Fun Friday - C is for Carabao

It’s Fun Friday once again and this week’s topic is the letter C. For last week’s letter B topic, I incidentally choose an indomitable Filipino trait we called “Bayanihan.” So it would be apt to select a topic related to that: something Filipino.

Topics that came to mind were coconut, since the Philippines is one of the top producers of coconut in the world. Virtually every part of the coconut palm has some human uses and some Filipinos make a living by making and selling coconut-based products like tender coconut water, copra, coconut oil, coconut cake, coconut toddy, coconut shell-based products, coconut wood-based products.

But then another C that is actually a Philippine national symbol is the Carabao. It is a domesticated type of the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis carabanesis), which is considered as the country’s national animal. It is the farmer’s best friend as it does all the hard work in the fields being used for plowing and for pulling the cart to haul farm produce to the market. No wonder, the carabao is one of the most important animals in the country, especially in agriculture. This animal’s life span is 18 to 20 years and the female carabao can deliver one calf each year.



Another C that is a source of pride for Filipinos is the Calbiga Caves. The spectacular Calbiga caves in Samar, which is considered the biggest karst formation in the Philippines and one of the largest in Asia, have been featured in different travel shows. It is a system of 12 caves that covers an area of about 2,968 hectares. This is probably the largest cave in Southeast Asia, to think that most of it is still unexplored. There are numerous endangered species of bats living in the cave.














Photos courtesy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabao and www.neda8.evis.net.ph and
wwww.samar.lgu-ph.com