SURIGAO CITY: Spelunking at Silop Cave System

I woke up around 6 in the morning wondering where in the world I am currently at. The last thing I remember was, last night, me and my travel buddy decided to go to Bucas Grande Island in Surigao Del Norte, and then we found ourselves inside a bus bound for Surigao City.

We arrived at Surigao City Bus Terminal around 7:30am. It was a long 10 hours ride from Davao City to Surigao City, and yes, after 10 long hours of butt numbing journey, the city of Island Adventures welcomed us with the bright shades of the sun.

Excited, we hurriedly went to pier 1 to fetch a ferry going to Socorro Island but to our dismay, the only ferry that can bring us to the island was already full. And since this is an unplanned trip, we have never thought of any other plan in case the itinerary we prepared fail like this.

Of ruined schedules and activities, we just decided to visit the tourism office and see what they can offer.

SPELUNKING SILOP CAVE SYSTEM

Silop Cave is a massive cave system that is composed of 20+ caves - 7 of which are now open for spelunking while the rest is yet to be explored but is already on the process of verification for the release of permit from the office of DENR according to our friendly tour guide.

Silop Cave is located at Brgy. Silop, Surigao City. It is a 20 minutes ride from the city center. You can either take a jeep bound to arellano then alight at the barangay Silop junction or you can hail a habal-habal that would take you directly to Silop Barangay Hall where the registration process takes place. An entrance fee of P100/head is allocated for the safety gears you'll need for spelunking.

So after the registration process, we started taking the path to the entrance of one of the caves, but before reaching the cave, we have to survive the muddy and slippery trail route to the entrance of the recently opened cave 7. The entrance of cave 7 is very narrow that you have to crawl to be able to enter the cave. Amazement comes after entering our first cave. See photos below.

Cave 7 is interestingly beautiful, it has a variety of rock formations that took decades before it reaches its varying heights. According to our tour guide, a ruler high of the so called dripstones is equivalent of a decade, so you could just imagine how old this cave system is.

Cave 7 has a smaller space compared to the other 6, and for me, it is a recommended cave for beginners who are claustrophobic. The next cave we explored was more complex and challenging, there are myriad of speleothems you can enjoy sight seeing, more passageways you can spelunk. Some holes are home of the beautiful grottos, while some are yet to be explored. Cave 6 was the biggest cave. It has the highest ceiling that offers a magnificent view of the stalactites and stalagmites. It is where you can see the biggest cathedral of the 7 caves. These caves where form after the flooding incident from Noah's time. The mere proof of this claim were the taklobos in huge sizes that is present inside the cave. Well, this is all according to our tour guide.

I got the profound feeling of exploring the rest of the caves and witness a different world, but the time does not permit us, and also, my buddy was already tired and exhausted from hours of activities so we just decided to end our tour. It was my first time caving but with the experiences I had, I know I'd be doing this a lot more in the future.This fascinatingly beautiful work of nature is definitely worth the try.

Going to Surigao City:

• By Air - There are airlines from Manila or Cebu flying to Surigao City Airport. Fare varies depending on date of booking and flight schedule.Early booking usually have low fare rates. Promo rates are also offered from time to time by Airline operators.
• By Sea - WG & A Shipping lines sails every wednesday and saturday to Surigao. Fare costs around P2000+
• By Bus - From Davao City, hail a bus bound to Surigao via Butuan. Fare usually costs P500+ one way.

this post was originally published at my travel blog www.lakawero.com which was taken down last 2016. The domain I used is already expired so take precautions in trying to visit it as it will redirect you to an advertisement page.

All images used in this post are mine unless otherwise stated.

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