The Sumaging Cave: Part 1

On the 15th of December the whole ‘Philippines’ gang was divided into 2 groups. Since there are some of them who did not want to go on a caving trip, instead they went on a hiking trip. As for those who went on the hiking trip. We had a blast! I’ll leave the further details of what happened in the cave to Jojo to tell.

The cave that we ventured into is known as The Sumaging Cave or also known as the Big Cave. This cave is situated in Sagada and Sagada is a town in Mt. Province. It takes a 6 hour bus ride to get to Sagada from Baguio. According to the guide, the cave was once filled with sea water a few decades ago hence the cave was created by water erosion. We had to first register at the Sagada Municipal hall indicating our intention to go caving and we paid 110 pesos for that activity, 100 pesos for the guides and 10 pesos for environmental fees. (I guess that the 10 pesos will be paid to Mother Nature in case we mess up the cave.)

Our guides were well equipped with lanterns and they were familiar with the ins and outs of the cave. All their explanations were really beneficial to us. We were basically awed by Sumaging cave’s sheer size, fascinating chambers and rock formations, all the rock formations really mesmerized us especially the size of it. Without looking too closely I don’t think we would make sense of the formation. The names I could remember was the “Kings’s Curtain”, “Chocolate Cake”, “Pregnant Women”, “The Penis”, “The Elephant”, “The Pig’s Pen”, “The Hiding Turtle” and etc. All their larger than life resemblances of the real things really made our jaws drop and our eyes popped out not believing what we saw.

To get around the cave we had to make our body flexible because a part of the cave that is known as "The Tunnel" consists of a series of tiny passages that made us to do limbo-like movements, army and baby-like crawling to pass through. Somewhere deep in the caves there were “bats poop” or also known as “Guano” the smell was bearable but not the texture however the guano was mostly at the top of the caves.

Further in the caves, it started to get cold due to the water features that existed in the cave. There are some areas of the caves that is covered with water and the first water encounter was about knee deep only but not long after that the water level was up to the chest level. There were also routes that needed us to repel down, jump like monkeys side ways and even used the guide’s leg as stepping stone. (Pity him I hope he’s not down with a fracture or something).

The excited amateur cavers then had a chance to have a dip in the pool with a waterfall. It was a deep pool since it was once a deep sea area. The temperature of the water was so cold until at one point I felt like a penguin having to be able to stand the ice cold water. The whole cave was chilly until we could see mist coming out from us, not only from our mouth but from our hands, fingers, body and everywhere. I think it’s our warm mammal body reacting to the cold temperatures in the cave. But seriously, a sweater and warm clothing are not needed. Just slippers, and suitable sports attire is enough. In case you want to go swimming in the pool down the cave. Swim suits are a necessity or just dive in with whatever you have! All in all that is a brief description of the Sumaging cave in Sagada. Photos will appear, as soon as Temme gets them from Rommel and Chini and I bet you’ll understand what I’ve been trying to tell you when you see the pictures. Don’t forget to read Jojo’s entry about us being silly in the Sumanging Cave. Until then, take care!

By Feeza