Baler: Gord's Visit

October 2013


My officemates and I had been to Baler twice and in those visits, we'd never been to places that tourists usually come to see. I missed to experience Mother Falls and Aniao islet during our first trip. When I came back with same group of people, I missed the Aniao islet. So I said, I would go back and make sure not to miss Aniao islet. (Note: To read the blog about my second trip in Baler, please click here)


When my boy friend, Gord, booked his trip to Philippines this October, I asked him if he's interested in water falls. I thought of bringing him to Baler to try things, plus I also wanted to get to Aniao islet. When he agreed on including waterfalls in his itinerary, I was very happy and I know he would like it there :)


Day 1 

Baler is a municipality or town of Aurora, a province that's located about 200+ kilometers northeast of Manila. The town is reachable by bus or private vehicle. Genesis Bus is the only bus company as of date that operates regularly, transporting passengers from Manila to Baler and vice versa. As I know that buses here have no comfortable seats, I worried Gord may not like to travel. But thanks to God, my boyfriend knows exactly what to expect :) . I guess he could not forget his first bus experience on his first visit when I brought him to Caramoan :)

Well, being on a bus for almost 8 hours isn't fun at all but my boyfriend seemed to enjoy the views of mountains and rice fields on our way to Baler :)

We left Manila at around 4 in the morning on the 9th of October and reached our destination at 2 o'clock PM that same day. It was a very long bus trip, not to mention a very tiring one too. But seeing the beach the moment we got settled at the hotel, such long bus ride was all worth it.

Nice view from hotel restaurant. Photo credits to Gord :)

After resting for a while, we tried surfing. It was Gord's first time to do surfing while it was my first without an instructor's supervision. I tried surfing before with an instructor so the whole surfing thing was easy. Now that it's just me and Gord doing it, we both could not even stand on the board hehehe. Also, waves were not friendly to us. Just before we could even breathe and get ready for another attempt to surf, another big wave would come in and push us to the shore. Then, just before we could even stand up on our feet and position the surf board back to deeper portion of the water, another big wave would hit us until we found ourselves rolling underwater. That was just crazy!

So we were not successful with surfing but we had so much fun with the water. That's for sure. :)



Day 2


It was so nice to have a balcony by the bay and have the best view of the ocean. That's how we began our second day in Baler.

After breakfast, our tour guide Hadjie fetched us at the hotel. Our first activity for the day was a trek to Ditumabo Water Falls.


We boarded on a motorized cab or what we call a tricycle. The tour started with a swift driving by the highway, until we turned left before Ditumabo bridge. I had been to that place so I'm aware of the rough road ahead of us.

Rocky Road

Oppps, the tricycle needed some air

Gord with the tour guide, Hadjie

After few minutes of tricycle drive, we reached the jump off point and the actual trek began.

And then the waterfalls :)

Gord's enjoying the water despite its freezing coldness

It was another experience for me and Gord together. Every single moment was very precious, and there is nothing better than spend every second with someone most special.

On our way back, Gord didn't miss to see the turbines that convert water to electricity. I didn't know such thing but my boyfriend does. So one fact I learned is, the people are getting their electricity from the water falls. Then, I remember some folks in my hometown talking about water falls in some municipalities which I can't remember so I wonder if our electricity also comes from water falls. Maybe. Maybe not.

Next stop was to see the millennium Balete tree which is said to be 600 years old.

On the way to Maria Aurora

This is it. Photo by Gord

Inside the tree

I remember when I first visited the place with my officemates. We climbed this tree and that was an awesome experience. To read Marion Erika's blog for that trip, you may click here and to view some photos from that climb, you may also see them here: Climb_Balete Tree


From Balete tree, we looked for a place where we could eat. It was past the hour of 12 in the afternoon and we were hungry. Hadjie, our tour guide, brought us to an eat-all-you can restaurant. After lunch, we were supposed to go to Aniao islet however, the weather was not good anymore. It started to rain. Hence, we decided to stop by the museum then back to the hotel and end of the tour. We were tired by the time we reached the hotel. While we were at the hotel restaurant for an early dinner, a friend from work, Ramon, messaged me on facebook with a link to local weather website saying that typhoon Santi was going to hit Baler. We checked the website and it didn't look good. I mean, typhoon was coming. Gord and I decided to check out the hotel the earliest we could and go back to Manila the very next day. I checked the website for Genesis Bus but it looks like the information in the site was not updated because Baler-Pasay bus does not leave every after an hour. We missed the first trip at 5:00AM and next trip was 7:30AM but left at past 8 in the morning. Anyway, we're thankful to God because we were safe back to Manila. We missed the typhoon.


Next stop would be my hometown.



Cristina aka Clue
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila
Philippines

A Trek to Ditumabo Mother Falls

This is Ditumabo Mother Falls, the loveliest water falls I have ever seen! In this travelogue, I'm going to share with you an experience I won't ever forget my whole life, something that's so extraordinary, something I thought would never happen.

If anyone talks about Baler, mother falls will surely be brought on the table. It's one of the tourist destinations in town but geographically, it is not situated in Baler but in its neighboring municipality, San Luis, specifically in Barangay Ditumabo. That's what we missed to visit during our first trip to Baler last year. And when we had this trip again, I said I wouldn't miss it again! I shouldn't! So after surfing, we got ready for the tour.



There are tricycle tour service available and the rate varies depending on destinations. Whole day tour costs 800 pesos per tricycle for a maximum of 4 people. As we just wanted to visit Mother Falls and Aniao Islet, we negotiated for a cheaper rate and got 400 peso - deal for the entire tour. That's not costly I guess because we're a group of 5 and if we were to divide the cost, it's cheap. We hired 2 tricycles: one for me and Maecel and another one for Teacher Dyen, Marion and Ellables.

Tricycle tour drivers are available anywhere in town so it is very easy to engage their service. One just needs to learn how to negotiate for the price with the driver in order to get a much cheaper rate.

From Baler, the tricycle took us to San Luis. It started with a fun ride along the highway. Everything went on smoothly, and the panoramic beauty of rice fields and mountains that we saw along the way, oh wow! they were so lovely to look at. I couldn't stop myself from taking photos of them.

I know trips are mostly not smooth sailing. We're going to water falls so I expect to pass some rough roads, just like in Caunayan Falls in San Luis. When we turned left, just before reaching Ditumabo bridge, the unexpected ride truly began. As to what made it "unexpected", I'll tell you later. As we're taking some craggy route, the driver asked us to have someone to occupy the back seat for a good balance. Maecel did the back ride then.

Road was getting more rough and flinty as we were advancing. I was seated inside the tricycle and it was so bumpy and shaky inside. I needed to really struggle against possibility of getting injury. I could bump my head at the ceiling or anywhere sideways at any point in time.


After less than hundred meters drive, the tricycle could no longer get through the rockies. The driver asked me and Maecel to just walk until we reached the portion where he thought his tricycle could carry on. This is one of the "unexpected". Being asked to walk gave me a little idea that there should be something strenuous along the way. 

Our tour guide, Owel.

Several minutes more and we finally reached the jump off point. We're not in the water falls yet but the place had fascinated me already.

I read several blogs about Ditumabo Mother Falls and none of them mentioned about river crossing or described the trail at least. Hence, I did expect an easy one. I was with friends, Ella and Dyen, who'd never been to hiking, so it wasn't a good idea to drag them to an activity they have never prepared.


Our trek started with crossing a bridge that's made of old bamboos and woods. At first I was in doubt if the bridge could hold standing with me walking on it. I'm heavy and I was afraid it would break, but nah! It could carry up to 20 people, I guess  :)

First Bridge

When we crossed the bridge, we headed to a hut or "bahay kubo" as we call it for registration. There is no fee required but the management was asking for a donation, and that's all. While Ella was busy writing down our names in the log book, I looked around and noticed a boy holding fishes skewed with a stick-like tie. He said he got it from the river. Oh wow! I was fascinated, not because it was my first time to hear such but because I realized we still have clean fresh waters in Philippines where fishes can live and be eaten by people. Then a thought came in, we're in province and not in Manila Bay. :D

Me and the boy who caught fish in the river

Prior to the actual trek, we all had no idea what kind of trail we're going to traverse, how long would it take. Like I said, I didn't read any description about it aside from a 30-minute walk according to one blog. We'd been to Caunayan, a nearby water falls in San Luis and it was an easy trip. I was expecting the same. And, yeah, it looked easy.

I thought the trail would continue to be straight forward and easy until we reach the water falls. I was wrong and was too early to judge. Just right after we crossed the second bridge, the trail was gradually becoming arduous. There were portions in the trail where we had to walk along the river with rocks that were very slippery. And we're not prepared for this. We didn't wear trekking shoes, we're on our slippers. We were not in hiking suit. I was wearing shorts while others were on skirts or dress. We didn't even bring a trail water or food because we thought it was just a 30-minutes trek. Whoever that blogger who said it, he or she must be a runner or a hard core hiker :)  So this is another "unexpected".

Branched Water Falls

Then, few more walk after traversing portions of the river, I thought we're in the water falls already but, nah! We're still not yet there hehe I didn't know how much farther we had to walk in order to get there. I was getting tired little by little and was thirsty. Anyhow, we must proceed. I heard our guide saying we're almost near but "how near would that be?"  I couldn't wait to see the water falls. If only I could run to get to see it fast, I've done it :) and that's the impatient side of me hehe

And after that exhausting, long walk, undoubtedly we're getting closer. Seeing those waters flowing from an elevated formation, I knew we're close, and that feeling of excitement ruled over me. I wanted to walk a bit fast to finally meet the water falls but the view of the running waters captivated me. I couldn't resist the temptation of taking photos of the place.

When I had enough photos, I continued walking until I reached the water falls' base. The moment I laid my eyes on it, I couldn't help but be more vocal of how amazed I'd been. Mother water falls is beyond gorgeous. It's very spectacular. Just imagine how fantastic our creator has been for ever thinking of making those natural water passageways in the forest and mountains to create such wonderful waterfalls. It's truly amazing. All the hardships I got along the way, they were all paid off by seeing what I had returned for in Baler! It sounds corny but it was like a dream come true moment for me so I must have my own picture taken, making it as my background cover :D

My water falls experience would never be complete without swimming on it. So I did swim, and as expected, the water was so cold. It felt as if I was swimming inside a cooler or underneath glacier. I wanted to get closer to the portion where the actual water drops fell but the current was so strong and it kept pushing me away from it. One of our tour guides, Hadjie, was with me swimming. He tried his best to get closer too but he couldn't. Then he mentioned about jumping off from the edge closer to the water falls. He said his previous guests took the challenge and he asked me if I would like to do it. It sounded thrilling so I said yes. Facing toward mossy rocks, we managed to get to the closest side of the falls and we jumped to the water. That was another "new experience" for me, something I had never expected. I had dreamed of jumping from the top of water falls downwards but haven't done it so far, and what I just did was almost similar to what I have in my bucketlist. That was terribly mind-blowing! It's so fulfilling!

This whole trek experience is one of a kind, one of the trips I won't forget that easy. This tested my patience in the trail and allowed me to jump at least on its approximately closest spot I could go near. What I like the most is the fact that this trip showed me how wild God's imagination was to ever think of creating water falls that are so stunning and gorgeous. And I'm so blessed to ever get the chance to see it with my barely naked eyes. It's a gift, a very rare gift for someone who spends most of the time in the city.


Clue
August 11, 2013
Mondragon