Angono Petroglyphs, Rizal, Philippines

Back in Manila and knowing how boring big cities can be from time to time the majority (i.e. my person) decided to get some fresh air and visit a petroglyph site along the trip. So off we went to the small town of Angono where the rock shelter covered by petroglyphs is situated. With 235 masl we had a lovely view over the bay and Manila City.

To get to the rock shelter of Angono we had to walk through puddles of water full of tadpoles

and slippery ground until we reached a not so inviting dark tunnel

but at the end of the tunnel we found ...a small museum that exhibited some finds from the excavation in front of the rock shelter

The 63 m long rock shelter is just next to the museum

From the finds of this excavationthe petroglyphs can be roughly dated to the Neolithic, which in the Philippines was somewhere between 6000 and 2000 BC.

But so close to the jungle there were not only rock carvings but also all kind of creepy-crawlies like poisoneous millipedes

not to mention this poisonous dahong palay! The name is Tagalog and means rice leaf and is the local name of the so-called vine snake (Ahaetulla prasina)

(but I have to tell you in secret it is only mildly venomous and not really a threat to humans)

Thank god all the creepy-crawlies were kept in check by their biggest enemy, the cat

The very friendly staff at the museum told me they are very good in hunting down snakes. This one here will one day become a famous snake hunter; it was already very good in hunting fingers.

If you want to know more about the cats petroglyphs you can read more on my other blog here in English and here in German.