On the way to Magpupungko beach, from the surfing municipality of General Luna in Siargao Island, we passed by a simple tarpaulin signage which says Tayang Ban cave. On our way back, we stopped by the signage, went to a small hut which is the reception area for the said cave and paid our entrance fee of around a dollar each. We were assigned a tour guide, which we had to pay separately and the fee was up to us.
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| The signage to the cave |
A claustrophobic like myself dislikes caves, specially a cave with small opening and one where I will be submerged in water. But then again, my 72 year old mom is into spelunking, and mothers always prevail. Together with our driver, a local of Siargao but who hasn’t been inside the cave, we descended.
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| The entrance to the cave |
Upon entry to the cave, we found ourselves submerged in chest-deep water- and this would be the case all throughout the caving experience. There are however some areas which are deeper, so it is best to hold on to either the bamboo rails, or the ropes.
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| To the cave! |
It was dark, and there were narrow passageways and only our guide has a flash light. I don’t know how to swim, so my feet had to constantly look for stones to step on so that I can walk my way to the other side of the cave. The experience was both scary, and exciting.
After what seemed like forever, for me, but which was actually only after 30 minutes in real life, we emerged in an archway, and a big pool. We hiked up and passed by a deep diving pool. We hiked up further, and was surprised that we emerged right at the other side of the road, where the reception area was. Turned out, the cave was actually just under the highway!
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| Light! Finally! |
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| The hike up. |
