Blueapple13: June 2012

[Feb 24-25, 2012]

According to the official website of SAGGAS,

the Cave Connection:

"This is rather more adventurous than Sumaging cave,

if you think you’re a good spelunker, this one is for you!"

The whole duration of the activity would take at least four (4) hours

There are lots of small passages you have to undertake, crawl if you must and follow your guides advice. From there on, there are at least three rope assisted descents and one climb.

During rainy season you are to swim 8 meters in order to cross a trail.

Just looking at the pile of rocks at the entrance of the cave made my heart beat faster!

We noticed that as we drew nearer to the cave's entrance, that we were not alone. A group of 5 were there ahead of us with all their long lenses and sophisticated cameras. They were all so busy setting up and taking photos here and there. A few steps more led us to this:

According to kuya John, it was customary for their ancestors to place the coffins of their loved ones at the entrance of the cave. This way, their remains will be protected from extreme weather conditions but not far enough for sunlight to shine on them.

Also, notice how these coffins are sealed with wooden pegs.

Contrary to what most people think looking at the size of these coffins, these are actually for adults.

Our guide said the bones inside seemed even bigger and longer than the

average adult men and women of Sagada

At the far left of the picture, notice that the pile of coffins are missing the ones placed on top.

This was brought about by an accident that happened years before when coffins at the top fell and the remains got eroded over time. Tourists my have had a hand in this, they say.

Before we went any further down, Kuya John gave us a short briefing.

He emphasized that indeed what we are about to take on is dangerous. Seriously.

So, we need to take all the safety precautions at all times.

That's our guide right there with his backpack and his magic lamp.

So we begin!

Early on we learned that the term 'caving' is actually for professionals--who study caves and all that stuff.

The term 'spelunking' is for guests like us who just pass through the caves taking nothing but pictures and leaving nothing but footprints...aaaand maybe some handprints.

We had to use all our limbs to get through boulders and very small crevices.

This cave is big...but man! you need to squeeze yourself in between rocks just to get through.

Exhibit A.

Our guide was the first one to get down so he can position himself like a human ladder.

Wait a minute. what? yes. You heard it right. We will, without a doubt, step on him!

Imagine that! And he wasn't even standing on level ground. He had one foot locked on a rock and the other one trying to balance his weight on another boulder.

Before he asked me to go down, he gave instructions on where to put my right foot and where to position my left foot next. I also need to use the rope to shift my weight when I move down and simply hang on to it, in case...........in case whaaaat?

He then said I can step on his shoulder as I go down then put my foot on his lap just before I reach the landing. Good thing I managed. Now it's his turn.

Seeing him do this with a smile on his face is a huge relief for me. Because to begin with, he wasn't really a fan of extreme activities, of heights and stuff. But he agreed to do this and found out that he was actually enjoying it. Hopefully this will become the first of many!

Yey!!!We're having fun with our buwis buhay activities!

Nyahahaha! Don't ever think, that you will encounter that passage only once when you're inside Lumiang---

because you will encounter it many times. My palms were a bit sore from bearing all my weight sometimes when my legs aren't anchored on a rock yet.

Every so often, I take a picture of where we actually came from. And this is all I got. Without the light from the gasera, it was pitch black inside Lumiang. And oh it was freezing inside too!

When I asked where the cold wind is coming from, Kuya said there are lot of spaces from the boulders that allows air outside to get into the cave.

That hole is small. We had to get past that just to move forward--which brought us to the question of,

was there ever a time when a tourist decided to bail out?

Kuya John said, yes but that only means that they have to go back through the smallest of passages and they don't recommend it because it poses great danger. The only way to go is to move forward to reach the more passable cave which is Sumaguing.

So there was absolutely, literally---NO TURNING BACK!

Can you recognize that our guide actually looked small in this photo? That's how far down he is.

Oh my!!!! And the depth below him is unimaginable--you can't see any landing beyond the point of where he is. I was scared alright. Really. If others have braved this before us,

then there's not a doubt that we can muster all the courage we have left,

and just get through this.

Phew!

True enough! We did it with a smile and a skyrocketing heartbeat!haha!

Oh and another one!

and this..

You made me proud!!

At this point, it was more of : "Yey! Another one!"

with my knees slight shaking. haha!

familiar? It looked and FELT like the movie: 127 hours

a breather

my attempt of taking a photo of the cave ceiling.

Below is when there are time that you have to go down on all fours, including buttocks

my lizard with a headlight ;-)

for the first few hours we were focused on holding on to dear life---I mean,more focused

on where to go next, how to do it and what body part to use---we missed

shots of rock formations. However, in Lumiang, there were not so much rock formations to appreciate,

here are just a few:

Rice terraces

These rock formation, according to our guide, is signaling that we are about to cross our second cave which is Sumaguing. He said that we can now worry less because this second cave, is more friendly to spelunkers, simply because passage is not that narrow and steep and it has wider space to walk through.

Here's water-marker: evidence that the water inside could reach this high

Next is the gateway to Sumaguing cave

Stalactites and Stalagmites seen here might just be the most beautiful there in is in the entire country!

This is know as the grand canyon.

Us under the giant mushroom

shadow wall

what looked like a giant coral

More photo ops here and there

some areas required us to take a dip in knee-high water--freezing!!!

and since water is more evident in this cave, we had to remove our sandals to avoid slipping

Kuya John said that as we take a look at the different formations that may just be about thousands of years old if not millions--Imagination is Key!

We were like kids again sliding over rocks and playing around.

When we entered this second cave, we saw there were a number of tourists already. They only took the Sumaguing spelunking experience. When its summer, this are tends to be more crowded and there maybe times that you have to wait for a group to finish at a certain area before you can move on.