Pagsanjan Falls

This past weekend, my friend Kristy and I, got up early and drove to Pagsanjan Falls, about a 2.5 hour drive outside of Manila. We had heard of this place where you could get in a boat and paddle up to some waterfalls and go underneath of them. We had also thought it would be super cheesy, as things in the Philippines can be.

But we were very pleasantly surprised.

We started off at 6am and headed into unknown territory. You never know if the "directions" you have been given will truly get you to your destination, but alas, after only one stop at a gas station, we arrived at the place we were meant to. We prepared for the trip, hopped into a skinny canoe and were motorboated, paddled and even hauled up the river. I say hauled because the river was so low at times that there were literally poles wedged between rocks crossing the rapids. Our two guides had to hop along the rocks while pulling the boat and even lifted us up a few times, over the poles so we could continue upriver. Kristy and I giggled a lot over this.

Upon arriving at the midway point, we got out for some photos. Then we made the rest of our way upriver until we reached a thundering waterfall, at which time we saw people being roped along on a wooden raft to go underneath and enjoy getting drenched. We hadn't traveled all that way not to do it ourselves, so we left our stuff with the guides and set off. Sitting on top of the raft and listening to the roar getting louder and louder, safety did cross my mind, but I decided not to worry about it. After getting "slapped" with the pressure of the water, we made it to the other side and waited our turn to head back to the rocky shore. On our way back, the ropers had fun making us "wait" under the falls for a good couple of minutes before returning us to our canoes.

We enjoyed the tranquility of the float back and were thankful that we had gotten to Pagsanjan Falls before the gobs of tourists did.

All in all, it was one of the most enjoyable excursions I've been on in quite awhile. I loved being on the water, I loved getting soaked and I loved the scenery of the high cliffs on both sides of the river, the sounds of the birds and our easy-going guides. It was wise of Cory to stay home with Ace, and Kristy and I had a fun time doing something together that was not our norm.