Sohoton, Beautiful Sohoton

Next stop on my tour of the incredible Philippine Islands is Sohoton National Park and Cave, near Basey, Western Samar. Selena and I happen to be relatively close to the park, so are fortunate to be able to go, with relative ease, to the park. Western Samar, especially places like the park where illegal logging still takes place frequently, are considered somewhat unsafe, so our trip there was with anxious caution, after hearing about the beautiful sites to see there. With us, we took Atsuro and Irei, Japanese volunteers who work in the area. We showed up at the Basey tourism office around 10:00, and then got our boat to take the hour-and-a-half boatride through the mangroves to get to the remote park that encompasses something around 850 hectares. The whole trip through the mangroves, you are passing villages, only accesible by boat, with docking areas in the center of town, with fishermen in dugout canoes, and children splashing in the brackish water, waving at the newcomers (us) all along the way. As you approach the park, jagged rocks begin appearing, jutting out of the water, covered with vines, moss and ferns. Huge Narra, Jimalena, and Mahogany trees provide the canopy as you continue on. Sohoton Cave, which was our destination for the day, was incredible, a huge towering cliff of gypsum, and limestone flowstone create the backdrop for the waiting area when you're waiting for a guide to take you through the cave. And the cave itself is full of breathtaking formations, nearly pristine, huge natural organs, tide pools, calcium falls, all sorts of incredible things. It's formations like those that make people like me crazy about caving, and it's natural areas like Sohoton that make me passionate about conservation.