Spelunking @ Calinawan Cave

Everybody loves going on nature trips, but they can get harsh. Think of any nature experience: hiking, swimming, bunjee jumping, boating, they all have this one common "grim" denominator: – sun exposure. Call me delicate if you will but I do take caution seriously when it comes to risks on getting skin cancer, or even simple sun burn.

Also, it’s just one day of swimming, but why would it have to take half of the year before I get my color back!

People who don’t get dark as easily as I do could be so lucky, because whether you admit it or not, lighter skin DOES make a difference in this country. Plus it really sucks picking off skin scabs and getting a burned nose all week.

Which is why I have been so happy to share an experience I had with nature where I had an
unimaginable total fun but without the macabre sun exposure. I am talking about - spelunking! Unlike most other nature trips, visiting caves gives you the least, or even up to zero exposure to the harmful ultraviolet rays. It also helps cool your body down! The temperature underground is enough to give you chills, apart from that other chill brought by the utter darkness.

So, where we could we possibly find a cave that's not too far away from Manila?

Tanay, Rizal is only an hour and a half away from our meet-up point in Manila. On our day trip tour we visited the Treasure Mountain, the Kawa House, the windmills in Pililia, and the Hanging Bridge in Cloud 9. Our trip to the Calinawan Cave for me is the best due to reasons mentioned above.

Calinawan Cave is a cave system situated in Barangay Tandang Kutyo of Tanay. Composed of multiple levels and various chambers and openings, it was a thrilling experience to thread in utter darkness, so make sure to bring your flashlights. Our guide told us that the cave served as a hideout by Filipino revolutionaries during Spanish-American war, as well as a shelter during the World War II for Japanese troops. How it got its name, according to local folklore, has a touch of history too, as it was where the Japanese and American troops settled their disputes, thus Calinawan from the Filipino word “linaw” which means to settle or to clear. Our guide also claimed that some of the passageways would even lead to the other cave Pamitinan, while some would take a spelunker to as far as Montalban.

Calinawan Cave is pretty popular not just for tourists but for filmmakers and TV show runners. It’s been a favorite spot for shooting locations where genuine caves were used. Our guide made sure we knew all these movies and shows. Unfortunately because of this much human interference in the otherwise solemn business of the cave, human activities did irreversible marks and damages to the cave.

These are the pictures we took from inside the Calinawan Cave in Rizal last April 22.

These photos are lousy, I know, and they can hardly truly explain the whole experience. I mean, it was pitch black in there. Good luck taking photos. But the upside is that there was nothing left to do but to savour the experience and just forget the damn pictures. The stalactites, the stalagmites, the crystals, the fruits bats, the spiders, the eerie silence, the shocking darkness, the feeling of ancient stone eyes staring at you, they are all waiting. Go in there yourself. There is nothing like it!