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TRIP 2:
Early in the morning after breakfast you are picked up by Peter Palma.
First the journey follows the spectacle coast approaching Sipalay. If
you like to and you don’t suffer from agoraphobia you should absolutely
visit one of the many caves in this area. The entrance isn’t more than a
1 m big hole at the side of the road. Beneath the surface you will feel
like in a different world: Salt crystals of many, many stalactites shine
and glitter in the lamplight and are reflected by the lake at the end of
the corridor. |
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Next stop is the market to by your lunch for today: fresh slaughtered
chicken and fresh fished fish. Finally you continue going east towards
the mountains. If you already dived at Pier Bulata you have also heard
about the big copper mine in this area. You reach it following a path
going straight through the jungle. In 1949 the work began but stopped 5
years ago because of lack of safety facilities. The miner’s little city
is a member of the extreme sect “Iglesia ni Cristo”. From far away you
can see the towers of their white and blue church. The mine itself looks
like a volcano with a turquoise blue lake in the crater. The iron,
rusted ruins of conveyor belts, warehouses, and big machines are still
standing around and are waiting to be swallowed by the jungle. But most
fascinating is the view on the hilly mountains and over the lightening
green rise fields, in which farmers work with their carabaos. |
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the tour until you park the car at the side of the road and continue on
foot. Passing pineapple plants, peanut fields, and rivers, in which
carabaos tenderly snore and wag their tails while bathing, you will
reach a rocky wall with a water fall. Above a big tree is standing the
roots of which are hanging down and supply the tree with water from the
fall. A refreshing bath will now be exactly what you are longing for.
Afterwards you are served with dinner at a local family’s house: Natives
have roasted the chicken, cooked the fish together with onions, tomatoes,
and herbs in a hollow piece of bamboo, and the rice in a pot. Fresh
fruit is served as desert. This traditional food, as simple as it might
be, tastes fantastic and is a real treat by all means. |
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When you have relaxed enough you will
go down to the river and get into the small, colorful boats of native
fishermen. These row you down the river through forests with nipa palm
trees and mangroves towards the sea. Enjoy this special, silent, and
peaceful environment. Only sometimes you will hear the sea eagle or,
depending on the season, some monkeys. After a while you stop and go for
some minutes until you reach a cave. To be precise it is a tunnel
leading straight through the mountain. First you will move between two
big stone walls. But then one small chamber follows another. They are
full of stalactites and stalagmites the salt crystals of which shine in
the flash of the light. Sometimes you will also see a bat hanging at the
wall and wakened up by the light flying away in confusion.
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In the late afternoon you reach the river-mouth. It is in an area with
many small islands and as the water is so swallow you can walk from one
to another. If you like to you go on land at a sandy white beach. Here
you can take a second bath or enjoy a drink - Tanduay, Beer, Mountain
Dew - during the sunset. In the end the fisher men bring you to the next
village from where you take a tricycle back to the car. You return to
the resort at dinner time. |
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Price: 1.400 PHP incl. Guide and Lunch |
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