Chasing waves, waterfalls, and self flogging Catholic boys

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Seeing the traffic at 1AM made me want to head back home. It was pure chaos when I arrived at the bus station where my friends and I were to take the bus to Aurora, our chosen destination for this holy week. I had no idea that the bus stations were gonna be that busy on holy week! We waited in line for 3 hours before we got on the bus. It was crazy. We were carrying huge backpacks. At 3AM I was no longer lucid. Then finally after three long hours, we got on the bus. I immediately slept. Woke up at about 10AM before the stopover. The ride to Aurora showed me interesting landscapes. One that I particularly liked was the forest with leafless trees. It reminded me of N'Syncs music video for This I Promise You. Filipinos love ballads and that song was number one for at least two months in major pop radio stations when I was a teenager.

Buses that travel long distance stop at big stations where there food and stuff. The stopover that I woke up to however looked like a tiny village of six little wooden houses that were ten square meters small. I did't bother to get off the bus. We arrived after 10 hours, instead of eight. I don't know why it took that long. It must have been the traffic which I did not see because I was asleep.

We started our tour after lunch. First stop was the biggest tree in the Philippines, or so they say. It's a Balete tree which is said to be 600 years old. You can go inside the tree where youd find something that looks like a tunnel. Balete trees are considered mystical in the Philippines. People believe fairies and other mythical creatures live there. I felt like I was in the movie Avatar and that tree was that tree where those glow in the dark flowers come from. You can climb the tree but I decided against it because I was afraid my camera would fall. There were no safety equipments. But I did see several kids go up the tree. It would have been fun to grow up there I'm sure. It was really tall with rooms and tunnels and yet you can climb despite its height.

Baler Museum was our next stop. There were a few antiques there and a stuffed Philippine Eagle which I thought were only found in Mindanao. It was mostly just paintings. Not too interesting for me. The park where the museum is located is nice but nothing special. Not far from the park is the ancestral house of Maria Aurora Quezon. The Philippine first lady after whom the province was named. Don't bother going to that house. There were some antiques and books and, just don't bother!

After that hoax of an ancestral house we went to Ermita hill. It's a park with a big cross on top of it in a small clearing. You can't see the view from the top though because the trees block the view. There are viewing decks however where you can watch the sunset on Sabang beach. That is THE place to watch sunsets in Baler.

The following day we went surfing. Twas my third time, Laura's second and Don's first. We all took one hour lessons then did it by ourselves. Surfing is easier there that in La Union. The waves were a lot smaller and you'll have more waiting time to catch the next wave unlike in La Union where the waves come every five seconds. We surfed at Sabang beach, the one for beginners. Experienced surfers go to Cemento beach. I was told that it's a coral reef though so that got us scared. I think it would hurt to crash into corals.

In the afternoon we went to Ditumabo falls. You have to trek for about 30 minutes to get to the falls. Some local boys doing what we call "penitencia" were walking down the road. They were self flogging. They were hitting themselves on the back with a whip of nails or something until they bleed. I've seen some that just carry a cross. But this is the first time that I've actually seen people whipping themselves raw. What kind of parent's would allow their kids to do this? I'm sorry I know I'm not in the position to ask this question since I'm not a Catholic. Some even go as far as having themselves nailed on the cross. That, I do not want to see. I'm not a Catholic so I can't really explain what it is about. Anyway, water falls are always pretty, no matter how small. This one is big though and we had lots of fun swimming. I loved feeling the mist on my face. I had cramps after an hour or so because the water was cold.

Gerry Shan's is the restaurant featured in most blogs that I read. They offer eat all you can buffet for only 185 pesos. And then we discovered Carlito's Inn where the buffet only costs P100! We're vegetarians and they offer the same vegetarian food that Gerry Shans offers. There were lots of meat too but of course we didn't care about those.

Saturday we drove up to the mountains to visit a little church in Dimani. It was the poorest Seventh Day Adventist church I've ever visited. They did't have electricity. There were indigenous people there called Alta but I didn't explore enough to see them. Theres one American retiree who lives there. Odd place to retire but to each his own.

Some local kids that we met in church on friday night invited us to go on a hike with them on Sunday. So hike we did. We fetched our guide at the foot of the mountain. He didn't look very lucid. The hike was easy at first until we got to the last third part of the hike. There was a cave with lots of bats that the guide showed us but it goes straight down like a hole that leads to the center of the earth. It didn't smell so nice so we spent three to five seconds looking down that black hole.

The summit of Mt. Minoli has not been cleared of trees unlike most mountains that hikers climb. So there was no view at the top. There were those huge red mountain ants from hell and I got bit twice. It hurt like a bitch I would have screamed and cursed had I not been in the company of those nice people from church. Jonathan Macatiag was one of those nice kids. He recently graduated from college where he studied Medical technology. I asked if he passed the board exam and he said he did. Later one of the other kids told he placed fourth in the national board exam. I was very impressed that he did't feel the need to brag about it. Contrary to my belief that small town kid's are not as smart as the city kids like myself. I'm sorry but I can't help but think that! We got lost on our way down. The "guide" was looking for a shortcut and took us down to the cliff where there was no trail. It did't look like people could go down the mountain that way. We had to hold on to the bushes and roots of trees so we wont fall down the cliff. I was so scared! I almost fell because the ground was slippery. Good thing I fell on a rock that stopped my fall. I still have bruises from that fall. We walked through a trail that was so narrow and you'd fall down the cliff on either side.

We missed our bus that afternoon because we got lost in the woods so I had to wait till evening to catch a shared van to Cabanatuan where I'd catch a bus to Manila. Slept for three hours when I got home and then headed straight to work.

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Photos

Collision
the girl almost drowned coz she was stuck under the Kayak after this

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

A fondness for the Philippinies
We fell in love with the Philippines last year when we traveled there. The people are kind, the food is good and there is so much to see. Looks like you had a great time. Liked the collision photo.

[Josevich]

Thanks!
Yeah I read your blog. Im glad you had fun and wrote good things about the Phils!