Description of the attraction
Sokhoton National Park is located at the southern tip of Samar Island, the fourth largest island in the Philippine archipelago. The area of the park is about 840 hectares. You can get here from the town of Tacloban on Leyte Island - the road across the longest bridge in the country, San Juanico, will take only about half an hour. You can then rent a boat from Basie and get to the park in an hour.
Sokhoton National Park is a real paradise for lovers of virgin nature and breathtaking landscapes: among the lush rainforest, many limestone caves are hidden, many of which are not inferior in size to real cathedrals! Inside the caves, tourists will find a stunning sight - dozens of rock formations of the most incredible shapes and sizes. One of the most famous and well-studied is the Sokhoton Cave, the entrance to which is in the form of an arch up to 50 meters high. Immediately after the entrance, a gently sloping hall, about 20 meters wide and about 50 meters long, begins. Thorny stalactites hang from the ceiling, and stalagmites rush from the floor to meet them. At the farthest end of the cave there is an opening and a rock formation in the form of a balcony, from which a view of the reservoir lying below opens.
Other noteworthy caves in the park are Panhulugan I and Panhulugan II. The first has an interesting H-shape with internal halls up to 15 meters high and many tunnels. The second cave, dotted with snow-white stalactites, is 50 meters long and 5 meters high. Not far from the caves is Panhulugan Rock, which was ambushed by locals during the Philippine-American War.
The attraction of the park is the so-called "natural bridge" - a huge limestone arch connecting two mountain peaks on different banks of the Sokhoton River. The bridge is 7 meters high, the width of the bridge is 8 meters, and the length is about 40 meters. It is covered with forest from above, and giant stalactites hang from its lower part. The Sokhoton river itself is briskly running forward, breaking off with grandiose waterfalls.
