..a spelunking adventure

               Sunday, September 30, 2012, when my friends and I went to Puning Cave for a spelunking adventure.  My friends, Rodel, Elvin, and Jhen, are the original members of the group and I invited two of my friends at work, Joven and Rosalie. I must say that this adventure of my life is indeed very different from my past experiences in the cave.  Maybe the longest cave?  I think it took us more than an hour to get through it (including picture taking and rest time, hehehe).

                How to get there?  Joven and I took a ride from Manggahan, Commonwealth to Tungko, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan that took us less than an hour to wait for Rosalie. Then, we took a jeep again going to Puregold Sampol where we met the other three.  From there, we took another jeep going to Sta. Maria, Bulacan then another jeep to Norzagaray.  We got off the jeep and waited for another one, but decided to take a tricycle to Angat Public Market.  We passed through the market and took another tricycle to Brgy. Bayabas, Dona Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan.

                We waited for a while at a sari-sari store for the others where we met the Tourism Officer, Mang Sammy Enriquez.  He was the one who gave us a short briefing about the dos and don’ts.  He introduced us to our guides, Oliver and Kennedy.  Then we headed for the cave.



The locals called it "Hubog Gitara".

                Before we  reached the entrance of the cave, we crossed a waist deep river first and we passed a stream called “Hubog Gitara” because of the shape of it that looks like a guitar (according to our guides). We ate lunch there and took some pictures.  After eating, we had a 10 minute walk to the mouth of the cave.

                Of course, the usual thing tourists do is to take pictures in every part of the place they visit. We took some pictures and got into the cave. It was dark and wet with knee-deep water inside.  The long travel from the metro was really worth it. 




               


           We enjoyed looking at the stalactites and stalagmites that shines every time we focus our lights on them. They were really beautiful creations of nature. 



                         












                  

            Everything was nice except for the part of the cave where there were lots of bats, I think more than hundreds of them. Because of them, we hurried up to pass their territory, but still took some pictures of them. 










               We needed to climb up the rocks just to get out of the cave. It was a bit hard for me because the distance between the rocks are a bit big and my legs are not that long to reach them. It was hard, but everything I experienced was really fun. We went down the mountain and took a dip in the river we saw. While we were there, we talked about everything that happened inside. We thought we could take a rest then and just reminisce our experiences, but after 


passing the river, here comes the muddy trail. We didn’t expect that it would be very hard. It’s okay for us to walk on a muddy trail, but every time we step on it, we would shout because of the sharp stones. We tried walking on the side of the trail, but there were plants they called “Kalmot-Pusa” that leave their torns to our skin. (sigh) You’d rather walk on a muddy trail than have that plants torns. It was really painful.

                We reached a mini water fall where we washed our dirty feet and slippers then walked to a semi-muddy trail again. We had to make it a bit faster because it was getting late. We’re still far from home. We had to pass the hanging bridge this time, different trail from what we took when we were going there. I really enjoyed the bridge, though it was old and there were lots of holes.

                We cleaned up and got dressed at the tourism office and headed for the store where the tricycle drivers were waiting.  We had coffee and went home at last.

                Ooooops! There’s more. Just a few meters from the store, our tricycle had a problem and we needed to stop. They fixed it and then we rode again (repeat what happened 3 times). Grrrr! I was tired and pissed when we reached the bus station. Good thing it happened during the last part of our trip and I was too tired to complain.

                For all those things that happened to us, I must say that it was such a journey. I would love to do that again. And I’m happy that I was with my friends. It was so much fun {except for the tricycle ride}.