Subterranean River

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=120 BGCOLOR="#FFCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0443f781egdyul.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><B>Proclaim His Praise in the Islands - the Hallowells</B></FONT> <B> </B><B>|    </B><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Proclaim His Praise in the Islands the "><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=360 BGCOLOR="#CCFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Subterranean River</div> <div> We had a wonderful trip to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, May 19-24, 2005.  </div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="197f4010.jpg" border=0 width="500" height="257" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> It was a ministry trip.  We spent the overwhelming majority of our time with the teachers, staff, and administrators of Palawan Hope Christian School (above) and the leaders and members of the United Evangelical Church of Palawan, which meets at the school.  </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7014000990000.gif" HEIGHT="21" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Jay led an 8-hour workshop for the School on Spiritual Formation. </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7014000990000.gif" HEIGHT="21" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A teacher accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior at that workshop.  PTL! </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7014000990000.gif" HEIGHT="21" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Jay preached to the church on Sunday.  </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7014000990000.gif" HEIGHT="21" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Amor led a four hour workshop for the teachers on "Multiple Intelligences in Teaching" (below).</div> <div> <IMG SRC="18a1a2b0.jpg" border=0 width="282" height="299" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7014000990000.gif" HEIGHT="21" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">We spent HOURS with various individuals and groups of the church and school.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7014000990000.gif" HEIGHT="21" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">We followed-up, supervised, and encouraged James, a BSOP student assigned to the school and church for his summer practicum.  That was the major purpose of the trip.  </FONT>(See our <A HREF="id42_securityprivacy_policy.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Plans, purposes, policies, parameters, "><U>security policy</U></A> for why James' face is distorted above and below, while the monkey in the tree is not...) </div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="18868040.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="260" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park</div> <bR> <div> We did spend part of one day visiting the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park.  Puerto Princesa is about 350 nautical miles, according to the pilot of the Philippine Airline flight we took, SSW of Manila on the island of Palawan.  From the main part of the city we rode a van about 2.5 hours to a beach, where we boarded a motorized banca.  It was a beautiful, hot, clear day.  </div> <div> <IMG SRC="172f4580.jpg" border=0 width="500" height="344" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Neither Amor or I could see anything that looked like a cave, let alone a cave with a river over 8 kilometers long, 4.2 km of which is navigable by small boats.  </div> <div> <IMG SRC="173cc580.jpg" border=0 width="460" height="344" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> We landed at another small beach, part of which was a sand bar blocking/filtering the mouth of a small river.  Still no sign of a cave.  We walked a short distance from the beach to a landing on the river, where after a short wait we got into a banca (canoe with outriggers) powered by a boatman using a paddle.  We had earlier watched other people in other boats disappear into the cave mouth you can see in the photo below.  Of course some other boats had appeared from out of the dark.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="174f0570.jpg" border=0 width="496" height="343" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The cave is not lit at all.  Each boat carries a 12-volt car battery with a small handheld spotlight attached to it.  A passenger points the light various ways at the direction of the boatman, who doubles as a tour guide. We had our manual camera with us, with a flash.  Jay had a little trouble adjusting the focus and controls in the dark, but actually got some decent shots, though we will only put up a couple here.  There were many stalactite and stalagmites, many with names.  The boatman had a patter of jokes to go with the names.  The one below had several names, most of which we forgot.  The one we remember is the Ear of Corn (unshucked of course).</div> <div> <IMG SRC="175ea580.jpg" border=0 width="490" height="344" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Not a particularly great shot, but it gives an idea of the size of parts of the cave and what meeting another boat looked like.  In one part of the cave where we were the only boat we turned off the spotlight to experience total darkness.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="176f7580.jpg" border=0 width="503" height="344" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Much too quickly, our tour of the cave ended, after about 45 minutes.  So, it was time to enjoy a picnic at a nearby picnic area in the park.  One feature of the park is wild monkeys and lizards.  While we were instructed not to feed the wild animals, the wild animals were not so instructed.  The monkeys in particular could snatch unguarded food very, very quickly.  The lizards are scavengers, looking for what might have been dropped.  It was a beautiful day and we had a nice lunch (fried chicken).  We did our best to keep the monkeys and lizards wild and forced to eat their natural food.  We kept our guard up and lost nothing to the animals.  </div> <div> <IMG SRC="17700fd0.jpg" border=0 width="256" height="253" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="178610e0.jpg" border=0 width="353" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> There was a wild monkey in the tree above Jay's left shoulder when Jay posed.  It was shy and got out of the photo just before the shutter clicked.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="179f36c0.jpg" border=0 width="243" height="364" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> We then took the motorized banca back to the previous beach.  Took a swim on the beautiful white sand.  Then we visited a museum about the geology of the place and about the tribes that still live there.  Then the long trip on rough roads back to the main part of the city.</div> <bR> <div> It was a wonderful day, well worth the time and expense.  We really enjoyed our visit to Puerto Princesa, Palawan.  Palawan is working hard to preserve its natural beauty and to develop ecotourism, a bit like Costa Rica.  God is doing some wonderful things at the church and school through some gifted brothers and sisters in the Lord.  We pray that He will continue to be at work there.  We saw just enough of both beauty and ministry that we hope we can return for a longer visit at another time.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div> by Jay and Amor Hallowell</div> <div> Last update: May 31, 2005</div> <div> --------------------------------- end of Hallowell content ----------------------------------------------</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>