|
Time Out for Adventure
in the Philippines
Every day of the year, small boys astride massive buffalo wave wildly as
tourist buses laden with ‘dry innocents’ speed southeast of Manila on a 2-hour
journey to Pagsanjan Falls.
Laughing among themselves, the children know that before long all the foreigners
onboard the bus will be ‘wet adventurers’ having been properly initiated at one
of the most popular natural attractions in the Philippines.
The ‘transition’ from dry to wet takes place during a thrill-packed excursion
that includes a watery interlude at the falls and two brief but interesting stops along
the way.
The first stop is at Las Pinas (on the outskirts of Manila) for a view of the
world’s only bamboo organ. Constructed by the Catholic priest, Father Diego Cerra in
1816, the organ inside Las Pinas Church took eight years to complete.
Standing over five metres high and containing 822 bamboo pipes and 122 of metal this
musical oddity is still in working order thanks to a thorough overhaul some 25 years ago.
For a tangible memento of this unusual attraction buy a record or cassette tape of bamboo
organ music from the vendor in front of the church.
Hardly have daytrippers had time to settle back in their seats from a visit to the
church before most tours stop again at the Sarao Jeepney Factory, just 3 km away on the
main street.
Here, amid the near constant clanging and banging of hammers on aluminum, visitors are
given the finer points about how to hand craft a motor vehicle a la Filipino style.
Capable of carrying 10 – 12 passengers on two side-mounted bench seats and
embellished with numerous ornaments including tassels, fringes and statues, jeepneys are
designed for short journeys in the many cities, towns and villages of the Philippines.
Feel fortunate that your tour past rice paddies and coconut plantations to Pagsanjan
Falls is in the comfort of a spacious coach!
Towards the end of the second hour after leaving Metro Manila, coaches motor past the
last field and plantation and arrive at the town of Pagsanjan, a well-established resort
just over 100 km from the capital. The name is derived from sanga or branch, as the
town is situated at the fork of two rivers.
After thrill-seekers have used facilities at the Pagsanjan Rapids Hotel or a similar
transit point to change into a bathing suit or waterproof attire (bring along a towel from
your hotel room) they walk down the hillside to board brightly painted bancas or
canoes manned by two experienced boatmen.
These veterans push their crafts out to deeper waters, hop onboard and slowly paddle
down the lazy brown stillness of the Pagsanjan River and around the corner where
conditions abruptly change. Here the first rapids are encountered.
Using short, snub-nosed paddles the boatmen push, pull and shove their flimsy canoes
over 11 rapids. The navigator at the end of each boat shouts out instructions to the
pilots in the front of the boat. They, in turn, swing left or right, their legs acting
like the blade of a rudder.
Usually the vessel misses obstacles. When it doesn’t the crunch of wood against
stone grates in the ears of the two passengers in each banca.
When the water is low or when the boatmen come to a narrow squeeze between rocks and
boulders they jump out and physically lift the small boat over the rapids.
If passengers have dined on two many Filipino specialties like asado (smoked meat
served with sour papaya strips) or pork adobo (baked pork prepared with coconut milk,
garlic and pepper corns served with rice) they could well be encouraged to step out of the
canoe and temporarily lighten the upriver struggle!
Before coming to the two waterfalls, the real destinations of the trip, the banca
slides between the sides of a picturesque gorge.
Curtains of rare orchids and blooming begonias hang from the cliff’s 100 metre
high walls. Dozens of small waterfalls cascade past patches of moss and lichen in this
true botanical garden. The shower of spray nourishes the palms and dense vines that cover
the riverbank.
It’s quiet here; only the cries of monkeys and tropical birds break the sounds of
silence. Few want to go on because the setting is so exquisite but no one wants to miss
the jewel of the jungle just around the bend.
The now tired boatmen plod on to the first of the major waterfalls and then to the
second, a fitting wilderness terminus for the upriver segment of this unforgettable
excursion.
Wet adventurers disembarking at a small landing opposite the falls stand in awe as a
torrent of fresh clean water crashes before them into a deep lagoon.
Anyone not sufficiently baptised during the upriver excursion can opt for a ride on a
bamboo raft under … yes, under! … the 100 metre high watery wonder.
The most courageous grab hold of rope straps secured to the bobbing raft and stand as
thousands of litres of water per second try to push them down and off the slippery
bouncing platform.
Those managing to stay onboard will long remember the sensation of rafting under a
thunder of ice-cold water and into a cavern gouged from the towering cliff.
The return journey seems positively tame after such an experience but to the majority
of tourists who don’t opt for a skin-stimulating cold water shower it’s still a
real thrill to rocket back down the river facing imminent disaster at every encounter with
each stretch of turbulent white water.
While there is an element of danger faced in participating in such a popular excursion,
tour operators and guides really don’t give many travel tips to make the experience
safer and comfortable to novice adventurers.
They could well offer a bit more advice than just saying, "prepare to get wet so
take a change of clothes".
Perhaps the soundest suggestions I found came from perhaps what is the best guidebook
on the Republic: The Philippines: A Travel Survival Kit from Lonely Planet Publications.
This thoroughly researched book offers a number of valuable tips for the Pagsanjan
excursion which aren’t covered in other publications.
"Shooting the rapids is most exciting in August and September when the river is
high. Don’t hang on too tightly to the side of the boat … keep your hands inside
or you’ll risk crushed fingers. It’s a wet trip downstream so take a plastic bag
to protect your camera. Extra tips will, of course, be expected by the boatmen."
The detailed guidebook continues, "don’t go on weekends when the tourists are
there in major numbers; it’s like an anthill. If you stay overnight at Pagsanjan and
leave for the falls at dawn, you’ll be on the river long before the tourist hordes
arrive. As sunlight only reaches the deep valleys in the day, photographers will have
quite a bit of difficulty taking pictures in normal light."
To these hints and tips I would add: Leave wristwatches and other valuables stored in
your Manila hotel’s safety deposit box. Don’t leave any valuables in the coach
or with your good clothes temporarily kept by any hotel at Pagsanjan.
And last but not least make sure you spell my name right in
your last will and testament!
(22 January 2001)
Tell
a friend about this page |
