Visiting Puerto Princesa

A trip to the subterranean river national park is absolutely worth the effort if you're visiting Palawan. It's an otherworldly experience as you paddle through the dark. The clicking of bats and the echoing drips of water are the only sounds you hear. You'll glide through cavernous rock cathedrals and past stalactites into the centre of the earth. Most tours will take you 4 km (2.5 miles) along the river. Some tours with special permits organised in advance can explore all 8.2 kilometres (5 miles). That far into the cave, boats can no longer pass and visitors have to swim between the rock walls. Conquer your fears of small, dark spaces however, and you’ll be treated to the rare sights of waterfalls gushing through the cave walls, a unique 20 million-year-old fossil of a sirenia or manatee, and a tiny rock passage that leads into a vast room, carpeted from floor to ceiling in glimmering crystals. Even the journey to the cave itself is worth it: you’ll enjoy a scenic 20-minute boat ride across the sea, past towering limestone karsts and walk through the national park, home to monkeys swinging through the tree canopies and giant monitor lizards slinking their way through the undergrowth. #urbanexplorer #maydaytrip