Underground River

Other travelers that we have met here in the Philippines identified the Underground River as a “must see” for any visit to Palawan. We went yesterday and are now in the ranks of those who encourage anyone we meet to go see it for themselves. It was great, and although we have pictures and video, they don’t really do it justice. It was named as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature in 2011 and a UNESCO World Heritage site about ten years prior to that.

Our trip started with a van ride, but only about 90 minutes of actual van time with two stops. The Underground River is nearest to Sabang, about 50 km northwest of Puerto Princessa. When our van arrived, we had a buffet lunch before we went to our boats. The “good china” here isn’t paper plates, it’s banana leaves. That’s a small helping of chicken adobo, rice, and two veggie dishes on my plate next to a bowl of tasty chicken broth soup.

After lunch, we loaded in groups of 8 aboard these boats, similar, but a little smaller, to the ones we used for island hopping in El Nido. Also different from El Nido, the water was not smooth, but rather choppy as we weren’t in a bay. Needless to say, the boat ride to the river entrance was my least favorite activity of the day. Not seasick, just anxiety as I did not like the sensation of the boat movement. Fortunately, after about fifteen minutes, we arrived at the entrance where we gathered with the rest of our tour and waited for our turn to get into the canoe. Our tour guide warned us to mind our possessions as the inhabitants of this area are known to be thieves and can open a zipper. She was talking about the monkeys. Only one sauntered thru our waiting area, sat and posed, then wandered off into the trees. I arrived as she was leaving to get a picture, but Phillip videoed her entire visit. After a brief wait, we walked thru a forested area on a raised plank walkway to the canoe landing. We were issued plastic hardhats with visors. Our guide advised us that if we look up while in the cave, please keep our mouth shut. What may fall on our face could be dripping water or it could be from the bats. This is a picture of the underground river opening as seen from the canoe landing area. 10 people to a canoe were loaded and our canoe guide (different from our tour guide) began talking and paddling toward the river entrance. The cave is actually called St. Pauls Underground River Cave and is more than 15 miles long. The cave contains the 8.2 km (5.1 mi) long underground section of Cabayugan River. The river winds through the cave before flowing directly into the South China Sea. The tours only go 1.5 km into the Underground River, as boats can’t navigate very much further in it. The cave includes major formations of stalactites and stalagmites, and several large chambers. And bats. At first, I thought I was hearing cave crickets, but then I noticed the bats. Not a lot of them, just an occasional one flying across the beam of the light or hanging above us as the light was turned upward. I couldn’t get a picture of them, but got pictures of the rock formations. The rock contains some deposits of manganese, that’s the black stuff that looks like tar but isn’t. All different shapes and textures of rock and salt deposits, and bat guano deposits! We saw an inscription carved into the rock by some folks who explored the cave in 1937. Our canoe tour guide’s spiel was pretty dated. He likened one shapely looking rock to Sharon Stone. Somebody needs to write them some new material. His banter, however, did not distract from the awesomeness of the river. We are so glad we went. When we came back out the entrance, the guide paddle us back to the canoe area and we walked back to our motorized boats for the trip across to the area where our van awaited us.  The van trip was actually fun because of our tour guide, Celia. She was funny and bantered back and forth with Phillip and several other passengers. The van delivered us back to our hotel. Dinner and two San Miguels followed, so I’m writing this blog today instead of yesterday.

This morning, our fruit at breakfast was a banana. Bananas are better when they aren’t shipped halfway around the world. These guys were pretty darn tasty. Phillip gave me his to eat. Today, we just walked around town. Phillip wanted a haircut, so we went into a hair salon that advertised haircuts for 50 pesos. The stylist who cut Phillip’s hair, an older male, had a black, pink and orange upswept hairstyle. We didn’t turn around and leave because… it was an adventure! They actually did a fine job, and Phillip looks just the same as he does after a US haircut, so no picture. I decided to get my hair washed and blow-dryed (100 pesos). My stylist, a younger male, only had one pink streak in the long mowhawk-ish top of his hair. He too did a great job, better than I could ever do. I will say that Phillip and I spent our time with the stylists trying to figure out the gender of the salon manager. Now, back to our room for picture downloading and blog-writing. Tomorrow, we fly to Cebu, then ride a van (again!) to Moalboal for our next 3-night location.