Adventure Time: Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge

Okay, I'm back. I would apologize for taking so long between posts again, but a) I like to build the antici........pation, and b) I have been busy. I promise I have other posts on the back burner for you all; it's just a matter of getting pictures to go along with them. And having an internet connection. And power. #filipinoproblems.


So, now that the boring part is over, let's move on to something more exciting! Like my recent (wow, okay, actually a month ago now) trip to Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge. This is located outside of Basey, Samar, which is a small town located about 35 minutes by car away from Tacloban City.

We woke up at 6:30 to leave by 7 am and drove to Basey (well, we didn't drive because with my org expats aren't allowed to drive. So we had our driver take us), where we picked up fresh fruits and bread from the market before heading to the local tourist agency to meet up with a few people from another organization that works here in the Philippines. (THEY let expats drive cars....) At the tourist agency, we paid all of our fees -- for the boat, for the kayaks, for the tour, with an extra tax tacked on for foreigners. That's the way touristy things work here, which is kind of similar to some places in the US: locals get in cheaper.

It took us about another 20 minutes -- bouncing along over unpaved, rutted roads -- in the truck from Basey to the jump-off point, where I took this glorious photo of the green, green mountains from a bridge over the river we would sound be motoring along.

It looks just like Jurassic Park! (I said this to our Filipino friend and he thought it was HILARIOUS.)


Then we put on lifejackets, signed some waivers saying that if we fell into the river and floated away we wouldn't sue anyone, and boarded this tiny little rickety boat that seemed like it might sink if any more people got on. Fortunately, it was actually sturdier than it looked. Boats in the Philippines tend to have these bars over the sides that remind me of bumpers in a bowling alley, which help keep the boat from tipping over into the water (smart as hell when you were born without a sense of balance like me!). We motored along upriver for about 10 minutes, just kind of staring open-mouthed as we started seeing cliff walls coming straight out of the water.

Rock cliff!

More rock cliff, and the balance-y boat arm thing.

They had us get out of the boat (MUCH more stressful than actually getting ON the damn thing) and then led us up a path of steps carved out of the rock. We had to put on those helmets they make you wear in construction sites (very attractive, let me tell you) and took us into the caves. I don't have any pictures of the caves because... well, they're dark. Pictures would have looked horrible. I quickly found out why they make you wear the helmets -- when you're wandering around in near-darkness, it's a little hard to see stalactites until you walk into them.

The caves were cool. They had some really interesting rock formations, and even a little colony of bats just chilling on the roof in their little home. The coolest part was when they pulled us deep into the back and turned off all the flashlights: I have never been anywhere that dark before, and once they told everyone to stop talking, it was a SUPER crazy/creepy/interesting experience (well, I was mostly creeped out because you know how I feel about silence): it seriously felt like what I imagine deep space or a black hole feels like. You know, with air. And significantly less screaming, probably.

We spent about 45 minutes exploring the caves (read: walking into hidden stalactities) and then they took us back down to our kayaks.

I will spare you the details of the kayak struggle.

Suffice it to say that I am good at some things. Kayaking is apparently still not one of them.

After 20ish minutes that were supposed to take 15 of paddling upriver, and getting out of the boat to drag it around rocks, and almost losing my flip-flops not once but TWICE, we finally made it up to the natural bridge, and Y'ALL.

IT. WAS. SO. BIG.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

There is a secret staircase carved in the rock in this picture. See if you can find it!

This natural bridge is TALLER THAN TREES, YALL

Our guide let us chill there for a few, and we took the opportunity to swim around in shallow pools (I probably have schistosomiasis now. Ehhhh, worth it.) and one of the guys discovered that it was possible to body surf through the deeper, rapidly rushing water. I didn't take any pictures of my bruises, but let's just say that the water was deep ENOUGH but there were freakin' BOULDERS hidden in it that I didn't know I needed to avoid.

We finally headed back to the kayaks and paddled our way back to the cave site -- a significantly less difficult experience since it was down river -- where we ate a bunch of pineapple and weird spiky fruits I don't know the name of, and then we got on a boat and headed back to the first dock and our truck.

Awesome, awesome day.

I'm Alive, Y'all: Photos and Updates!

Helloooooo everyone, and blanket apology for not updating this blog in far, far too long. A lot has been going on -- I've spent a lot of time traveling to and from the different field offices, and some time without internet/power (and one brief night with no water... which was unfortunate and I wish someone would have informed me of the situation BEFORE I'd tried to take a shower).

SO! Here is my latest update: finally, a collection of photos! These ones are mostly from driving around to and from field offices, and some you may have seen on Facebook. I plan on updating you all on my recent trip to Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge at some point; those photos will have to come later, though, because internet is fleeting and uploading pictures already takes an entire episode of Gilmore Girls.

Without further ado:

This is the view from the plane on my flight from Manila to Tacloban. Gorrrrrgeous!

On the road from one office to another. Those party streamers are for a Barangay Fiesta, which is an entirely different blogpost you will get soon. The dude there is driving a tricycle, or trike, which is the most common way to get around in the Philippines (and also one of the most hilarious). A post about those (and getting from place to place in general) is coming up as well.

One of the many (many, many, nauseatingly gorgeous, insane) views of the ocean and another island across the bay. Y'all -- these views kill me. They KILL ME. I spend at least 10 hours driving around these islands every week, going from place to place, and it is still absolutely gorgeous.

This is my home away from home, aka my bed (and mosquito netting) in the guest bedroom of one of the field offices. This room doesn't have AC, so I have to leave the windows open and turn the fan on, which is fine but leaves me vulnerable to getting eaten alive. The mosquito situation gets reeeeeaaaally bad when the power's out, because then there's not even a fan blowing over me to keep them off, so out comes the mosquito net. 

Bonus: in case one of the geckos hanging out on my ceiling falls, it won't land on my vulnerable, prone, innocent, soon-to-be-traumatized body. :)

Rice fields for days and days and days and days and a few more days. Usually you can see water buffaloes working in the rice fields. This one is near one of the places where my organization does field work.

The view from the Port of Tacloban City. You see that boat over to the left? I've ridden on a couple of them, and not ONCE (yet) have I fallen into the water -- those rail thingies on the side really do the trick of balancing for you.

This is one part of the view from the San Juanico Bridge, which is the longest bridge in the Philippines (about 2 miles). It's also, conveniently, the bridge that I have to cross to get from the island where our field offices are (Samar) to the island where Tacloban is located (Leyte), so I cross it about twice a week. This photo truly doesn't do it justice -- it is an INCREDIBLE view.

I also celebrated being in the Philippines for exactly a month on Tuesday, which I almost can't believe! I got a visa, so that's good because I've experienced being an illegal immigrant and I wasn't a big fan. And I thought I could give a quick rundown of some of the numbers of my experience so far:

• days in the Philippines: 32
• nights spent without power: 4
• kayaking trips: 1 (so far)
• pairs of Chacos forgotten in the US and lost forever: 1 :(
• unidentifiable meat products consumed: 8 (I only regretted 3, so that's pretty good odds)
• babies held: 1
• children who have screamed, "Hey! Americana!!" at me: 4803732832
• times I have been followed to my destination by a particularly enthusiastic group of children: 3
• words/expressions I know in Waray-Waray (the local language): 6
• Fiestas attended: 2
• paperwork I have reorganized into my preferred system: ALL OF IT
• times a frog or gecko has scared a shriek out of me: >20
• times I have braved the Filipino shopping mall (which was an experience in and of itself): 2
• mosquito bites: at LEAST 3000
• water buffalo encounters: 1 (this is a story for another day)
• hour-long massages: 1 (and it cost ~$7!!! inSANE!)
• sweaty, sweaty hikes up a nearby hill to see the view of Tacloban: 1
• jeepney rides: 7
• trike rides: approximately 1000
• unidentifiable baked goods/other foods consumed: ~30
• selfies strangers have taken with me: 2
• number of days I have gone without sweating at all: 1
• fresh (like, watched-them-pick-it-off-the-weird-ass-pineapple-plant fresh) pineapples eaten: 3
• islands visited: 3 (and counting)
• times I have growled about the internet going out: infinity
• bucket showers taken: ~10
• caves explored: 1
• pairs of shoes destroyed: 0 (which is probably like a personal record)

So that's all for this update, folks. Things are going really well here, and I'm finally starting to feel like I know what the hell is going on and what the hell I'm supposed to be doing every day, which is a really good feeling. I'm still learning a lot on a daily basis, about humanitarian work and the Philippines and just myself in general, but things are really really good here.