Palawan Vacation, Part III, Wildlife and Fauna

One of the things that has struck me about the Philippines, at least here around Manila, is the absence of wildlife. I really see very little by way of fauna. There are no squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, or anything similar. No raccoon, no opossum. I know that there are rats and mice, but its hard to really count those. There are dogs and many of those are feral. I live very near the coast, within sight of Manila Bay, but there are no seagulls or shore birds to speak of. I don't know why, maybe the super-dense human population, but there are few wild animals here. Palawan was different.

Once you got out of Puerto Princesa, you started seeing more domestic animals, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, goats and carabao. There were birds on the beach. It was different, more alive with fauna besides humans. Much as I appreciate the human species, I enjoy other animals too. Palawan has them.

When we got to the Underground River, the first thing I noticed was that there were monkeys on the beach, a small troupe of long-tailed macaques. They are also called crab-eating monkeys, and they live near the shore all around Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. The Philippine long-tailed macaque is a threatened species, protected throughout the islands, but in the wild and sheltered area of the national park, they seem to thrive. The cities of the Philippines, as I noted above, seem very hostile to any kind of wildlife.

Inside the caverns, there were hundreds of small, brown bats. I couldn't get a good picture of them (sorry), the ceilings of the cave were high and they were hiding in the dark. According the Wikipedia article on the caves, there are 9 species of bats native to the area.

When we got out of the cave, our guide took us back to the beach by way of a different path, and on this path we found monitor lizards. They were huge. The guide told us that they could be short tempered and did not like human contact, so I kept my distance! I know my grandson, Lukas, is boiling with jealousy that I saw these. I can only reassure you, Luke, that they're not an endangered species and they are easy to find here, so if you ever get out here, I'm sure you can see them.

I mentioned carabao, which is the Tagalog word for water buffalo. I saw quite a few of them on Palawan, still being used in the traditional ways for plowing rice paddies and hauling carts. They are large and seem very slow moving.

Carabao cart on the beach at Palawan

Palawan Vacation, Part II, Underground River

Me and my beautiful wife, Mexica, at the entrance to the park

The main reason we stayed at the hotel we did was that it is close to the entrance to the Underground River. Visiting the river was the highlight of our vacation.

First we took a small boat from a dock near the hotel to an inlet on the coast near the mouth of the river. As you can see in this picture, the island of Palawan has very rugged features, the cliffs in the background were typical of the whole area near the river.

These limestone cliffs are typical of formations all over the island 

From the beach, it was a short walk to the entrance to the cave. There was, however, another highlight of this area, monkeys! To be precise, Long-Tailed Macaques, the primary monkey of the Philippines. I had never seen a monkey in the wild before, and that was exciting in it's own right. There will be a separate blog on wildlife.

At the cave entrance we waited a while for our turn to enter. Entrance is strictly regulated to protect the delicate environment. Only 800 people per day can go in, and the only conveyance is a small boat powered by oar. No motors allowed. Each boat holds 8 tourists plus a guide/paddler.

The entrance to the underground river. 

As far as measured to date, this is the longest underground river in the world, about 8 km, and it is navigable for much of that distance, but the tour we took only goes in about 1 km. It was a very impressive 1 km. The limestone of the cave contains many wonderful and strange formations. From time to time, you could see an offshoot of the cave, going into the distance. Like most large caves, this one has never been fully explored. The darkness was so complete, I couldn't sense the closeness of the walls except when the spotlight was on them. In some places, the river was wide and the roof  was high above. In the highest point, our guide said the roof was 65 m above us.

I say it looks like the root of a giant, if discolored, tooth.

Of course, there were bats, many bats. Neither Mexica nor I got any good pictures of them, though. They were small, brown bats, hanging high in the ceiling of the cave, and the darkness and the distance made good pictures impossible for us. The guide warned us to keep our mouths shut when we looked up. The river, he said, was rich with bat guano. Luckily, the only drips on me were water falling from the ceiling.

We weren't the first ones here, but tourism has increased a lot with the river being named one of the "7 Wonders of the Natural World", so we are sure not to be the last.

3/18/37--Before my time

It was nice to see the sun again

Palawan Vacation, Part I, Arrival

Mexica and I took her mom, dad, and sisters Russia and Miami to Palawan for a few days last week. It was a fun trip. We saw some new things and some very different things. We had some adventures.

Adventure Number One was getting from the airport to our hotel. Our hotel was the Sheridan Beach Resort at Sabang Beach. The airport was the Puerto Princesa airport and they are about 75 km apart, over mountains, and through jungle, quite literally. We arrived at the airport at about 5:15 PM, so by the time we got our luggage and found the hotel shuttle and got situated for the trip, the sun was going down and we made most of the journey in the dark.  That made the whole thing feel very much like an adventure.

Once we got out of the city of Puerto Princesa, we were on a dark two lane road that twisted and turned, with switchbacks and hairpin turns, with only our headlights for illumination. The jungle felt very close. The road was often steep. Most of the time it was a smooth ride, but once in a while the pavement got rough and washboardy--and once in a while, the pavement just plain disappeared. The turns were sharp and it felt like the driver was pushing for speed, sometimes we jolted around and bounced like popcorn in a popper. I think the highlight was seeing a small sign by a wooden bridge, the sign said "Weak Bridge!" We crossed it.

All in all, the trip took about 2 hours. By then the hotel was looking pretty good!