Calinawan Cave, Tanay Rizal :D

May 8, 2012

Baras Church

We started our adventure at around 8: 00 in the morning. Together with me is my Mom, Tita Mona and her 3 friends Alvin, Tita Joms and I forgot the name of the other one! (peace) From Baras we decided to have a sneak peak at the Baras, Church considered one of the oldest church in our history... Then we traveled for 5 minutes to Tanay Town Proper to buy some snacks and eat our breakfast.

1st turn from the Main Road

This is it! We went straight to Calinawan Cave, from the high way intersection if your from the town proper, just go straight up and down the Sampaloc road for about 15 min. Wait for a signage saying "This way to Daranak Falls", turn left then go straight again and turn right on the 2nd corner with a Native House as a landmark. It will lead you to a rough road that made me feel the dizzyness..o.O From that corner up to Calinawan Cave took us about 1 hr. depends on our speed, but because its a rough road with matching big rocks we need to limit our speed just up to 5 km per hour. Imagine that??

Road to Calinawan Cave

Wah! Seems like boring right? For us its not for we are having fun taking some pictures of the trees, plants and animals and we also tried to reach for different wild flowers and fruit bearing trees as you go through..After a long waiting time we reached our 1st stop! Thank God we met the so called owner of the cave named "Ka Tale" a 72 yrs old cool granny :D She shared to us stories about the cave and asked her kids to guide us inside the cave... :D

Entrance to Calinawan Cave

The Cave exploration started by going down the stairs and walk all the way through those different passages and rooms of the cave. Actually it is a system of caves meaning it is connected to different other caves. According to the tour guides the different passages can bring us to woods, and even to neighboring towns, cool isnt it? The basic tour is about 20 minutes but for us it took us about an hour due to our excessive picture taking haha! :D

Goung down! :D soo excited

I know I can pass through this one!

There are times that we need to crawl, bend, twist, go side to side, to pass through dome-like chambers. But hey! something caught my attention, GLITTER DUST! so I asked the tour guide about it and said that the cave was used for the shooting of a Filipino TV show entitled "WAKO WAKO", so I got more interested I even saw the nest used as props :D

Spelunking time! 

There are also some ceiling openings that gives light to the cave and is an ideal spot for spelunking. We saw drippings of water from the stalactites, coming from the natural moisture of the soil on top of the cave. We are amazed that the cave is very clean and the stones is well preserved and taken care of by the locals. 

But, as we go through, a vandalism  made me so disappointed, for such human with no heart will really have the guts to ruin such a magnificent place just to write his or her cellphone # looking for a text mate... What's wrong with those people???

Tibs(local tour guide) said that it is made by those people who enters the cave without their permission and they cant do anything about it...

Mother-Daughter Partner!

Then, we reached an intersection where in we can choose from  HARD and EASY... what do you think we answered?? of course HARD! we're looking for adventure remember? haha! :D

So, we turned left and the passages became smaller and smaller and my eagerness to go out became stronger! :D

Watch your steps guys! :D AMORSEKO! argh

Finished! It ends inside the woods and we still need to follow the trails up and down with spiky plants on the sides. Unfortunately, I'm wearing a shorts so I got some scratches from it! OUCH to that! We need to be very focused and careful, for we are walking at the side of the cliff, one wrong step and we're DEAD! XD

Cave as my background! 

Not too long and the trails become wider and we had the chance to saw the cave from the outer side and the hole on it is the exit from the easy path earlier its so magnificent!!!

Then for our surprise we went out from the other side of the road. The Exit is Parallel to the Entrance of the cave, it is the shortest and easiest trail of the cave. 

Exit of the easier path :D

Then as we sit and took some rest, I was able to chat with Tibs and said that before the cave was used as a hospital during the world war 1 and also natives, hunters, adventurers and even nationalists from differents parts of the world entered and spent time inside that cave.






If only I have enough time I want to ask Ka Tale to tell me all about the rich history of the cave. I hope before the summer ends, I can go back to that place together with new set of friends so that they can also feel blessed to be God's Children and be proud to be not just a Filipino but as a Rizaleno. Because this cave is one of the reason's why people from different places go to Tanay, Rizal

While your still young make the most out of every moments of your life! :D 

Natural tourist spots is hundred times more amazing than man made, For He made it in his hands with pure love for us! :D

To all Filipino Travelers! :D I strongly suggest that before we decide to cross the ocean to explore other countries, why not explore our own country 1st??  Always remember that God blessed our country with lots of everything!! :D Be proud of our own country! Philippines! :D

PROTECT OUR NATURE, PROTECT OUR FUTURE!

I hope you had fun reading my write ups! :D No edits, No second thoughts just straight from my heart :D

THANK YOU! :D

Outer front part of the cave! :D

TAKE NOTE :PICTURES ARE MUCH BETTER REMEMBRANCE THAN GETTING A PIECE FROM IT AND DO SUCH VANDALISM! :D