Foot and Fire

The Karsts lining the Campomanes Bay is verdant unlike the ones I saw in Halong Bay, Vietnam and Coron and El Nido, Palawan... One can't appreciate the karsts immediately because they appear to be a forest except for a few bald area as photographed above... Of course, this is a good news because greens still grow in the rocky mountain... We left our home base temporarily for a boat tour. We went to Obong Cave in Hinobaan first which took us 45 minutes by small boat. We passed by many areas, including the "Pulo" which is the first stop for most boat tours. The photo below is the pulo and the next two photos  are the shots of an opening from end to end. I observed that there is still a live portion of the rock in the "cave." One tourist touched it, a no-no action because it has the tendency to die after being in contact with human sweat, skin and human bacteria. There should be a warning of sort. Tour-guiding is not yet a commodity here. Lastly, I should neve...

Our group had a grand time sampling the trail going up the cave and partly towards the opening. We did not move forward anymore than the first touch base because we were not properly dressed for spelunking as we were dripping wet with saltwater after the day's Island hopping. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the introduction to this Bakwitan Cave, so-called because it is used as evacuation place for families from lowland during the past typhoons and this cave saved many lives.  Please check out the allure of this cave. There are sporadic live rocks that still have the potential to grow. Also, as in any other caves which are not regulated, there are occasional graffittis on the cave walls...  Jun "The Cavekeeper," our cave tour guide, is trained regarding caves by the Department of Tourism and he displayed some wisdom regarding taking care of the Bakwitan Cave. *** A makeshift bed used by the cave's temporary resident in the past. *** ...