Summer Adventures (San Rafael Cave Part 1)

My last entry ended with our triumphant hike upon the muddy mountain and an aggressive note about the ability to conquer anything *grins*.  Oh well...

(one of the stalactites found inside the San Rafael Cave)

Atop the mountain was a small shack where people can rest before they proceed to the cave, and as most hikers do, our group slacked down, breathed and drank a few gallons of water before heading back on track.  Just like the mountain that we had climbed, San Rafael Cave is also composed of twin caves, the first one is smaller and is in a semi-dead condition but the second one is a pillar of beauty.

(the first cave, see how dark it was?)

Photo above was taken in the first cave, we used three candles at a time, we do our math and thought that was the best equation as to the number of the candles we had brought and to the number of hours we're gonna stay inside the caves.  One candle was held up in front, second in the side and third in the rear.  Imagine us without candles and crawling our way back out of the cave in extreme darkness, aw, creepy.

(the passage out of the first cave)

As we neared the end of the smaller cave, we can see sunlight shining through and truth be told, I was reeling with excitement and sadness, opposite emotions at the exact same time.  I was super excited to cave hop but annoyingly sad of what I had seen so far - vandalism at its worst, chopped stalactites and stalagmites, over-harvesting of guano and the non-existence of the bats who used to live on those caves.  I am wishing for a rehabilitation campaign and soon...

(on the way to the next cave)

Sis-in-law only made it up to this point, she decided not to go through the whole adventure, I think she had enough.  She was tired, scared and completely out-of-sync, so we decided to let her be, one of our guides stayed with her while the rest of us went in. 

(opening passage of the second cave)

I took this shot right after I made it down, the hole up, which is the only visible spot on this photo, is the opening passage of the second cave, if climbing up the mountain was hard, crawling down this cave was harder.  It was smelly and slippery because of the guano, it was surrounded by deep pits and cliffs and it was very dark.

(the illuminating dots were candle flames from the other group of tourists)

If the first level was steep, the second one is steeper, as in we were towering over the first group of cave-visitors as they descended lower into the cave.  I almost gave up at this moment but pure will kept me from running back, my first slip happened on this spot, too, right beside a very deep pit, good thing my companions are alert and ever-ready to help me up. 

I admit that it was hard and kinda dangerous but when you get in and see the wonders inside the cave, all the pains and tears will be washed away, I assure you.

(water terraces inside the cave)

One of the rock formation we passed through, a water terraces on the cave ground.  Isn't it beautiful?

(first passage to the inner part of the cave)

To be able to see the other parts of the cave, we passed through a series of small passages, where the stalactites and stalagmites already combined.  It was said that year after year those openings (as seen in the photo above) gets smaller and smaller and some of our guides were thinking that there will come  a time when there will be no chance of passing through it anymore.

(second and smaller passage inside the cave)

This (refer to the photo above) is the second passage, you have to crawl in (literally), this is the only way you can pass through (unlike the first passage where three archways are visible) and get in the innermost parts of the San Rafael Cave.  It was kinda an ordeal but I made it *grins*.

NOTE:  I decided to cut this post into two for two reasons, first, it has gotten longer than I planned and expected and second, I'm kinda out of time, going some place tonight.  So, expect more pics of stalactites and stalagmites on my next blog entry.  See you then...