Loboc cave completes It is all in Bohol claim

THE full spectrum of the mystic experience of the sublime and the banal gets its complement with the opening of tour right into the bowels of the earth via the Loboc Tour Cave Park. In Bohol where age-old churches generate the fear of the unknown as easily as the awesome journey to the wombs of darkness, the new tour offered right within the world-famed Bohol countryside tour circuit completes the stretch. For the few who still insist that Bohol traces its name from a quaint translation of the hole, a side trip into the less known world of perpetual damp darkness some 200 meters off Loboc Tour Park stop should be enough initiation.

The new stop, hoists anew the Bohol tourism campaign slogan in the late 90s which says: “It's all in Bohol ”. Easily sucking out the luster off the country's top destinations through a witty packaged offer of all of the country's destination in a day, the standard chocolate hills tour missed but one exhilarating experience: an outdoor caving adventure right within the circuit.

The circuit used to have the Hinagdanan Cave , a fairly no-sweat descent into the twilight world of an underwater pool lit by a shaft of light coming through the cave roof. But unregulated tourism activities rendered the otherwise awe-inspiring cave into an experience of a dead environment. Now with the tour circuit losing the out of the way spelunking experience in Hinagdanan, the newly opened Loboc Cave within a park seals the package anew.

In Bohol where the absurd belief of supernatural beings gets prominently displayed with the mystic awe afforded to antique icons of faith, the tour now flaunts to the uninitiated and the adventurous “that” experience in a lifetime. The trek to the wombs of darkness starts with a dirt trail going up a hill. For the tougher outdoor enthusiast, the trekking experience is just warming up the engines.

The descent to the twilight zones and then into the twisted maze of caves accented by drooping stalactites, breathtaking stalagmites and the eerie flight of bats and swallows stirred from their niches heighten the feeling. It's as if they are missing you by a centimeter, cave explores have told the Post. The experience again peaks with the visit to the palatial throne of the elves and the dwarves as one of the cave's main attraction. He cave tour also touches a historic nerve with its role as a neat hideaway for villagers hiding from the brutal punishment of the invaders. With the opening of the cave, then the claim to have it all here in Bohol is now again complete.

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