The Caves and Monkeys of Hindang, Leyte

Hindang is a town in the province of Leyte after Hilongos if you are going from Maasin City to Baybay City. Located in Brgy, Buntok is a lesser known awesome caves inhabited with wild monkeys called Hindang Caves Park. Here, you can find several caves but the more prominent ones are the Cathedral, Pandong Bato and Pandayan Caves. It was said that these caves served as refuge for the guerillas during WWII and survived heavy bombardment by the Japanese. However, it’s sad to see that there were a lot of vandals on the walls. It’s funny that someone wrote a swastika on it. Maybe his intention was to promote good fortune and well being but I wondered if he knew Adolf Hitler. 😀

When you begin your ascend to the caves, expect to be greeted by the inhabitants in the area: the wild monkeys. The caretaker informed us that there were about more or less 100 monkeys reside in the area. However, most of them became spoiled and expecting to be fed with bananas by the visitors. So if you are planning to visit the caves soon, don’t forget to bring bananas and be mindful with your belongings. You don’t want your smartphone to be snatched by a monkey lurking on the trees. 😉

Once you’re at the top, you will be greeted with a panoramic view of Canigao Channel. And if you don’t want to go down on foot, you can ride the zipline  for only P180.00. It will take you down in less than a minute.