How far is it? We asked a group of women weaving baskets on an open porch while referring to a cave that had us hooked for the visit to San Isidro town. We were a small group of adventure mountain bikers out to explore the beauty of Bohol countryside and the terrain that San Isidro town provides lit the change enough to get us into an exploratory ride to the town’s planned tourism destinations. “Cantijong, you mean? It’s still a bit far,” one replied, completing the action with the non-verbal gesture of the spout to the general direction of the southwest. In Bohol, a gesture of a snout means a distance of at least a kilometer more of easier gear crunching pedal skirting hills and negotiating rough country roads. Thanks to easy shifting Shimano Acera and Altus on our sturdy frames, the trek is bearable. The mountain bike trek to Cantijong two-storey cave was relatively moderate for mountain bikers, although a bit hard for amateur velo-addicts.

It came doubly hard for us who had decided to pick our individual bikes from the rack some 7 kilometers from the town center where we left our transporter. Although access to the town was through a largely all weather road, the ascents fully engaged the front and rear de-railers and descents were never really freewheeling. Add up to the struggle the intense wrath of the summer mid-day sun and the sudden gush of rain and it becomes a Lenten punishment comparable to flagellation. Arriving the town proper was already a feat, but it was still another five or six kilometers of puddle holed back country roads, until we stopped by to take shots at native weavers by the roadside. Had the view not been spectacular, amateur riders in the group could have easily waked their bikes through the ascents. The downhills, perfect for our hardtail bikes quickly eased the you body torment. Pus the thought of getting into a nearly undisturbed cave as a premium keeps our legs steadily pumping.

Its here, our guide on a motorbike tells us.

Where? It was basically a plain of rice fields bordered by lush hills of secondary growth particularly similar to Chocolate Hills. Behind that hill, he pointed at the distant grove of coconuts at the base of a hill, slightly visible in the distance. We left the bikes unlocked at a roadside, and walked through rice paddies. Along the way, we talked to farmers were newly harvested rice, chased chickens and pulled a carabao to keep it from blocking our path. We filed into a paddy where at certain points, water has weakened the foundations and a thin plank of wood acts as stepping board. Or at times, huge stepping stones test our agility with the foot. Fifteen minutes of navigating rice paddies and abandoned rice-fields, we were on to the ritual cleansing. Cantijong cave, one which has a stream running through it, can be accessible down stream or upstream where we would literally walk in the direction of the flow. The time to get really wet came when we had to step into ankle deep stream steadily flowing into some unseen curve and then a thick knitted vegetation seemingly told us to stop.

Vines, shrubs and gnarled roots stifle ones quick advance and the murky rivulet sometimes falls off to knee deep and then waist high waters in a step or two. We have to be extra careful despite the cramps creeping up my tired thighs, and the sudden immersion into the cold stream. But we were set and ready to take on whatever is there for adventure sake. Cantijong cave can best be appreciated with one’s full understanding of a fragile cave system. First, one can not get into a cave expecting a paved trail. Or a welcome band. Like most of the newer caves in southeastern Bohol, Cantijong’s lower chamber is wet and narrow. The stream that flows through it carved its way around boulders, making a passage that allows humans to squeeze through most of them. That also means a local guide should be there to advice if entry into the cave is suitable: entry during the rainy season is a high risk as indications of flooding shows that the ankle deep water flow can get really into a nasty six feet in tight passages, leaving only a few inches of room to spare for breathing spaces.

Not for the claustrophobic, Cantijong features very narrow passages that only allows sideways maneuvers. It becomes a consolation however because portions of the cave still gives us the chills, especially when even our guide has to grope his way into the dark, damp dungeon. The caves stone formations are superb: untouched stalactites and stalagmites have formed a range of small to large columns, cascade formations meet you very now and then and a magnificent chandelier marks a turn pike that has its own deep pool we have to skirt the cave walls to keep ditching our equipment. Like most cave explorations, Cantijong can be coursed though in 45 minutes to an hour, and at a certain point, bat poop scent makes your nose twitch, but most excellent caves do. The exit is, like any other cave exits, a spectacular scene. Light floods on an ante-parlor covered by a thick canopy of leaves, that would be perfect resting place. That is also the perfect place to relax and contemplate on the mystery of caves, earth’s orifices listening to how man keeps the earth. There is a surviving myth that the name Bohol comes from “boho,” a reference to the numerous sink holes, crevices and fissures that are much more characteristic of the limestone island. True enough, Bohol’s more than a thousand of these caves present itself as a nature’s way of letting people get into its heart, and the degrees of exploration and exploitation one nature lover does may determine this kind of relationship.