Palawan: The Subterranean Underground River

The Subterranean Underground River in Puerto Princesa, Palawan is now best-known as a finalist for the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition. Because of its placement as a finalist in the competition, the Subterranean Underground River has been gaining an increase in popularity and visitors. After a visit to this World Heritage Site,  I can proudly say that its placement as a finalist is well-deserved.

 

From the city, it's a 2-hour drive going to the port which will take us to the island where the underground river can be found. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating with us at that day; it was raining which made for a longer wait to get to the boat headed for the island. We had to buy disposable plastic raincoats for the exorbitant amount of P50/piece (rip-off but everyone needed these raincoats, hence the price increase).

The wait gave me a chance to get some shots of the surroundings. Here's a local boy shooting some hoops after the rain had stopped.

 

It's a short walk from the beach to the inside of a forest where the entrance of the river can be found. From the signage and the wooden path we walked on going to the river, it was clear that measures had been made to make sure that the experience would be tourist-friendly. However, what I didn't enjoy was being rushed by our guide to go to the river, because of the large number of visitors, there's only a limited time for viewing the underground river per visitor.

  

Entering the river underground river without opened flashlights is being immersed in pitch-black darkness,  then there's also bat sounds and the smell of bat piss.

 

When the flashlights are opened, one can be amazed with the different stalactite and limestone formations found inside the river. Our guide knew how to keep us amused by telling stories of how one rock formation looked like Jesus or the 3 kings or some kind of vegetable, among others. He also mentioned that the reason why no lights are allowed inside the cave is because putting in lights would make the underground river loose its naturalness. This is the reason why we used flashlights.

  

The Underground river is 8.2km long and is the world's longest underground river. To be able to visit the river in its actuality is a sight to behold, the diversity of rock formations and  length of the river is really a natural wonder.

 

 

Our trip to the underground river was sponsored by Raintree because of lucky Stan winning the 1st prize in a raffle contest mentioned here. Thank you Raintree and thank you Stan for bringing me along! =)

Vote for the Underground river in the new 7 Wonders of Nature here!