. That’s when I realized that, even across different continents, our connection to nature runs deeply universal.”

Returning Transformed

At the end of the expedition, Palladino returned with hundreds of photos, environmental samples, and profound reflections. He doesn’t rule out leading a future Venezuelan expedition to Sơn Đoòng for educational purposes. “Our planet is full of wonders we still don’t understand. And what moves me the most is knowing that by exploring them, we also discover more about ourselves.”