Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Palawan 2016: Underground River Tour

3:53 PM
After the Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour, it's time to visit Palawan's most famous tourist site, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, also know as the "Underground River". It is one of the places i've been excited to visit because it is the country's pride for being recognized as one of the New 7 Wonders of the Natural World last November 11, 2011 (11.11.11).



Our tour guide got a reservation number before we went to the mangrove tour. We arrived at the port where we will be transported by a pump boat which can carry up to 10 persons. From the port, we travelled to the sea and got to see the beautiful mountains from afar. After 10-15 minutes ride, we arrived at the shore nearest to the underground rive and took some photos with the huge karstic limestone near the beach.


Sabang port with the St. Pauls mountain at the background.


These boats line up to load and unload their assigned group of tourists.


On our way to the underground river.




Jump shot!


I like how their signages are made.


Marker of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.


Amazing infos about the underground river.


Almost there. But first, our tour guide, Mich, explains about the wildlife that can be found in the area. We saw a bayawak (monitor lizard) and a monkey.




The magnificent doorway to the cave..


To avoid noise inside the cave, we were asked to wear these headset in which we can hear beautiful voices narrating stories and giving information and instructions which corresponds to the area where we're at. It felt like I was inside Discover Channel.


It's getting darker..


Amazing limestone formations which are created for thousands of years. A flashlight held by our bangkero guides the light so we can see what the narrator is talking about.




Epic Fail! I set the GoPro to night mode and got these photos instead.hahaha


Pretty cool though! This is the St. Paul's Cathedral gallery. This photo looks like a surreal abstract painting.


I swear it looks better in reality. This portion has rock formations that look like religious icons.


There's water dripping from the ceiling!


I'm on fire!




Done! It was an awesome tour!


Going back to the port. I'm so ready to eat!



The Underground River tour was truly worth the wait. It's a gem of nature and God's gift to us. It's truly our country's pride, being listed as one of the new 7 wonders of nature. Check out my other tours in this series: El Nido, Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour and and Honda Bay Tour.

Palawan 2016: Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour

9:39 AM
After our one-day El Nido adventure, we went back to Puerto Princesa City and checked-in at Go Hotels, which is just a walk away from Robinsons Mall. The next day, we had the eco-tours including the Sabang Mangrove baddle boat tour, Ihawig firefly-watching and the world-famous, Puerto Princesa Subterrranean River or "underground river" which is part of the new 7 Wonders of the natural world.

After checking-in, we went to the nearest Vietnamese resto coz we miss Saigon! Shout out to my mekmek friends :)




The next day, the van picked us up at the hotel by 7:30AM and headed north towards Sabang Bay.


We stopped first at the Buenavista viewdeck where our tour guide had breakfast while we took pictures of the view.

A photo posted by Ced Zabala 👑 (@cedzabala) on


There's also a souvenir shop at the area. This is a small rainmaker with colorful hand-woven patterns.

We continued the 2-hour ride to Sabang Bay and saw cool rock formations along the way. Here is Avatar mountain which resembles the floating mountains from the award-winning Spielberg movie.
This is what they call the "Elephant" mountain. Can you see it?

This amazing view of the karst mountains became a pitstop for two Amazing Race episodes. The signage is still there as a souvenir.

This peacock, the icon of Puerto Princesa Palawan, is the Palawan Peacock Pheasant which is an indigenous species that is threathened to extinction.




Finally, we arrived at Sabang Bay! While waiting for our turn in the Underground River tour, we did the Mangrove Paddle Boat tour first.


Our guide who tried his best to speak English. He know his facts very well!


Together with our tour buddies. The freckeled girl is a solo traveller from France, and the last girl at the back (left) is Korean.


These huge mangrove trees grow tall for centuries and only thrive in these parts of the world.


Manong's paddle is engraved with these cool pattern.

Just chillin'

Back at home, I only saw mangroves a bit taller than me. I felt amazingly small here.



Done with the tour. Groupie!

A photo posted by Ced Zabala 👑 (@cedzabala) on


Up next: Underground River Tour! Read here.

Tangina This: Doomed by a Dam

3:33 PM
Just sharing this story to help the cause of stopping this dreadful news about the indigenous people in Brazil posted a guy named Gonzalo Cesar.

"I have more respect for a Warrior that protects life—for us, for our children and grandchildren and future generations –than for a false civilization and their interests!

While newspapers and television talk about the lives of celebrities, ...the chief of the Kayapo tribe received the worst news of his life: Dilma, 'The new president of Brazil, has given approval to build a huge hydroelectric plant (the third largest in the world).

It is the death sentence for all the people near the river because the dam will flood 400,000 hectares of forest. More than 40,000 Indians will have to find another place to live. The natural habitat destruction, deforestation and the disappearance of many species is a fact. '

What moves me in my very bowels , making me ashamed of being part of Western culture, is the reaction of the chief of the Kayapo community when he learned of the decision—his gesture of dignity and helplessness before the advance of capitalist progress, modern predatory civilization that does not respect the differences ...

But we know that a picture is worth a thousand words, showing the reality of the true price of our bourgeois "quality of life"."

Nato Beach walk

5:49 PM
November 27, 2010 - It was cold and there was scattered rain all over CamSur. We planned to have a nature trip this day after the Animahenasyon week. After taking our breakfast at the hotel, we went to SM Naga to buy some food. A block away from the mall is the bus station. We travelled east to Tigaon hoping for more sunshine. Unfortunately, after a few hours of travel we reached to our destination still with a bad weather. We stopped at a place called "Bolo" where my Wella's other relatives lived. She stayed there last semester when she was preparing to transfer at Ateneo de Naga University. Her cousin, Kuya Ruel, welcomed us to thier home and was also kind to be with us during that day.

Supposedly, we will go nature tripping at Mt. Isarog where there is a beautiful falls where we can go swimming. Sadly, because of the rain, it is dangerous to go walking in the mountains and it might take us longer to go there. Another trip in our list is the island hopping at Caramoan with its luscious white sand beaches. However, we should be there as early as possible because it will take us 3 hours to go there. With all these unfortunate events, we resorted to the next best thing, beaches. Just a few minutes of bus ride, we went to a small town to have our lunch. Afterwards, via tricycle ride we went to a place where there is a lineup of resorts in a place called Nato. Kuya Ruel led us to a resort called Pier 39. Just infront of the resort is a vast rice field with Mt. Isarog as the background. There were white birds flying over the almost sunken fields and some kids happily playing in the cluster of palm trees somewhere there.



We ready to enter the resort but we learned about their rates. They are actually requiring us to rent a small cottage for 500 pesos. We don't want to spare our time and money in that resort so we decided to sneak in an open resort and went to the beach. Upon reaching the coast, we can see a huge stretch of gray-sanded beach and a vast sea. The beach resembles a huge curve where we can see mountain ranges at the sides. The beach is at the east which made me realize that we were actually looking at the Pacific Ocean! Kuya Ruel confirmed that it was the Pacific Ocean indeed. It's our first time to see the ocean so it was worth going there. Again with our cameras, we spent our time taking photos at the beach. It was kind of surreal looking at the vast ocean with a foggy horizon and grey clouds. There were some kids swimming in a small portion of the sea. We can hear the sound of the crashing waves as we feel the cold breeze in our faces.


L-R: My first encounter with the Pacific Ocean, I was blown away!

In a distance, we can see a pier/seaport where are some people just standing at the edges. I can't understand why they were just standing there in the middle of the cold. Anyways were walking to that direction when we encountered a delta where a river and the sea meet. The flow of the river is fast so we stopped for a while and rested in a small open cottage. We had some snacks and photo sessions as usual. I told them that i want to try to cross the delta and they told me not to do it. Then, out of nowhere a man crossed the delta without any difficulty. And so we moved on and tried to cross the delta. The water was above our knees so our shorts became wet. We walked more until we reached the pier.



Clockwise: Walking the beach, A bangka with a roof, the freakin Delta

We approached the silent guys at the edge of the pier. They were actually fishing. We saw little fishes down at the sea swimming in groups. Anyways, we don't have anything to do so we just joked around and had more photos. With our wet shorts and tired feet we went back to the small town. We rode a bus and went back to the city. The view of the landscapes was not very clear due to the bad weather. It was a nice time to sleep. We woke up as we stopped to the bus station and headed back to the hotel. Well, it was not the kind of trip we were looking forward to but we still had a nice time with the Pacific ocean.


At the pier


With my Ate and Wella's cousin, Kuya Ruel

More photos here!
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