I remember this trip I had with some college buddies of mine a few years back. It was truly something memorable because of a variety of reasons.
It has been a decade since some of us had seen each other and when a batchmate invited us to go North to Cagayan we grabbed the chance! He promised a get together we would never forget!
It was as if a decade had not passed as we recalled the adventures and misadventures we all had. Of the professors we hated, of who punched who behind the swimming pool, of those that have already died upon which we offered a toast.
He had everything planned out from going to beaches, and eating a feast fit for a king! One of the highlights of the trip was to visit the famed Callao Cave complex in Peñablanca, Cagayan.
Callao Cave
It is a cave complex compromised of seven chambers. It is part of a 300 cave section that is in the area.
The rocks are mainly limestone giving the area around it named Peñablanca (Spanish for white rocks).
In order to reach it, one must ride a small boat which we call banca.
Pinacanauan River flows from some point in the cave which had slowly chipped away at the rock and made tunnels and caves.
After making it to the other side we would climb a staircase
From what I could recall it was about 100 steps of so which prompted several of our group to swear off smoking as they held their sides as they climbed.
Once up there we see the entrance of the cave lit by several lamps.
We enter the cave with some dread and fear. Fear of the unknown and bats. Yes, I was thinking of bats the whole time.
With one last look at the entrance, we began our procession.
The limestone floor proved slippery in several sections but no one was seriously hurt just their pride and having another story attached to their name.
I look up and see the source of the natural light in a dark cave bathing it was an almost ethereal glow.
It shines down a Catholic Altar. I see some of my batchmates kneel and offer a silent prayer.
I would not say that I am a religious person even though at one point of my life I wanted to be priest.
Yet things change and priorities and dream can take a backsit on what we are doing.
Here it looks iike it has something special, something our eyes could not see nor my brain comprehend.
Or maybe it was just the filter I used that was playing tricks on my mind.
After saying a short prayer we made our way to the exit on the other side of the cave. Here I was still having fun playing with the filters that I was trying to create a fantasy mood.
It is as if any minute that a shade from the netherworld would be summoned and try to possess the weary travellers.
Look at the light shimmer as if looks like a timeline was being ripped apart. Nothing untoward would happen and we did eventually got out of the cave.
So that was a memorable vacation I had with some awesome images of the places we went!
I hope that you enjoyed my mini field trip and I would like to hear yours!
This is an entry to his Hit Me With Your Best Shot!! Deranged Photography Contest!
I chose these images because it felt special.
Wow.. that cave photo is trippy! This seems oddly familiar, maybe @dawnsheree had mentioned it? Like crossing the river Styx or something....
Hahahhaha OMG river Stynx don't kill me off yet Eon!!!
It was a trippy photo and I had more that really made it bizarre.
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Quite the adventure, it sounds like. I think it's amazing you can meet up with your friends after so long and pick up where you left off, reminiscing and having a good time. I'm kind of concerned about some of them already being dead. You all should be way too young for that kind of thing to be happening.
Slipping in a cave could do that to you, too, so thankfully you all managed to get out of there with just bruised egos.
A friend of mine and I went to a cave in Cancun. It was also made of limestone. There, you either have caves or sinkholes, and sometimes, you end up with a little bit of both.
The place was called Loltun, which are tour guide tried to infer came from the sounds made when you struck something against the a stalactite and and a stalagmite that had grown together. Sure enough, each end sounded different and roughly made a lol or tune noise.
It was kind of interesting how the temperature changed in different sections of the cave. It could be very hot and humid in one chamber and very cool in the next.
It took about 45 minutes to walk through it all. Pretty interesting. I wouldn't want to get stuck down there, though. :)
That sounds like an adventure!! 45 minutes and changing temperatures my gosh!!!
all we had was hot and humid all throughout glad I was wearing shorts and a shirt.
Unfortunately we had some of our classmates who died young. One even died when we were in college and was a very sad affair.
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So, there would be places where air shafts had opened from the surface and so it was coming into the cave. I don't know how big they were, I couldn't see them really, but you could definitely feel the breeze when you walked through it and the difference in temperature.
These were more of a series of caves that had basically been worn down into one. Large, mostly open spaces. It would almost be like how you would build a home. In fact, we were told that there was at least one group of the mayans that stayed in the cave during some conflict. I would think it would get kind of gloomy and people would go stir crazy after a while. You would need to be coming up to the surface and getting some food and getting some sunlight, too, just to feel human.
re: died young
Yeah, that would be very sad. Are we talking illnesses, accidents, overdoses, gunfights?
Yea @maverickinvictus, these photographs are really deranged.
The cave looks horror scary and thank God no one was hurt.
Nice expedition, and **hope you don't have Nightmares when you close your eyes?
yes no nightmares and it was fun so no bad memories from that trip.
Some of us were hesitant to come in and it seemed they had some form of claustrophobia and being in a cave was scary but they managed to go through it with a lot of support from us.
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This seems to be a pretty cool trip...
You should definitely visit this place again...
Thank you it was, I would definitely do that if I have the time again.
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:)
Such a beautiful cave! I would have been more worried about snakes than bats, though!
Oooohhhh I did not think of snakes at that times because in my mind I always associate caves with bats hhahhaha
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Anything like that in mass is creepy...bugs, worms, bats. Glad you had a good cave visit!
This trip must have been an exciting one.
But I wouldn't risk walking through a limestone cave ...
I would be thinking, what if it carves in?, heard they're volatile
We had some reservations but it was a renowned tourist attraction and we had guides that helped out so we did not have to worry much..
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A good way to make a reunion, it was great your post the images the difrute a lot you see a perfect place to make vacations. Regards
Thank you indeed it was a good way to make a reuniion
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