Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge Park is an 841 ha protected natural park in Basey, Samar (Philippines) consisting of caves, waterfalls, limestone formations, and a thick forest. The Sohoton Caves must be my first caving ever, and hopefully not my last. We had a day trip to Samar on the second day of our weekend trip in Tacloban, Leyte.
If I remember correctly, we took a couple of road transfers then crossed the San Juanico Bridge to reach Basey, Samar. I’m unsure if the method to go to the Sohoton Caves is still the same as this trip was nine years ago. But all visitors of the natural park must go first to the Municipal Tourism Operations Center for the necessary fees and arrangement of pump boats.
The pump boat is the main mode of transportation to get to Sohoton Caves.
It takes a while to reach the caves, but the sites are quite relaxing.
*cue I’m on a Boat*
It’s a long way to reach the caves, yet there are some fascinating views along, especially the limestone formations.
When we finally reached the caves, the water looked so enticing. Haha, it was hot, and I was sweaty. Unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared for swimming.
We were the only group inside the caves, which was great. Is that normal, I wonder? I saw some blog posts that mentioned they went caving with other groups. Anyway, we also saw some phallic formations, haha. 👀
In the last photo is the Platymantis bayani, or Walter’s limestone forest frog. It is endemic to Samar.
Caving was fascinating at first, and it became thrilling as we got deeper into the caves. It got hotter, and the air was thinning. We must have taken all afternoon because I remember the sun was down when we returned to Tacloban (and we went to McDonald’s when we saw it, haha). I just found out, or maybe knew but forgot, that there were other activities besides spelunking, like kayaking and swimming with a swarm of jellyfish. Not into swimming with jellyfish, but kayaking would have been fun. 💭
I also took some film photos, still with the plastic lens waterproof camera with an expired film.
I have a lot more photos of our half-day trip in Samar on Google Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dCfx1tbSWaks3f5J8A.
Leave a Reply