Whee, I get a day off from school today because Sir Ferdie cancelled today's Joseriz class. Heck, he'd better, after all we went through yesterday.

I met up with Leslie outside her village (coz she lives in Sta. Cecilia, the village next to ours) yesterday at 5:30 am, then we took a bus to school, where the tourist bus was already waiting with most of our classmates, Sir Ferdie and Miss Jen. We left at around 7, because we were still waiting for a couple of classmates, but then ended up leaving them.

We had a stopover somewhere in Alabang, and thank goodness someone called up Hans. He managed to catch up with us there. Then we were off to Quezon to Banahaw.

We got there at around 9:30, and the bus parked at this lonely gas station. When we got out of the bus, the weather was kinda cold and windy, and it looked like it might rain. Heck, it was raining a bit when we got there. Our first stop was right across the street. Suprema de la Iglesia del Ciudad Mystica de Dios. Hahaha, a couple of us managed to snap a few pictures of the entrance before one of the locals told us it wasn't allowed.



Off we went to the Rizalist church there. Since people were praying inside and Sir Ferdie was afraid we might make a lot of noise inside, he took us inside by groups of 10 to orient us about the Rizalists and their beliefs.

My golly, these Rizalists are pretty radical. Rizal is actually revered as their Christ. Huwaw.

It was already raining by then, and when all of us got to see the inside of the church, the rain continued to pour. We didn't have a choice, we had to walk in the rain. By the time we got to this clump of houses, we were all wet, and hungry. Thank goodness our lunches (oooh, binalot) were already distributed among us when we got off the bus. We sheltered ourselves under two of the houses and had lunch right there, without any tables. Heck, some of us were even standing while eating. "Survivor" talaga mga itsura namin.

Miss Jen then discussed with the class what to do next. Most of the guys wanted to continue on with the hike we had once planned on, but because it was raining, Miss Jen vetoed that idea because it could get pretty slippery. We couldn't even interview the Suprema for our group's report because she was unavailable. So what we did was wait for the 2 jeeps that would take us to this town called Kinabuhayan, where we could check out one of the caves there.


This one was taken from the front seat of the jeep we were riding to Kinabuhayan.


Leslie, Mary Ann and I squeezed ourselves into the jeep's front seat, hehehe.


Hahaha, I put my camera against the windshield when I took this pic. I was trying to get a good shot of the road and the other jeep where the other half of the class was in.


Once we got to Kinabuhayan, we were all still damp, and some of us needed to use the bathroom. We sat around for a while, then Sir Ferdie set us off again. Gah, the rain still wasn't letting up!!! It was so cold already, and we were happy enough just sitting (huddled up pa) in one of the parlor rooms to keep warm.


Three of my classmates huddled up together because of the cold rain. Heck, the whole time we were walking and travelling everywhere, it was raining, and we were all soaked to the bone.


I didn't really know where we were going then, I was just following everyone else. That's when I realized we were about to explore one of the caves. And because we weren't allowed to use flashlights, we all had to buy candles at one of the convenience stores. Then we went on walking. To my surprise, the path we were walking on became clumps of rocks! Being the accident-prine person that I am, I could see myself slipping and falling and tripping over all those. I kept my eye on every rock, sticking my feet into the spaces between them to keep myself from slipping on the rocks' surfaces. Halfway there, we stopped at a shed. We were told by Sir Ferdie and Miss Jen to leave our stuff with them. We were going to be led through the cave by two guides (one to lead us, and one behind the group). Miss Jen stayed with our things along with Mark (because his left arm was in a sling, he couldn't go into the caves because you need both hands inside) and returned to the rocks til we reached the cave. We had to climb up a little way first, then we lit our candles at the entrance.

All of us did a lot of standing around inside the mouth of the cave, all lined up single file with our candles, so Billy took this oppoturnity for picture-taking. Hahaha, I guess some of us were pretty stubborn when we were told that we weren't allowed to take any pictures. Then as the line inched forward, we realized that the whole path in the cave is so small that we all had to crounch down real low. Haha, we even joked that Hans would get stuck in the cave. Anyway, we all lowered ourselves down the cave one by one, alternating guys and girls, and crawled. There were some instances where we all have to sit and wait because the people ahead of us had to get through another hole, so during those times, we tried blowing each other's candles, nyahahaha. Thank goodness the smokers brought their lighters with them so we could relight our candles.

In one part of the path, we were warned that there was water as we climbed down. SPLASH! The water was until our thighs and ice cold! Bim was saying "Ohmygosh" the whole time as we waded on, still with our candles. By the time we had waded through the cave's exit, the rain raged on and the wind blew real hard. BRRRR!!! *shiver*


We survived! This a pic of our class after going through the cave


Bim and me, mukhang mga basang sisiw, hahahaha.


We went back to the town so some of us could buy some slippers, because our shoes were squishing because of all the murky water in the cave. Then we boarded our respective jeeps.


Half the class in our jeep, in need of showers.


We stopped over at this one house, so the ones who brought their stuff could shower and change there. Half of us decided to change at Mystica, near the bus, instead, because we were all gonna get wet on the way back anyway.

It felt good to change clothes, but most of us couldn't shower because we didn't bring enough stuff with us. Heck, we didn't expect it was gonna rain, anyway. So we hung around the bus for a while until the group who showered and dressed at the house arrived, then we finally left for home.

It felt pretty good to come home to a nice, hot bath at the end of the day.