BULACAN PART 2 – PINAGREALAN CAVE
by EARL PATRICK JOSEPH ARCE
Just ten kilometers (if you’re worrying that ten kilometers will take you so long, don’t worry, there’s no traffic jam in here!) away from Grotto, you can pay a National Heritage a visit. Yep! Officially, it is declared by the National Historical Commission as a National Heritage. I was proud that I visited a National Heritage!
I know, cave. Wow. Yes. Primeval, scary, dark and home for a lot of unknown creatures (I may be over-reacting at the last one,) but yes, I have to admit, I was kind of terrified and excited at the same time at the thought of having to explore a cave, but as the saying goes, we have to face our fears, so I did!
Right in front of the gates of the Grotto, there’s a jeepney terminal with BIGTE signboards on them. (Don’t worry, it’s safe.) If in any case that no jeeps are available, you can ride a jeep to TUNGKO and you can ride the jeep to BIGTE from there. Just tell the driver to inform you where BIGTE is so you can alight and ride a tricycle to Pinagrealan Cave. On that part, you have a choice where you would like to be dropped off.
Along the way, you will a sign saying, PINAGREALAN CAVE 300 METERS, if that is where you want to be dropped off, the tricycle driver will just charge you for only Php 10 each. But if you want to be dropped to the nearest spot from the Pinagrealan cave where they can still drop you off, you’ll be charged with Php 50.
If I were you, I will take the first one. Since you’ll be missing a lot of views when you’re on a tricycle going to the cave from that Pinagrealan Cave sign. And the road is very bumpy, so you should enjoy the mini-trek! I swear, it’ll be worth it.
After walking 270 meters (in rough estimation of course) you will see some cottages and the locals will approach you. You should talk to them because, they will be your tour guides!) We registered our names first, before going any further. Here’s the thing, tourists have to rent for a helmet and a flashlight, but it’s only 50 pesos each. Yes, it’s required unless you don’t want to get out of that cave. (Sorry, bad joke.) And it’s your choice if you will pay the tour guide or give him some tip. (That’s what he told us!)
Anyway, we didn’t have to pay right away, and the guide asked us to leave our gadgets, money and other belongings to their quarters. (Our stuff were totally safe!)
Note: If ever you’re planning to bring your cellphone with you, make sure that you’re tall enough or a person who can hold their arms up for a long time. Because, yes, you’re going to dip into a waist-high water.
I thought caves were warm, since there’s a very few holes for ventilation. But of course, Mother Nature has her own way of making things work. By the entrance of the cave, you can definitely feel the cold rush of air coming from the cave. We even joked that maybe they installed some split-type aircondition inside? Who am I kidding?
Well, once you enter, there’s no turning back. Not that the entrance of the cave closes, but you’re already there, you should go ahead and have some fun!
The first thing we noticed were the cute little baby bats in their nests (tiny holes in the ‘ceiling’ of the cave) When we got there, no mature bats were in sight. We weren’t afraid because the baby bats were sleeping. Such cuties!
The next thing that we saw were the stalactites. So Science-y! Our guide told us that the crystals at the walls of the cave are formed due to the precipitation of minerals dripping down from the ceiling of the cave. It’s just so beautiful! If you’re going to look at it, it’s like the stars. Stars inside a cave. The way they sparkle everytime you shine your flashlight at them? Mesmerizing!
Just one big instruction though. They may be tempting to touch, but I would definitely not do that. According to our guide, these crystals are sensitive to human touch and they will turn black once you did. You wouldn’t want ruin such precious things, right?
The Pinagrealan Cave is about 1 kilometer, so while you go further and further, you’ll get to see a lot of weird but cool rock formations there. Here, let me show you some of them. Can you guess what they look like?
FACT: Pinagrealan cave became a National Heritage since it is indeed historical. It became a camp of Katipuneros during the Spanish Era, and it’s where our first President Emilio Aguinaldo hid during the Filipino-American War. (Source: bulacan.gov.ph)
According to our tour guide, Joshua, the said event was exactly where the cave got its name. Pinagrealan means ‘Pinagtaguan’ in Tagalog. This spot right here is the exact same spot where Emilio Aguinaldo hid.
There are some spots in the cave where at one look, we didn’t even notice that it has water in it, because the water is so clear that we can see everything beneath it. That’s why we need to be extra careful. One of the things that really made this journey fun is that it’s a one big auto tune machine! When you sing softly in there, you might sound better than any of today’s recording artists! My voice was like 1000x better than our actual voice outside.
By the end of the cave, you have a choice if you would like to swim or just rest for a little while. By the way, the water level at the end of the cave is more than seven (7) feet. So if you’re not really a good swimmer, you can just relax and find a spot where you can sit and rest.
Well I know that 1 kilometer going in and another 1 kilometer going out is tiring. But, the thing is, we did not feel any exhaustion at all! We weren’t even thirsty! Maybe because of the cold temperature and the presence of body of water, or maybe because we’re enjoying ourselves, but nevertheless, whatever the reason may be, it was totally worth it.
And of course, our young tour guide was very friendly and very smart. So yeah, we’ve been so generous when we paid him. As you can see, he was nice enough to take my camera from me and offered to be our official photographer. So way to go Joshua!
What’s the best part of this trip is that they have a shower room at their mini-resort (yes, they have a swimming pool there, 100 pesos per person but it’s only open until 5pm) and they let us rinse ourselves for free! See? It’s very nice to be in an activity like this. Hiking, swimming, having history lessons all in just one adventure.
So you see, Central Luzon has a lot to offer too, and we’re going to unlock every place that it has to offer. But I guess, we’ll raid the whole province of Bulacan first before the nearby provinces. This is just the beginning.
Itinerary: Grotto- Pinagrealan Cave
Starting Point: Farmer’s Mall Cubao
| Time: | Expenses: | |
| 8:00 am – 10:00 am | Ride a bus with a signboard S.Palay, Tungko, Rd. (Road) 1&2. | Student’s fare (Mon-Sat) : Ordinary bus – P35.00
Aircon Bus – P45.00 Regular Passenger : Ordinary – P40.00 Aircon – P55.00 |
| 10:00 am – 10:10 am | Arrival at Tungkong Mangga. Ride a jeepney with a signboard Grotto. | P 8.00 |
| 10:10 am – 12:00 nn | Walk around Grotto | |
| 12:00 nn – 12:45 pm | Lunch | P 150 |
| 12:45 pm- 1:15 pm | Ride a jeep in front of Grotto with a signboard BIGTE. | P 8.00 |
| 1:15 pm- 1:20pm | Ride a tricycle to Pinagrealan Cave | P10.00 |
| 1:20 pm- 1:30pm | Short trek to the entrance of the cave | |
| 1:30 pm – 3:30pm | Pinagrealan Cave | |
| 3:30-pm – 5:00 pm | Shower break | |
| 5:00 pm – 5:10pm | Trek Back | |
| 5:10 pm – 5:20 pm | Tricycle ride to Bigte | P10.00 |
| 5:20 pm – 5:45 pm | Jeepney ride to Tunkng Mangga | P13.00 |
| 5:45pm | Bus ride going back to Cubao | P 45.00 |
| OUR TOTAL EXPENSES PER PERSON | P 281.00 |
For more photos and videos that our team took on this trip, you can track our official hashtag #1daytripids on Instagram. If you guys also decided to go on these trips that we had, let us know by using the same hashtag. Thank you for reading!
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