A journal...4 months ago (Part II)

DAY 2 (Caving)

Night before our 2nd day, I ordered for a pail of hot water for our bath and asked the receptionist to give us a wake-up call at 5:30am. We had bread and tea for breakfast. We went to the tourist center and asked for a cave tour guide. Tourists are encouraged to register (for security as well) for as low as Php10.00 per head (we heard that there were few tourists who complained of the price, I thought it is very affordable and should even be increased since it is used to fund the center anyway). Good thing about registering is that in case of unforeseen happenings, the whole community will help to look out for you.

After registering at 7:00 am, we were given a tour guide and were informed that we’ll have to hike for 45 minutes to get to Sumaging Cave (caving package includes Sumaguing Cave – the main spot, Lumiang Burial Cave and a view of Sugong).
We arrived at the entrance of Sumaging at 8:00am. Our guide has to light the lamp before we entered the cave. While looking at the entrance, we felt a different experience already.



The air was so cool and it was quite gloomy. Aaron, our guide told us that it was a good time (huh!) for us since there are no other tourists. He mentioned that during the peak season (from September to summer), there is a two-way traffic in the place. So we thought the cave was ours. He asked if it’s ok if we’ll get wet, fine! Good thing we brought extra shirts.



I was quite nervous but at the same time excited. Seeing the dark path and what seemed to be a dead end, I started to wonder what’s inside to see.

We started to descend to the steps and it the light coming from outside started to vanish, our lamp lit the way. The early portion of the path was slippery that Dennis slipped once.

Aaron told us that all the spots inside the cave were results of water-rock formation.

We went on and after few minutes, had a first sight of one of the many notable rock formations. Our guide asked us to increase our imagination. There! We saw an elephant inside a pigpen. I was not able to take a shot of the whole thing though.

Next, we saw the “pregnant woman”.



Farther, the image presented a pregnant woman undressed and seated. I started to wonder how all these things were formed. Nature indeed has its own way of producing wonderful things.

Just few steps away from the above is the “hiding man” also known as “the husband of the pregnant woman”. Look why it is called the husband. 


“The hiding man” – there seemed to be a helmet covering a man’s head


“The husband of the pregnant woman” – increase your imagination…


“The King’s curtain” or “The King’s court”


“Rice terraces”



“The queen’s court” – smaller than the king’s


“The chocolate cake” – called so because of its color and shape.


Other unnamed sights…









Shells on the walls of the cave are proofs that water was this high thousand of years before our existence.


We went thru these holes…





…and we got soaked…


…and we had to use a rope to get down ( and go up)



And we deserve a kiss from each other after a very great experience inside the cave… ( I hope you can see our shadows on the cave’s wall)


After two hours enjoying nature’s work inside the cave, we had a glimpse of the light from outside…

and had to face “reality” again. Two hours spent inside the cave seemed too fast.

We had a quick snack after we exited the cave and had few minutes rest. Dennis and I started sharing our thoughts and fears while inside the cave. We had weird imaginations such as “what if some thing pulled us down on the deep waters”, “what if a huge unknown animal suddenly appeared and grabbed us, even worse – munched us”, “what if the suddenly, there was an earthquake”, “what if the light went out” etc. But the great thing we shared is the awe and wonderful feeling we experienced inside. It made us forget the “outside world” and made us closer to nature and mother earth.

While we were having snack, a pair of foreign tourists arrived with their local guide and a dog that went with them inside the cave.

We learned that there used to be a connection between the Sumaging Cave and the more popular Crystal Cave which got closed in 2000 due to looting. The Crystal cave was well-known for its calcite crystals imbedded stalactites and stalagmites.

Up we went back thru the footpath and took a side trip to the burial cave called the Lumiang Cave.


A signboard “ Please do not get anything from here “ is placed in the area. Our guide mentioned that several years ago, some foreigners collected some of the coffin remnants for museum exhibits.


We just had a quick view of the spot as both Dennis and I had some eerie feelings.

Along the way back to town ( caving package is half-day only), we had a sight of the Sugong burial stone where hanging coffins are seen.


Later that afternoon, we decided to finally go to the small waterfalls also known as Bokong waterfalls. We thought we can have time to swim but it turned out we didn’t go to the swimming are  We just had ourselves got wet from the water splashes.






After the 30minutes walk back from the waterfalls, we sat and relaxed at the top of the mountain and enjoyed the view of the falls and the rice fields.