Puerto Princesa Underground River

After Bohol, we flew to the island of Palawan, where we spent the rest of our time. Our first order of business was seeing the Underground River, named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World (the third one I've been to!) It was fantastic– such an incredible experience. To get the entrance we endured a two hour long van drive with one of the worst drivers in the Philippines, seriously this guy drove like a granny. People drive fast here, and when someone drives really slow they are putting everyone at risk. He also felt it necessary to honk at everything in the road. I wish I had my ipod.

Photo: Hannah. Inside the
Underground River!

The cave entrance

After our van ride we had a 20 minute long boat ride and then finally we transferred into small boats and entered the cave. There were about eight people in our boat and there was  a guide in the back who paddled us along. The Underground River is 8.2 kilometers long, but we only navigated 1.5 k of it. There are so many stalagmites and stalactites, they grow at about .2 mm per year so someday in thousands of years the Underground River will be no more, basically it will be a rock wall. Good thing we live in the millennium. No one is allowed to touch any of the rocks because oil from hands can slow down the growth of the rocks. Throughout our tour, the guide would point out interesting rock formations and tell us what they resembled. At one point we went through the produce aisle at a grocery store and saw mushrooms, corn, eggplant, Throughout our boat ride we could hear the *plinks* of the "Holy Water" dripping from the ceiling.

And then there was the Holy Shit.

Holy Shit: If one opens their mouth in awe of the great vastness of the Underground River and suddenly tastes something warm and salty it means only one thing– they have been blessed with holy shit, the work of one of the 40,000 bats that inhabit the Underground River. I remembered to keep my mouth shut. As ridiculous as our helmets were, I was glad to have it on as it protected my head not from falling rocks, but from the Holy Shit.

As Hannah put it, ready to work for the DOT!

When we emerged from the cave (Holy Shit free) we saw monkeys and the humongous monitor lizards. Then we went back to the mainland and ate lunch from a banana leaf and befriended two Irish girls.

These guys are crazy big! I would say he
was probably three feet long.