Filled with deliciously fresh seafood, we were instructed to climb into our ‘coach of the sea’ (a low banca) which brought us to the site that had lured me into arranging this trip in the first place — Sohoton Cave.
What met our eager eyes was pure, unexpected, unadulterated BEAUTY! See the video of our entrance in the next post. It’s a 6 1/2-minute watch, but I didn’t have the heart to cut it short, so it took a long time to upload. You’ll see why in the next post. (Pampagana, hehe!)
Inside this Shangri-La were three caves, all of which we entered willingly and eagerly. I don’t remember the names of all three, but I can easily describe each one. The first cave (this name I remember) was called the Snoring Cave, because when the tide came in, the water entering and exiting its mouth would make a snoring sound. Could it perhaps have something to do with the hundreds of mussels attached to its upper lip?
The other caves were more for spellunkers in nature, where there was more walking and climbing required than swimming. Take note, I’m no cave explorer, but given that I may not be able to return to this paradise soon enough, I decided to do as instructed, ika nga.
The second cave was relatively short, with a short swim and a short climb. The problem was at the end. The only way to exit was to jump from the ledge — about 10 feet up — into the pristine waters below. Let me tell you, I have jumped from up to 30 feet before, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get myself to take the first step and ended up being the last to jump. Well, when it was done with (I finally did jump, there was no other way) I looked back and realized it was probably because there were so many people watching and egging me on, so I got self-conscious. (Palusot!)
The last cave was also something else. Not only was it the biggest, but there was only one access portal and it was totally dark, so dark that the only time we knew our pictures were being taken was when the light flashed from the camera. And since it was dark (pitch black) we had to do a few takes at a time because our photographer couldn’t see us either.
The tide was slowly coming back in so we had to make our way out of Sohoton. We retraced our route and exited the underground tunnel once again. “Outside” didn’t look as mystical as it was this morning, but then again, we didn’t know we would be so enchanted with the “inside”…
Life in the Bukids 