Excitedly awaiting for our boat to take us to the Underground river.
The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River was nominated for the “Seven Wonders of the New World.” In fact, it’s a finalist. And it has the right to be so. Its magnificence was awe-inspiring. After traversing its stretch through paddled boat, one is left with awe and humility. It truly deserves its place in the finals; and praises to our God who created it.
When we visited the Underground River last August, it wasn’t my first attempt to behold its beauty. A couple of years ago, my friend Jem and I went to Palawan for a week-long vacation. Of course, our trip wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the famous site. We even went ahead and secured us a couple of permits to enter it. But alas! Increment weather got in our way. We weren’t allowed to enter the cave. And although we had fun that vacation, our trip wasn’t complete.
On our second trip, we were joined by my sister Joy and brother-in-law Neri. This time we told ourselves, “We have to make it this time. We just have to!” And we did! And oh! It was so worth it.
The long wait is over. Our team at the mouth of the cave.
At the entrance of the cave stalactites protrude from the top forming a mouth with fangs. Beyond it was darkness … utter darkness. But still, it invoked a welcoming sense. And so forward we entered into the inviting mouth armed with halogen light. And the sight that greeted us was jaw-dropping. As we slowly moved deeper and deeper into the cave our eyes feasted on unique, bizarre, and sometimes humorous shapes and figures of stalactites formed by thousand of years of droppings; a mixture of water sediments and guano.
These figures made me feel like I’m in a wax museum. So it was kinda like a stalactite museum. There were what looked like a giant mushroom, an old lady with a long hair, batman and others. There was a statue which looked like a lady with her bare back and behind. Our comical boatman called her ‘Sharon Stone.’ Very clever, huh? But my favorite was a sculpture of a corn and below it a giant corn, which our hilarious boadman calls, ‘Corn and Capricorn’ (or Kapre-corn derived from a Filipino Folklore ‘kapre’ which was a giant.)
Get it? 
