Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan -- Ugong Rock (Caving, Spelunking and Zipline)

After our Underground River Tour, we head back to Sabang Wharf and drove to the beach where our buffet lunch is set. Kuya Bodjie asked us if we wanted to have a side trip to Ugong Rock and being on the adventurous side that day, we said yes!

We passed by Elephant Cave where Amazing Race Philippines made a stop.

Trip to Ugong Rock is not included in our paid tour that's why we shelled out few pesos out. Fee for caving, spelunking and tours is P200 and fee for zipline going down back to camp is P250.

Entrance of Ugong Rock Adventures

ABS -CBN Foundation helped fund this project and now a lot of people is earning livelihood from this.
We were briefed upon arrival and after we registered and paid, we head straight to their "wardrobe" where we took our head caps and gloves. Caving and spelunking ready!

Choose!

Passageway in

During the tour, they'll make you tap on to different stalactites that produces a somewhat humming sound (ugong in Filipino) where the cave got its name too.

You'll pass by several formation and you'll be forced to bend and fit yourself pass through thin passages like this:

 

And go down on trail like this:

The next level activity after caving is to climb up on a steep portion of the cave. They'll assist you in wearing harness and guide you on your way up. It wasn't really tiring for me but beginners and non-adventurous individuals may find this quiet challenging.

Jehn on her way up

After passing all the twisting, trekking and climbing, you have 3 options on how to go back to the base camp.
1. Zipline (sitting position - P250)
2. Zipline (Superman position - P350)
3. Walk your way back down

We opted to go for option 1 and took the 380meters (about 21 seconds fly) long zipline.
The zipline's drop off area was so steep I totally screamed out all the hell out of my system the moment they released me. Ugong Rock Adventures surely offers a notch higher adrenaline pump on your usual travels. Must try! :)

View up Ugong Rock

Erika's cam all set to fly with her!

You'll see how steep the wires could get from this photo :)

Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan -- A&A Plaza Hotel and Underground River Tour

Left Manila March 9 via Cebu Pacific, we arrived in Puerto Princesa a little over 8PM. Unlike my previous trips and travels, we chose to splurge rather than save this time. We bought tickets 7 months prior our fly date and scanned a number of accommodation/tour packages found online. We end up making arrangements with Harper giving us this package:

P5000
3nights/3days Quad sharing accommodation (with airport transfers) in A&A Plaza Hotel
Underground River Tour (with buffet lunch)
Honday Bay Island Hopping (with buffet lunch)
Half Day City Tour
Daily breakfasts

*All tours come with a licensed guide and van service.

Also, it'll be better if you reserve your tour a month earlier because travel agencies need to secure permits before you can even go to the Underground River.


March 10

We munched on a quick breakfast and hopped into the van for our Underground River Tour.
Our tour guide Kuya Bodjie immediately started talking the moment we hit the road. He's given trivia about Puerto Prinsesa and reminders on how we would go about the tour.

Ride from city proper going to Sabang Wharf took us around 2 hours and boat ride from wharf to Underground river some 20 minutes more.

Sabang Wharf

You will then take a short trek going to the underground river's boarding area where you'll see strayed monitor lizards and monkeys.

Arrived in PPUR!

Monitor lizard

Inside the cave are magnificent forms and figures of vegetables, religious figures, sexy lady and even T-rex! We're so lucky our river boatman/guide is so hilarious and amusing, he cracked all his jokes perfectly. He even made a whooshing sound like someone fell on the waters then screamed "don't worry, I'm still here!", I thought he's gone and we'll be paddling the boat out the cave ourselves. :( Anyways, they have a sort of Vegetable Section inside the cave where you will see form of eggplant (beside this is a tortang talong like figure), patola and other veggies. Next is the Cathedral where you'll see The Last Supper, The Nativity and various religious forms. You need to run your imagination creatively to appreciate the rock formations more.

According to our tour guide, the Underground River stretches to a total of 8.2kilometers (all navigable via boat) but the regular tour allowed for tourists is 1.2 or 1.8km only. Fossils ranging million years are found embedded on the walls of the cave's deeper parts making it locked out of public and exclusive for professional researchers.

Our group before the tour

When we were nearing the cave's mouth and the light started beaming on our sight, he playfully shouted "Yes Lord, we made it!". He closed our tour by cracking on his final joke. We were about to exit when another boat is about to enter the cave, they are around 9 in their boat (we are only 8) and kuya shouted, "Enjoy your tour! Ganyan din kame kadami kanina (we are about the same number as you before we enter the cave)!" and the lady seated near the tip of the boat instantly gave as a second glance as if she counted how many we were left in our boat. :)

Ugong Rock, Honda Bay Island Hoping and City Tour coming right up!