Day 42

Last night, there was a group of very loud Germans drinking at the restaurant just outside our window. Needless to say, we couldn’t sleep. Around 11:35 pm, Maitri got up and requested them to be quiet.

This morning, Maitri approached the manager and complained about the noise and suggested that they impose the 10 o’clock pm noise curfew. Ten o’clock is when the generator for the whole village is turned off.

Today, we are off to a great adventure into the jungle and into a cave with an underground river.

We woke up around 5:45 am and after breakfast of bread and boiled plantain bananas, we started our 5 km, 3 hour walk to the underground river through the jungle. We walked inland and went through a wooden bridge over the river lined with mangrove trees. The trail started with steep wooden stairway, climbing immediately into the jungle. We saw the crab-eating macaque monkeys. A couple of them had their babies clinging on. So cute! The jungle inhabitants were just waking up and there was a cacophony of sounds from different kinds of birds, the rustle of the leaves as the monkeys jump from tree to tree. There were squirrels and a group of hornbills (large black birds with white tipped wings flying way up around the canopy of the forest. A six-inch millipede crossed our path and we stopped to take a closer look at it. There were other sounds of animals we couldn’t distinguish. The trees were something to behold—tall and straight with a labyrinth of root buttresses. Rope-like vines were everywhere. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish which are roots and which are vines. There were bamboo-like vines, an inch in diameter that were crisscrossing the pathway. Ole guessed they were “rattans”, a material used to make furniture. We passed very tall rock walls called karst and at the base were what looked like little caves. We couldn’t see what was inside as the openings were very dark. It was a bit spooky in the heart of a jungle.

The walk was over 3 hills and was difficult at times especially during ascent. We were drenched with sweat and every hundred steps Ole would stop to wring his bandana and there would be about a teaspoon of sweat.

A couple hundred meters away from the end of the trail there were wooden steps again and we were greeted with a ferocious looking monkey. It was perched on the handrail and was glaring at us daring us to pass through. Ole picked a long stick and waved it at the monkey and it jumped away but was threatening to lunge as we continued to walk through. We kept our eyes on it until we were in a safe distance. We noticed four other smaller monkeys nearby the big one. We thought the big one was their mother and she maybe trying to protect her young ones. We were told later it was actually the king monkey! Ole was able to take pictures of the young monkeys.

After the wooden steps, we came to a swampy area and there were black crabs. Then we arrived at the ranger’s station our eyes bulged out and jaws dropped when we saw several 6-foot long lizards crawling around with their tongues darting in and out of their mouths. They were the monitor lizards, shy but frightening at the same time.

We headed straight to the ocean, a few meters away, for some cooling breeze. Our clothes were soaked with perspiration. At the beach where the river met the sea, the water was flowing backwards as the tide was coming in. There were many pretty butterflies fluttering around and drinking the water on the cream colored sand. Some were blue, orange, white and black.

Then we went back to the station and followed our guide to the paddle boat. We put on our life-jacket and hard hat and climbed aboard. Ole was assigned to hold the light and direct the beam to wherever the guide would tell him to. We both sat down facing forward and the guide sat at the back end of the boat with the paddle. Off we went on the beautiful blue waters of the river into the gaping mouth of the cave.

The cave was amazing! The water was so still with deep and shallow parts. The guide said there are ‘blind’ fishes and eels living in the waters. The cave is 8.2 km long, 4 km is navigable and we were allowed to see only 1.5 km of it, about 45 minutes round trip. The stalagmites and stalactites were incredibly beautiful. Some of these formations were recognizable shapes of fruits and vegetables, people’s faces, etc. The guide even pointed Bart Simpson’s face!

The only light inside was our light with a powerful beam. At one point, the guide told Ole to turn off the light, and it was total darkness. There were swallows and bats (hundreds of them). There were a couple of snakes on the rocks. The ‘cathedral’, the highest point, was about 65 meters.

We would have liked the trip to last a bit longer, but our time was up. Ole gave Maitri a massage in preparation for the trek back. After we ate our snacks, we started back on the trail. It rained a little bit as we got out of the jungle. It was around 2:15 pm and we were very tired, sore, and hungry.

We had iced tea, cold Sprite, a big bottle of water, veggie pizza. Then we went to another restaurant and had vermicelli rice noodle, fried rice, french fries and a cool ‘calamansi’ juice. These are tiny citrus fruits and sweetened with honey, locally harvested.

We ended our day with a refreshing shower.