Underground River at Puerto Princesa 2011

The other weekend was my second time to see the Puerto Princesa's Underground River, but it was the kids' first time who are with us on this family trip. For Php 3,000 whole day rental, I hired a van to bring us to Sabang wharf, the takeoff point of the boats going to the Underground River. 

The van's owner also got the Underground River tour permit for us prior to our arrival, at Php 150/adult and Php 30 for my kids aged 6-12 years old. My youngest son at 3 years old has waived permit fee, as well as in boat fare, if 5 years old and below.

 

It took us less than 1.5 hours to get to Sabang this time, unlike our 2009 trip on the same place here, which took us almost 3 hours via a public jeepney from San Jose New market. The road condition is also much better now, since the city government expects more tourists to see the subterranean river due to ongoing votes for New 7 Wonders of Nature.

 

Upon arriving at Sabang wharf, we registered at the tourism office there, then paid Php 700 to Sabang Ferry Cooperative office at the back, for the motor boat which will take us to the Underground River. We also paid Php 15 as parking fee of the van, and Php 3/person as terminal fee before boarding the boat. Good thing that the rain had stopped a few minutes after we arrived at Sabang.

Arriving at the target area, we registered on the tourism kiosk after the beach, and also voted for the 8.2 km Underground River on the New 7 Wonders of Nature. Then, we proceeded to the paddle boat area to get the next slot in going inside the cave river. My kids are quite disappointed for not being able to see monkeys along the trail, due to the rain an hour ago.

As expected, the Underground River is a marvel to see. Despite the strong smell of bats' dung inside (and even outside) the cave, you cannot help but be amazed by the large chambers, high ceilings, stalactite, and stalagmite formations inside the cave. Too bad that our Point-and-Shoot camera does not give justice to the photos, because of the poor lighting and movement of the paddle boat.

The stalactite and stalagmite formations look like vegetables, fruits, human figures, and religious images. These formations took millions of years to take shape!

In last month's news, a group of European cave explorers found a 5-kilometer parallel virtual crystal cave forest on top of the underground river, and the fossilized remain of a vertebrate that dates back 20 million years ago. This gives us a reason to return to the Underground River for the third time, once the crystal cave is open for tourists!

Thanks to airlines' promo fares, as they allow us to travel more often and in big groups. I was able to book the whole family on Air Phils.' P88 promo for a total of only Php 1,498 round trip fare for the 7 seven of us on this trip.

Here is the owner of our rented van Mr. Dudz Valencia. He can be reached at (63) 929-8684500, (63) 917-5902001, or borjok_9@yahoo.com.

Below is a map of Puerto Princesa, with the arrow showing the distance from city downtown to Sabang wharf. Along the way, you will pass the barangays of Santa Monica (site of Bakers' Hill and Mitra's Ranch) and Santa Lourdes with the eastward road to Honda Bay pier. If you will enlarge the map, you will see the location of Honda Bay islands, Buenavista viewdeck, Tres Marias islands, and Ugong Rock as well.