One Sunday morning, as I was looking for something to occupy my mind (after an embarrassing incident) I was flickering the remote control for the tv, a sports local show with two men exploring the caves in Bulacan. I got interested as I saw them struggling from one cave to another. I immediately texted my road trip sister Ina, “we need to go and see this”, her reply “im in and so is kuya” (we call her fiancé kuya). We texted another road trip friend, Pin and as expected, it was another trip for all of us.
We decided to go the following week, I met up with Pin and Kuya in Alabang junction, sipping my Dunkin Donut brewed coffee. A very quick 30 minute drive from Alabang to Edsa where we’ll meet Pin. We parked thru a gas station across Dusit Hotel and SM Makati.
For the next few minutes our jaws dropped as we stare at some luxury cars parked outside Starbucks. Every 5 minutes another one will arrive. From Audi to Ferrari to something that looks like the bumblebee character in the movie transformers, they were all parked side by side. The owners having a laid back Sunday morning coffee inside Starbucks. They all looked like middle aged men to me…maybe early 50’s to late 60’s. Finally Pin arrived. As I took one last picture through the glass window, kuya started the car and off we went up North. The morning started with a beautiful weather, but as we approached NLEX, it started raining for few minutes, by the time we got ourselves in the highway, it was sunny again.
At 8am, we exited Sta. Rita Bulacan. We thought about good breakfast, fried rice, tapsilog, maybe goto or daing....we found ourselves a “carinderia” along the way, parked right outside, and had a big breakfast. After paying for our bill, we asked the owner for some directions, told us we need to drive for another 2 hours to reach Biak na Bato.
Just as we parked, we were greeted by a woman named Ate Dory. According to her for the first timers its advisable to have a tourguide as the caves can be very very dark and it is a compulsory that all group should be assisted by a staff accredited by DENR . We settled with her charged for P150 per cave. We first went to 4 caves about 800meters away from the national park of Biak na Bato. We crossed a very cold, knee deep running water, a rice field, nipa huts, and vegetable plantations before we got to our first cave. It was raining last night as we were told, the mud made everything slippery. The rocks were full of moss, for the not so adventurous people, this is not a weekend fun thing to do. It was dark inside, good thing we found out from the internet that we have to bring our own flashlights for some caves can get very dark.
The first cave we went to according to Ate Dory was called Ospital (Hospital) as it was used as the hospital by the guerillas during war, the injured soldiers would stay in that cave to either die or get better. Some of the passage to where you can head out were so narrow you have to walk on your sides. The next cave, was a bit bigger than the last one, where I shot one of my favorite cave structures. A light was coming from the hole, the rock formation looks astounding from afar. As I was taking pictures of every corner, I could barely keep up with our guide’s story telling but when she said “there was a snake and a huge lizard that came through that hole and it landed on one of the caver’s head one time” I stopped and looked at her…I heard the word snake and all of a sudden I realized I completely forgot the only animal I couldn’t take to look at or even touch. I was traumatized and scared when I got so close to a snake who sneaked inside our kitchen, I was watching Princess D’s burial and the snake caught my attention as the strikingly green crawled about 5 meters away from me. When I was a child, I was afraid of worms and leaches.
The thought of them crawling on my skin gives me eeeky feeling as I got older, I couldn’t stand even snake stuff toys…let alone the real one. After hearing the story, I asked our guide if we would encounter snakes, her answer “possible since its been raining, they like it when the weather is cold, there could be snakes inside the caves, as the stone caves are cold” I shivered. I had to shake off my mind from the thought of crawling snakes….and back to beautiful sceneries and remind myself, this whole Bulacan caving trip was my idea.
As we walked through muddy grass, we passed by a Guyabano tree. The fruits were all over! It was harvest time. Ate Dory, went closely and got us one big Guyabano, asked if its okay to just pick fruits around, she said no, told us every part of this land is owned by someone. So we asked her if she owns the Guyabano tree…you guessed it right, she said “no, im stealing it” We passed by a muddy part with above the knee grasses, I was behind our guide when she stopped. I looked over why, and I saw a greenish long snake swerving inches away from Ate Dory’s feet. For a moment, I could feel my hands shaking, I THOUGHT I PEED MY PANTS RIGHT THAT VERY MOMENT...then I hold on to our guide and couldn’t move, she was telling me it wouldn’t hurt us since the snake already had a frog on its mouth. The snake went off to the grass and I could see the grass moving as it crawls through. When they told me its gone, I still couldn’t move. They had to push me and hold my hand just for me to stop shaking. We finally got to cave three and I finally calmed down. The third cave was called “tanggapan” (hiring place) the cave where they hire new soldiers to join the group. For the last one was the most interesting cave so far. The outside looks just another cave, muddy, and rocky, we took a shot as per our guide’s advice as we may never get a proper picture inside. As we went inside, we had to walk in a squat position, it was pitch black inside, and the way was just too narrow. While our guide talks about history, I was trying to get some shots, she then caught my attention (again) by saying “I suggest for us to turn off our flashlights for even just 5 seconds, to feel the calmness inside this cave” Me and my friends went “oh, you know, we’re fine, I think I can perfectly feel the calmness with the lights on…” But she insisted…and I said “okay, we’ll do it, as long as you promise us that you’re not going to transform into anything” I held to Pin’s shoulder, Ina was lucky enough to have her boyfriend with her at that time. More or less 10 seconds, I finally said, “okay, calmness gone…panick on the way in 3 seconds” we turned back on our flash lights and went our way out of the cave.
We walked back to where we parked the car, we were muddy, tired, hungry and looking forward to explore the other side of the place…Biak na Bato, but first…lunch. We had packed lunch from home, we had a lot so we asked our guide to join us. We drove back to the main entrance, settled near the parking lot with trees and vegetable plants around us. Right after a lunch of ham, hotdog, dinuguan and huge amount of rice, we head off to our next adventure.
Now for some historical background, a hundred years ago, katipuneros, this area at the foot of Sierra Madre became their headquarters. It was the shelter of the group against Spanish military forces. The walls of the caves have been the witness to the signing of the pact of Biak-na-bato. On November 16, 1937 the place was declared a national park by Manuel L. Quezon in honor of the republic. In 1970, Ferdinand Marcos issued an order guiding mineral prospecting and exploitation in government reservations. On April 11, 1989, Corazon Aquino issued a proclamation which re-defined the boundaries of the Biak-na-Bato National Park (facts from Wikipedia and geocities). We were able to go to Aguinaldo Cave which according to our guide became Aguinaldo’s office and the amazing Paniki Cave (bat cave!) The Paniki cave was huge, outside it looks like a mouth opened widely, we could hear running water coming from the inside. After taking pictures we walked for about 10 minutes to get inside the cave. When you look at it on a nature way, the place was stunning, you look at it in a scary different way…its not the place you want to hang out. After taking pictures, we headed back to finally relax on the running water. Excited to wash up our muddy self, the guide suddenly stopped and looked at me…she was grinning. First thing on my mind…a snake! I was right. I, again froze, couldn’t move but I just wanted to get out of there. The brownish snake was not as big as the first one we saw, but it definitely gave me another goose bumps. I shake it off as we approach the running water. We settled in and went in, the water was freezing cold!
Now for some historical background, a hundred years ago, katipuneros, this area at the foot of Sierra Madre became their headquarters. It was the shelter of the group against Spanish military forces. The walls of the caves have been the witness to the signing of the pact of Biak-na-bato. On November 16, 1937 the place was declared a national park by Manuel L. Quezon in honor of the republic. In 1970, Ferdinand Marcos issued an order guiding mineral prospecting and exploitation in government reservations. On April 11, 1989, Corazon Aquino issued a proclamation which re-defined the boundaries of the Biak-na-Bato National Park (facts from Wikipedia and geocities). We were able to go to Aguinaldo Cave which according to our guide became Aguinaldo’s office and the amazing Paniki Cave (bat cave!) The Paniki cave was huge, outside it looks like a mouth opened widely, we could hear running water coming from the inside. After taking pictures we walked for about 10 minutes to get inside the cave. When you look at it on a nature way, the place was stunning, you look at it in a scary different way…its not the place you want to hang out. After taking pictures, we headed back to finally relax on the running water. Excited to wash up our muddy self, the guide suddenly stopped and looked at me…she was grinning. First thing on my mind…a snake! I was right. I, again froze, couldn’t move but I just wanted to get out of there. The brownish snake was not as big as the first one we saw, but it definitely gave me another goose bumps. I shake it off as we approach the running water. We settled in and went in, the water was freezing cold!
We enjoyed the breath taking beauty of nature as Pin, Ina and I sat on a rock while we feel the freezing water through our legs (while Kuya Jun takes our picture from another rock positioned few feet away from us). We stayed for few more minutes after finally getting back to our feet and heading back to the car. We paid Ate Dory and thanked her for the adventure she gave us through caves, mud and snakes. It was 3:00 in the afternoon, we all settled in the car, the traffic wasn’t so bad, I couldn’t wait to tell Enzo about the snakes, show him the pictures, to get a decent shower and just be home where I know there’s no snakes to rattle me.
For more info about Bulacan caving, you can visit this website: http://www.bulacan.gov.ph/
