We woke up real early that day to catch the first van going to the port. It was said to leave at 5 in the morning and the barge will be leaving at 6. There was a slight delay in the van but fortunately we were still able to catch the first barge. We were also lucky to catch the sunrise while at it.
We continued to our plan of going to Iligan to see two famous waterfalls before heading back to CDO airport for our flight home. We thought it would just be a quick and easy sidetrip but it ended up as the most exhilirating, butt-numbing, jam-packed 24 hours of my life. It started with a 1 hour barge ride, followed by a quick 5-minute pedicab, then a 3-hour ordinary bus ride going back to Agora bus terminal, CDO proper. I thought we will be able to find a bus there going to Iligan but nope, we still needed to ride a habal-habal to reach another bus terminal, Buru-un Terminal. Upon reaching the terminal, we quickly had a lunch there and rode a very nice bus bound for Iligan. It was a flat 2-hour journey. So now we're there but the Ma. Christina falls is still yet another bus ride away. We again hopped on a bus bound for Pagadian and begged asked the conductor to drop us at the waterfalls jump off point. We spent 7 hours and 35 minutes on the road for this:
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| Worth it! What a huge treat from mother nature! |
The giant falls powers a hydroelectric plant. The whole complex is called NPC - Nature's Park which includes a mini zoo, picnic spots, ziplines, walls for rock climbers and of course, the waterfalls. Entrance fee is 30 Pesos, plus 10 Pesos shuttle fee.
Upon exiting the gate, we saw an old man wearing a hard hat shoveling some sand as if he works as a laborer. We asked how to go to Tinago Falls. He smiled, put away his shovel and showed his motorcycle. He said he'll take us there and will wait for us to take us back to the Iligan terminal afterwards. Deal. Just like that, his hard hat was now used as a helmet, dual-purpose, umeextra si Kuya! Yes he's old but it doesn't mean he can't drive at crazy speeds. My goodness, my heart was racing the whole time! I have always been a calm and relaxed passenger all my life but this man's different! Really, I was in panic while he took every chance he gets to overtake and took sharp curves without ever slowing down. We reached our destination in no time. We hired two porters to guide us down the falls. It wasn't called "Tinago" falls for no reason, it was really well-hidden. My knees were still shaking from the driver's recklessness when we descended on the 365 steps of stairs towards the falls. Now my knees are twice the shaky. To tell the truth, I was an itty-bitty disappointed with this one. Not because it's not beautiful (God, it's majestic), but because I just somehow thought it would be quiet and peaceful where I can soak up all its beauty without the feeling of commercialism. Seeing numerous people wearing their rented bright orange life vests while paddling their rented rafts was a little bummer (I can be selfish at times, yes).
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| There are even more people outside the camera's frame. |
After yet another heart-pounding habal-habal ride, we reached Iligan terminal. The usual 2-hour bus ride was now getting longer and and longer due to unexpected traffic and I'm getting a bit nervous already. Computing the distance that we still had to take from Buru-un terminal to Lumbia airport, I'm afraid we might miss our flight. We took another habal-habal ride that will directly drive us to the airport and told him our check-in time. He was the same driver we had the morning (not the reckless one) and upon knowing we were on a tight time frame, he switched his crazy driving mode on and thanks to him, we didn't miss our flight.
We arrived at NAIA nearing 11pm. We asked around and knew buses bound to Pampanga will not yet start until 2am. Crazy. How will we spend those 3 hours now that we're dead tired? Sleep. Yes, I slept on the floor just like those people from the movies who sleeps in the airport. I did that. Except that they're from far countries and maybe have to wait for 12 hours layovers while I live on a nearby province and it's just 3 hours - damn so what, I was really tired.
We reached home at 5:30 in the morning, we spent 24 hours on land, water and air transports and that's without ever brushing our teeth and taking a bath. On my defense, our toothbrush was tucked deeply inside my backpack and I was too tired/lazy to get it and use it on public toilets. Gross? Yes. Fun? Totally.
