Kawasan Falls Adventure

No San Miguel yet today, although two are chilling in the minifridge in the room for us when I complete this blog posting. Instead, we made the trip to Kawasan Falls, a point of interest and beauty in this area. About 10 am, we walked a bit down the road to where the motorcycle taxi drivers congregate as they await passengers. We announced that we wanted to go the Falls and several drivers stepped forward, so we just chose the one closest to us and agreed upon 700 pesos to take us, wait for us, and bring us back. The Falls are about 15 miles away, so our driver gassed up before we left the area. Yes, that is a one liter Coca-Cola bottle. He put three liters of gas in his motorcycle via the Coke bottles, not from a gas pump. And then off we went… a basically paved road to get the 4 km to Moalboal. The road from Moalboal to Kawasan Falls was all paved; however, in one location to slow vehicles before a bridge, they had installed rumble strips. Our driver slowed way down, but the strips were still quite the rumble. I couldn’t read what size engine the motorcycle had, but the driver had to downshift quite a bit to make it up some of the hills. Looking at the picture of the passenger compartment of our taxi, you’d think the seats were padded. You would be wrong. Other than the noise of the straining engine and the lack of padding, the ride was great – we could see and smell the countryside. The earthy smell of decomposing leaves (this farm girl loves that smell), the roasting meat as we passed roadside restaurants, the acrid smoke of burning piles of palm leaves.

Our driver turned into the parking area for Kawasan Falls and we paid his 50 peso parking fee. He stayed with his motorcycle taxi as we walked to the Falls. The walkway to the first waterfall was almost all like this, only more shaded in most areas. It had a slight incline but not enough to cause us any grief. About 5 minutes in, we came to the attendant where we paid our 10 peso per person entry fee. The river was immediately to our left for most of the walk, except where a bridge took us to the other side for about 500 yards. At both the bridges, kids were playing in the water. We would occasionally come across an occupied house, like the ones you see near this bridge. Most of the time, however, it was just the river, trees, and plants. The river isn’t particularly deep, nor is it rushing terribly fast. After about 20 minutes, we came to the first waterfall. Food vendors and tables for resting were next to the pool created by the waterfall, but it was still beautiful We liked that they had rafts for families to rent. The rafts would take the folks right under the waterfall. Is is unspoiled nature? No, but it was a wonderful place filled with the laughter of kids and families enjoying themselves. I think that it was more special because it is enjoyed by local folks, not just tourist types like us. This is the first of three waterfalls. We found the steps to go beyond this one, so we started up them. I must have found the only sunny spot to photograph, as those steps were generally shaded, moss-covered, and damp. This set took us to the top of the first waterfall. I stayed in a flat area while Phillip went over and took some great video looking down from the top of the waterfall. Caution signs and safety railings are not found in the Philippines. The steps leading further up the side of the mountain were more narrow and steeper, so we decided that seeing the first, biggest of the Kawasan Falls was sufficient. We turned around and walked back the way we had come. En route back, I took critter pictures. Almost all the houses we passed had some type of animal outside. A person was sitting on the porch of the house with a pig tied out, so I didn’t get a picture of him, but the goats and roosters were unattended. The rooster could get off his perch, but he seemed to enjoy sitting there, watching the people go by. And the trees… they just grow out of the side of the rock that is the mountain. These are tree roots that could not penetrate the rock, so they grew down on top of the rock. Smaller, feeder roots made their way into the rock fissures, but the bulk of the tree roots along the path were visible like this. A lot of ferns grew on rocks in the river. In the areas where the river pooled and didn’t flow fast, moss covered the submerged rocks.

Back at the entrance, our motorcycle taxi and driver were waiting for us. As soon as he saw us, our driver, who had been laying back on his motorcycle, jumped up and helped us back in the passenger compartment. Back on the road for the return trip. I think our driver would have talked to us, but his motorcycle was too loud for any of us to hear anything but the engine. I could say he was a safe driver and didn’t do crazy passing maneuvers like the van drivers did, but I think the reason he didn’t pass a lot of other vehicles is because his motorcycle needed a serious tune-up. We did pass some vehicles, mainly these on the right – bicycle taxis. We did go faster than the bicycle taxis. Our driver took us back to exactly where we had hired him and we walked back to our hotel. The first order of business upon our return was to have a mango shake. After that, we decided to go for a swim. The tide was going out (so were any jellyfish) and other people were getting in the water. We didn’t rent snorkels or  vests as the sand slopes gradually out and we just wanted to get wet. I took my underwater camera, but the battery died before we saw the school of small fish swim around us. I was able to capture a picture of the underwater plants. They tickled our legs, so we stayed pretty much in the sand-only areas.

I hope our San Miguels haven’t frozen as Phillip moved them to the freezer compartment! Tomorrow we head for Cebu to spend one night before we take the overnight boat to Samar. We arranged with our hotel here for a private car to take us to our hotel in Cebu, so no repeat of that last van experience.