Paddling the Palawan Underground River and the Long Road Home

Wednesday, January 8

Another morning came early for us since today we were headed to one of the "new 7 wonders of the world".  We were told to do the Underground River in Palawan and even though I don't love the idea of being in a cave (I don't really like places I can be trapped), I did want to do this.  After eating my delicious beef tapa, the van came to pick us up, this time with Jennifer, our tour guide.  She was not going to be the tour guide in the actual cave, but she would talk about what we were seeing on the way there and would be securing the permits and passage to the river.

The van ride started much like the trip yesterday.  We had to make a stop at the City Colosseum in order to pick up another couple, an older husband and wife from the Netherlands.  We stopped at a Mercury Drug store (common place here) to buy snacks and such and then sped out of town...and I mean we sped.  The van driver acted like he was in a car chase or on a race track.  Nothing was going to slow him down.  Once again, here I was in a little side seat that had no seat belt either.  We twisted and turned as we climbed up and then down the two lane mountain roads.

 I realized at this point, my most dangerous activities on this trip are riding in these vans with these drivers and no seat belts (although I was thinking maybe you didn't want a seat belt on the slight chance you could be thrown clear of the wreck that might tangle with trees or go off the side...not sure inside even secured in a seat belt was really safe).  Had I not heard the tires screeching periodically as we took corners, I may not have been as concerned.  I know these guys know these roads and know their vehicles well.  I am also no stranger to men driving mountain roads fast...(ahem...dad).  Of course, on the way back my father-in-law mentioned he was concerned too because this van had bald back tires... Glad I didn't know that early on.

Clearly, regardless of this race course driving, we made it safely or I wouldn't be writing this.  I did enjoy the views and the lush jungle we were driving through.  There was a short stop at a shop that had some souvenirs, restroom, and snacks.  The viewing deck upstairs showed a beautiful distant ocean view and curving coastline.  The odd shaped craggy looking mountain I had viewed in the distance yesterday and been fascinated with was the actual mountain that contained this cave.  That was where we were headed.

The drive I believe was about two hours there.  We were running a little behind, so I had hoped this was why he drove like a bat out of hell.  By the time we arrived at the port village, it was too late to go before lunch, so we ate the buffet at 11am.  I put some lumpia on my plate, and then discovered it was tuna lumpia, which I did not want.  We were going to get charged if we left uneaten food on the plate, so I was grateful the two men I was with are always willing to help with unwanted food!  I loved the dessert - it was some kind of ube and coconut type gelatin mix.

We walked through the little village shops selling typical souvenirs, hats, food, etc. and I used the nicer bathroom by the dock that you had to pay 5p to get in.  They allowed me to take more than a square of toilet paper, and in I went.  I had purposely waited for this nicer bathroom.  I definitely don't take our California restrooms for granted...I've found in my travels that we have some of the nicer public bathrooms around.

There was a large cemented area with a tent and a bunch of chairs on which people sat and waited.  A large tree was decorated with some hanging lights - I love all the light decorations in the Philippines.  The coastline was heavily forested with typical outriggers bobbing in the water.  We probably waited for another 45 minutes or so before we boarded our own outrigger for about a 15 minute ride to the park entrance.  The cliffs rose out of the water as we navigated to the little beach where we would disembark.  We snapped some pictures (with our life jackets on that we were told we had to keep with us). Jennifer had strictly warned us to be very careful with the monkeys - they like to grab your things and steal it.  I've interacted with this kind of monkey before at a zoo, and he did try to steal my sunglasses through his cage and definitely liked to grab my hands, so I knew she meant it about these little thieves.

We walked down a wooden pathway through the jungle, and I saw no monitor lizards.  I was hoping to see one - I've been around them before in captivity, so I wanted to see one in it's natural habitat.  We came out shortly on the other side where the river emptied into the tiny inlet of the ocean.  We cleaned off our feet in the brackish water (part salt, part fresh).  We saw small canoes loaded with people in hard hats and life vests taking their turns going in and out of the caves one by one with their only light - a big spotlight being held by the tourist in the front and the tour guide was standing paddling in the back.

The beach curved back around to the ocean and small beach we entered at and made breathtaking views of the coastline.  The brackish waters were an interesting aqua color, the ocean ran from aqua to deeper blue.  A few monkeys hung around, waiting for their chance to take from some unsuspecting visitor, but they caused no real drama.  We maybe waited another half hour before it was our turn to fill the little canoe.  We were fit in it tightly and the lip of the wooden canoe just barely peaked out from the top of the water...I was a little concerned we might sink it!  Chris wanted to sit in front and be able to control the battery powered spot light.  He turned it on, and our guide paddled us into the mouth of the cave.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but the cave we toured in Slovenia last year was pretty incredible.  There were more lights, so we could see better, but it was really colorful and beautiful with a lot of information explaining the caves.  This was not the case on this tour.  Immediately upon entering the eerily quiet and still water of the underground river I felt more like I was on a water ride at an amusement park - Pirates of the Caribbean was my first thought (although clearly without the pirates and decorations and chlorine smell).  It was easy to not feel claustrophobic or trapped because I could so easily pretend I was at an amusement park and all this was fake.

What wasn't fake was all the weird flying mosquito/gnat like bugs attracted to the light Chris was holding.  It was the first time I used the bug repellent I had bought in Boracay.  I don't get bit much, ever, so I don't usually even have bug spray on me.  I was glad I remembered it was in my bag and I took it out and spread it cautiously on my legs and arms.  Any wrong move and I could have easily dumped contents of whatever I was holding over the side of the canoe.  It's amazing how smells can so quickly take you back, because I immediately could remember back to the cabins at the summer camp I grew up at when everyone was getting ready for the evening and applying their bug spray.

Underground River Stalactite

The tour honestly was a big wondrous and a bit of a let down.  The tour guide was hard to hear, and even harder when we would pass another canoe coming back with a louder tour guide.  The cave was dim, of course, and while the spotlight did do an amazing job of lighting up the cave, it did not do a great job at showcasing the interesting colors of the stalactites.  There was little useful information.  It mostly consisted of the tour guide directing Chris with the light to show us that this formation looks like corn, this one we call a mushroom, this is the nativity, this is Mary the mother of Jesus...It really was just a tour full of them showing us the stalactites and trying to get us to see whatever imaginary image they saw in the shape.  That might be fun for about five minutes...but a little too much on a 40 minute tour.  There were a bunch of bats above us, which didn't so much bother me, I think they are actually kind of cute and they just hang out above clinging to their walls sleeping.  There were a few that would fly around and send out little noises.

The water was scary because it was the ghoulish blue grey color so still and murky.  My imagination, if I had let it, could have gone wild with all kinds of sea monsters that might pop out of it right next to me.  At one point, Chris' dad said something like look there a snake, which totally scared me.  He was joking...it only looked like it could be a snake, but he knew it wasn't...I was just a little on edge.  I was actually quite surprised that the forty minute tour didn't feel that long.  I was really afraid it would feel way too long.  But we turned around and headed back out and before long a little glimpse of daylight began to shine through the end of the tunnel.  It grew bigger and brighter with each glide forward and relief gently crept back in.  It wasn't that scary...really more eerie than anything else.  I was glad I had done it, but didn't particularly feel I would need to do that again.

They had a lot of photographers taking pictures and then on our way out we could see the picture and buy it if we wanted, but none of us did.  We walked back out the wooden planks to the beach where we wasted no time boarding our outrigger back to the port.

We bought some refreshments once back in - I had a halo halo, but was rather turned off when, from a distance, I smelled the jar of bananas she opened.  They smelled old and pungent.  I still mixed up my dessert and began to eat, but it wasn't that appealing and the bananas tasted old.  Not bad, just old.  I let Chris finish mine.

I dreaded getting back in the van and hoped and prayed he would drive slower since we weren't trying to get somewhere, but that hope was fairly quickly extinguished.  It was just time to pray for safety that God's angels would carry the van back if needed.  I don't think he squealed the tires quite as much on the way back though.

Elephant Cave

We stopped at another picture point where you could see the Elephant cave, a beautiful mountain view, and some rid paddies.  There were people working in the rice paddies, so that was interesting.  There were two boxes and signs designating these were spots where two Amazing Race shows (from other countries, not the US version) had come here to complete something.

The van ride back seemed shorter and we were dropped off at our B&B.  Chris had a massage awaiting him since his back and neck had been in so much pain.  His mother had stayed and relaxed the day away trying to recuperate from a cold.  The lady spent on hour on him.  In the meantime, his dad had gone into town and brought back fresh cooked chicken (quite good flavor) and the Manager's Choice pizza.  Apparently there was cheese back on the island again!  I was surprised to see this after our huge disappointment the night before.

We snacked, then ordered some more food in and just overall lounged the evening away in the lovely screened room.  We ordered some more halo halo and instead of ube ice cream, this one had caramel flan on the bottom.  It was pretty good.  We came up short in pesos on the money we owed the owners, so Chris had to go to the bank.  It was already after 9pm and the stories you hear are enough to make travelers cautious about going out to get money.  We had just heard that the masseuse's son had been killed recently near the airport while waiting for friends because he didn't surrender his iPhone to some thieves.

 I went with him, and luckily there was an ATM in a busy well lit place.  We asked the tricycle driver to take us to the Dunkin Donuts (big there in the PI), which was across the street.  We didn't want him knowing where we were really going.  We entered the donut shop, looked around, asked for prices, then walked out and across the street to an ATM where I withdrew a huge wad of bills since it gave us hundreds instead of thousands (I was really only taking out about $100, but that's a lot of pesos).  There were other Filipinos there, and they didn't seem too concerned, and a few guards in the doors around the businesses (like the one working for Dunkin Donuts).   I wan't very concerned, but Chris kept watch as I withdrew.  We walked back across the street for donuts and some coffee (I wanted to stay up and catch up on some blogging...besides we had such long flights, I wanted to save my sleep for the plane).  I tried some donut holes that were butternut and a coconut, but they were a little stale with no distinctive flavor.  Not so exciting.

We climbed into an anxious tricycle and this one was the worst shape I had ridden in with torn seats.  Still, he returned us quickly and safely to the B&B and the guard opened the gate for us to walk back into our safe little surroundings.  We packed for our three flights back home the next day and soon Chris was snoring the night away.

The next morning we were taken back to the airport at Palawan for a short flight back to Manila.  Once in Manila, we were hoping that we would be able to take time to go to Resort World in order to relax some, but we were also concerned about the ability to get seats together on the flights back home.  Our cousin came and brought our boxes that we had left behind with all of our souvenirs packed up and ready to fly back with us since the international flights allowed us two check ins.

We ended up staying in terminal two eating lunch there.  Nothing too exciting about the terminal, but it allowed us to spend some more time with Chris's sister who was flying onto to other countries within a few hours.  We then took a bus to the international terminal to wait in line for a while, it was a bit crazy and we were a little concerned about our seats on our flights back.  We had to rearrange some luggage because weight, then pay some additional fees.

We left a little late, but it was around 6pm Manila time.  The flight to Guangzhou was uneventful but because we landed a little late, they were hurrying us to the HUGE plane waiting on the runway for it's final customers to board.  I was luckily able to sleep most of the flights home, so maybe what was the longest day of my life so far (because Manila was 16 hours ahead and our flight was about 16 hours, we left at 6pm and arrived back in LAX about 6pm the same day...so I think that made this day a 40 hour day) I slept through most of it.  Not so bad.

It was great to be back home, great to have access to nice bathrooms again, and I think everyone was a little worn out and tired.  I was so happy to finally see my puppies again after three long weeks!  Great weeks - it was a great trip with lots of memories, experiences, meeting family for the first time, getting to see where Chris's roots were, and having a little more time to relax, ponder, reflect, lean on God when things got a little scary (lots of prayers for safety).