PeÑablanca another Tourist spot

Crystal caving.  From the spacious caverns of Callao, we plunged into the more confining Sierra Cave.  There's a locked gate at the entrance for a good reason -- the cave's stalactites and stalagmites sparkle like gems when they're hit by light beams from our flashlights.  As Ted of the tourism office noted,  unlike Callao Cave which is considered "dead" with its chalk-like formations, the Sierra Cave is very much alive.  The water and minerals seeping through the ceiling are actively and painstakingly building the impressive stalactites and stalagmites, millimeter by millimeter.  The textures the minerals form range from what Ted describes as spiky "pretzels" to thin and wavy "bacon".

Stalactites form fancy shapes and texture like this "bacon"

Being in a cave like this can make one feel small in the grand scheme of creation -- how relatively short we humans have roamed the earth compared to caves that took millennia to grow.  Which leads me to my point -- closing the gates to deter thieves and tourists taking home souvenirs that took eons to build is indeed a very good idea.

Info: Callao and Sierra Caves can be reached via private and public transport; around an hour away from Tuguegarao City • Access to Sierra Cave is restricted; permission to enter and explore must first be secured from the DENR and Cagayan Valley Tourism Office .

If you took the Florida sleeper bus from Tuguegarao to Manila; Tuguegarao, the caving capital of the Philippines, can also be reached via air (travel time: less than one hour) • The Florida Bus overnight sleepers currently ply the Tuguegarao-Sampaloc, Manila route once a day at 9:15pm; Fare: P1,050; Travel time: 9 hours with no stopovers; Capacity: 32 passengers divided into upper and lower decks •