#savePAWUD #preservePAWUD
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| The mouth of Pawud Cave |
Lapu-Lapu is a first class highly
urbanized city in the province of Cebu. Populated by more than 300,000 people,
who would have thought that this busy urban still has a hidden precious natural
resource. Well it is not really hidden since the place is just lying on the
side of a national highway. This natural resource has a cave, a spring and an
underwater cave system ideal for cave divers known by the locals as PAWUD.
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| kids enjoying the cold spring |
PAWUD can be found in Sitio Malinao, Agus, Lapu-Lapu City. The
sitio’s name itself is inspired from PAWUD Cave’s crystal clear blue water.
Occasionally, cave divers visit this place for some cave diving adventure. The
underwater cave is just right deep under the “PAWUD spring” in which the trail
will bring you to a deep well far from where the PAWUD is.
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| Crocodile Ceiling Unusual rock formations of the cave |
The sad part is that the place is
starting to deteriorate. Yes, you can still appreciate the beauty of PAWUD you can even take a long dip
inside the cave and on the spring but the pollution is also there. We do not
know if the government is doing something to preserve the magnificence of PAWUD but with its situation when we
went there, we can judge that it was never taken good care with all the
plastics and styro foams floating everywhere. The worst part is, the cave
smells like human piss and dung, not surprisingly, we saw human dungs in some
parts of the place.
The pollution in PAWUD can still be controlled knowing
that it has not yet affected the quality of the water that much. Seeing all
schools of fish, fresh/salt water crabs, fresh water shells, sea cockroaches indicating that the
water is still alive. The water of PAWUD
is combined with fresh water from the ground and sea water from the sea few
meters across with it. But if you will try to taste the water, the cave's water is saltier compared to the spring which has more of almost neutral taste. We have also observed that the cave’s water is
clearer and blue compared to the spring which is blue green. The color may
differ because of the deepness of the water since the spring has a deeper
depth, but nevertheless, pollution is starting to affect the water’s quality
and will kill the whole place one day if preservation will never be made.
It is believed that there are several
springs in Lapu-Lapu way back the old
times but PAWUD is the only spring
that have survived the infrastructural advancements of Lapu-Lapu. It is also
believed that some springs got ran out of water when the springs and deep wells
can no longer supply the water needs of over hundreds of thousands of Oponganons.
HOW TO GET THERE?
From Central Cebu,
Public Utility
Jeepneys
Ayala Terminal
Take a jeepney going to the HI-WAY, when you
have reached the HI-WAY, there are two places where you can stop. You may tell
the driver to take you to CALTEX/SAN MIGUEL or to CHOWKING/THREE SIXTY. Both
places offers you another route going to SO-ONG/MEPZA, take that multicab and
tell the driver to take you to AGUS,MALINAO.
SM CEBU
Across SM CEBU is SUNGOLD, go to
there and take 01K going to Parkmall/CDU. Multicabs with SO-ONG/MEPZA routes
will pass thru Parkmall Terminal and Cebu Doctors University.
Public Utility Vans
Both Ayala and SM Cebu offers Van
for Hire, take the one going to GAISANO ISLAND MALL, fare is only around 25-30
pesos. When you get to GAISANO, take a multicab going to SO-ONG/MEPZA and
inform the driver that you’ll go to AGUS/MALINAO.
Note:
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You do not need to worry getting lost since the
spring is just at the right side of the national high way.
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Not all So-ong/MEPZA multicabs will go to
AGUS/MALINAO so make sure to ask the driver if he will go there.
-
If you happen to take a ride that will not reach
to AGUS, you may wait for another multicab across MACTAN NEWTOWN.
Project #savePAWUD and #preservePAWUD
The
main reason why I wrote this blog is not just to promote the place but also to
encourage everyone to help our group with our aim of preserving and saving
PAWUD from extinction. If you have plans to go there and take photos. Please do
include hashtags #savePAWUD and
#preservePAWUD in your
photos, whether it is a watermark, a whiteboard/bondpaper fansign,
a facebook
album title, photo description or facebook/Instagram
status.
LET US SAVE AND PRESERVE PAWUD FROM
EXTINCTION.
photos by: Alfe Marie Latras and Sexie Chan
