Aran cave Adventure..(Must Visit This Place)Highly Recommended

Good day my fellow stemians. For today I would like to share my spelunking experience in Aran cave. Aran cave is located at camp 3 Tuba Benguet around 30-40 mins drive from Baguio City. This cave unlike Sagada cave is more challenging specially when it comes to physical activities so you must be physically fit and be prepared for the challenges that you will encounter physically and mentally. It is also a wet cave so it makes it more interesting and more activities to do inside. For us it took us around 3-4 hours to explore the cave. Experience is not necessary as long as you have a good guide who knows everything about the cave. In our case one of my friend knows everything about the cave so he's the one that had guided us and provided the equipements that we will be using.

Things that you need to prepare for this adventure are the following:

1. Headlight or flashlights(waterproof if you have)
2. Old shoes - I prefer wearing shoes for this activity to protect your feet while exploring, and for better grip while wall climbing inside the cave.
3. Extra clothes- after the adventure you will really get dirty specially with mud, just to be safe just bring extra's and dont worry there's a resort pool about 100m from the cave where you can swim and freshen up after spelunking.
4. Zip lock for your gadgets since you will be swimming or if you prefer to walk you can walk on the pools inside the cave.
5. Bottle of water, just incase you might get thirsty inside the cave.

To begin our adventure we started a simple prayer outside the cave. I always pray everytime I go out in an Adventure. Also before meals.

After praying we entered the cave 1 by1 by crawling since the entrance of the cave was so small

Here's what it look liked once you had entered the cave. But wait there's more on what this cave has to offer.

Rock formations that will greet you once your inside the cave and a pool of water.

As you go deeper insinde the cave, expect to enter more tunnel and holes and of course more amazing rock formations such as stalactites.

This activity is very physically tiring so don't forget to exercise everyday and condition yourself before trying this adventure.

"The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal."
Criss Jami, Killosophy -It is a very nice quote, but not applicable in here. falling might cause your life.

This is one of the most challeging part of this adventure, wall climbing beside the first water fall, many spelunkers had given up on this part and just return to the entrance of the cave or just wait for thier friends to return. The only thing that is scary about this is if you fall so make sure that you wont fall or else.... Please keep this in mind.. Alright?

If you're really scared or having a hard time to climb you can always ask the assistance of those friendly guides, they will be more than happy to help you like my friend on this photo. By the way she was 54 yrs old when this photo was taken.

The series of challenge continues but dont worry it will help you to be more tougher and stronger once you had conquered it.

Isn't she pretty? hehehe.. after climbing the wall besside the water falls the next spot that will be welcoming you would be this pool of water which you will be crossing. This is where you will be using your ziplocks. You can also rest for a while and swim in this cold water.

This is an alternative if your scared of the cold water and don't wanna get soaked you can just sit have your boyfriend/girlfriend or friend take your photo. I had read this before somewhere, It says "For every great selfie is a bestfriend behind the camera"

Rest time is over, time to move on. Similar with break ups, you cant just be stagnant, you need to move on. And then a flash back suddenly popped out of my mind..

Yes this is the flashback. On this same area I need to carry my girlfriend who's afraid of walking because she found out that there are snakes swimming in this waters.. But it's not that rampant, it's actually very rare. I even told her that there's no way a snake would be able to bite her because once the snake will open it's mouth the snake will drown because water will be entering it's mouth. In the end that didn't help I still ended up carrying her.

Atlast the turning point, A pool of water where you can swim and a water falls perfect for selfie. Happy faces with the fullfilment of conquering Aran cave. But the adventure doesnt stop here. A different route will be used in going back.

When going back the route is more dangerous so please follow what your guide says and just follow his lead.

On your way back you will be passing some stalactites. Stalactites are for your eyes only and you are not allowed to touch it. According to them touching those stalactites will destroy its formation.

Going back also requires you to squeeze yourself into tiny passages. Isn't it fun?

And the passages gets more smaller as you continue, don't worry about getting dirty, at the end of this adventure everyone will get dirty so it's a tie. hahahaha .

The final obstacle of this adventure is squeezing out your body from this crack.

Finally the exit..

After exiting the cave you may like to enjoy the nature outside, take photos or reflect about your adventure.

And the resort which is around 100-200 meters away from the cave. This is where you can relax, eat, swim or shower and change clothes after spelunking.

This is my Aran cave adventure. Hope you liked it and also experience it for yourself. Sorry for the photo's with poor quality. It was really dark inside the cave and we only have our headlamp as our light source and our cameras really got wet and has moisture on it since it was really cold inside. And my friends are not willing to risk thier dslr cameras for this adventure.

Additional reminders if you will be visiting the place please observe and follow all rules. Don't leave any garbage, let us just enjoy and preserve it's beauty.

Special thanks to Bulakbol Extreme for sponsoring my trip here..