Spelunking in Argao, Cebu

Yeah, I have been to the cave in Lantoy. That very forbidden cave that my grandma always said was 'alabtan'. Hehehe..

The backpackers were me, my husband, my sister, my cousing Lex, our neighbors, Carlynn, Nina and Christine. Our tourguide, Richie, was not only highly capable, he's really good company. And we were armed with lunch from Alex Cafe.

So off we were in a Jeepney that took us to forgive me, I forget if it was Conalum or Usmad. Then we walked for about 2 miles along the face of the mountain to get to cave entrance. There was a mini bamboo bridge(more of latayanan, seriously, pero 'bridge' para sosyal) that looked like it wouldn't support Leclec's weight. Fortunately, it did. whew!

We had a couple of younger guys who held torches and helped guide us around the cave. There was some kind of stream running through the length of the cave, and lots of smooth slippery rocks. For a while, I tried to not touch anything. But soon, keeping my hands off guano on the rocks(murag ilimnon, "guano on the rocks, shaken not stirred", hehe nasty!) was not as important as not falling into the cold water

Not very far from the entrance is a very big vent. It's a hole on top of the cave, not unlike a volcano crater. Cool air was coming into the cave through it. The girls think it's a refreshing change from the warm air in the cave.

Further inside was a nice big cavern. Richie said it was one of 7 major caverns in the cave system. This one is not even the most impressive, he said. In my mind, it would be hard to top this one. There were beautiful limestone formations all around, and water rolls off of them. It was very beautiful. And for some reason, I remembered how people say that no one should go into the cave because it's haunted. That I cannot disprove. But I think people shouldn't go to the cave if they are not educated enough to leave it the way they found it.

The other highlight of that day was a dip in the deep warm waters of Bugasok Falls. It's embarassing how much of Argao I haven't seen up to that point. Will definitely go to the cave, and falls next time I'm home.