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Friday, November 01, 2002
A short adventure in Mabinay
By Catalina Escondilla and Gladys Juanico
EARLY morning of September 11, we packed our bags for a brief adventure in Mabinay, Negros Oriental, a highland inland municipality straddling some of the province's remaining virgin forests and pockmarked with caves for spelunking enthusiasts.
The road to Mabinay snakes and wounds starting from the national highway in Bais City and goes up and up, negotiating hillsides to a point where the land and the sky seem to meet.
The ride aboard the passenger-jampacked bus was exhilarating as we savoured the fresh, cool and clear air and watched the Bais lowlands, the sparkling blue sea and several islands in the distance recede, eventually disappearing among the rugged hills.
Before us, the early morning mist gradually cleared as the sun in all its glory rose skyward and unveiled the beautiful hills and forests and houses of bamboo slats and thatched nipa sitting precariously on steep mountain sides and cliffs while down below us the greeneries of rich farmlands and sugar cane fields in the small valleys sway before the breeze.
Arriving in Barangay Lumbangan at exactly 8:00 in that still-cold morning, we disembarked for another ride to the Cristito Tirambulo Highland Lake Resort, 100 metres away along another road from the national highway.
At the resort gate, we paid P20 for our gate pass. We had to be inside to take photo shots of its wonders.
Inside, we learned that Cristito Tirambulo built the place and developed his property into a highland resort in 1986. The resorts' lake, that was a small pond in the beginning, is fed by springs ingenuously tamed to flow gently into the pool.
From that beautiful place, it took another hour to reach the hanging bridge spanning 60 feet across and linking the town center to the upper part of Poblacion. Crossing the bridge of strong hemp, we felt butterflies fluttering inside our stomach what with the gentle swaying and looking down at the mud brown waters under us.
The caves of Mabinay
After an enjoyable lunch and subsequent rest beside Mabinay spring, we braced for another adventure to see Mabinay's many caves. Only four have so far been developed, namely the Pangligawan cave in Landas, Pandalihan and Mambajao in Pañabonan, and the crystal cave in Bulwang.
We never saw those caves, but the tourism office in town was kind enough to show us photographs. To see the caves, we needed to pay P1,000 or P500 to pay a tourist guide. Unfortunately, we didn't have that kind of money.
Instead we chartered a single passenger motorcycle, a habal-habal, for P120 to bring us to the nearest cave, supposedly Kayasu cave.
After an hour's travel, we parked the vehicle and spent another hour hiking towards our goal. The trip was fruitless because the driver brought us to the wrong place. What we found instead was a hole on the ground believed to be the burial ground for "salvage" victims. We had to take another hour to reach the supposed site of Kayasu cave, only to discover that the cave was not there. Instead, the driver had brought us to an area that is known to be a New People's Army lair. This we learned later back in Poblacion.
Back at the Mabinay Tourism Office, we photographed several frames of the municipality's caves, but only one, that of Mambajo developed successfully.
Nevertheless, we were happy for that brief adventure into the highlands of Mabinay. In Dumaguete City although tired from the trip, we reminisced about the places and the people we met.
And if given another chance, we'll do it again. |
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