Clear river

Crossing clean and clear river going to Laktas Falls

Enjoying Abungan Falls

Natural Spa at Abungan Falls

Very nice Abungan Falls

Abungan falls

Abungan Falls

Yummy prawn

Double rainbow

Clear water behind the water falls

Nice jump, dive, whatever..... hehehe!

Very refreshing! Raffy, don't envy us!! hahaha!

Relaxing feeling in Laktas Falls

Going up in Laktas Falls

Enjoying the fresh water at Laktas Falls

Swimming like a child

Enjoying Laktas Falls

Laktas Falls

Slowly

Crawling

Slippery rocks

Walk to Laktas Falls

July 8, 2012

Aurora is just so beautiful.  And I hope we people will preserve her.  I respect the Sierra Madre so much.  The way I respect the Ifugao, the way I respect nature.  Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.

Honestly, I am almost ending my geotagging and blog writing.  Not that I don't want to share what I know about places, but I am scared that Vandals (people who picnic, then leave their garbage like plastics, etc) might disrespect (put garbage, etc) and destroy these beautiful places.  So please, people, be responsible and be cultured.  And guys, please tread lightly.

This time, there were only 3 of us.  Raffy didn't go with us.  We used Suzuki Jimny to tread lightly so we won't provoke anything / anyone.  Our meeting place was somewhere in Edsa, Balintawak at 0300 hours July 8, 2012.  Hit NLEX, SCTEX, Santa Rosa - Fort Magsaysay road, Laur, Gabaldon and finally Dingalan.  We reached Dingalan at 0600 hours July 8, 2012.  The road from Balintawak to Dingalan is very nicely paved.

When we reached Dingalan, we looked for a place to eat breakfast.  We then took the unpaved road that would lead us to Barangay Matawe.  Along this road was "talipapa" which sold fresh fish and prawns, so we bought some.  When we reached Barangay Matawe, no one served breakfast yet.  We were so hungry and we saw a crowd eating, so we said, wow that's it.  When we were approaching the crowd, they had this weird look at us.  Of course, our faces were unfamiliar, and of course it was obvious were not from their Barangay.  We then realized that the gathering was actually a wake..... it was embarrassing.  But Angelito (our friend) said, let's eat there for free.  I said no way!

We then drove to Barangay Ibona, and at last, there was a food place of Mang Putol (we called him that because he had his left forearm amputated).  We ate adobo and fish.  We even joked that, the adobo that we ate was actually Mang Putol's forearm.

We then drove Jimny to the trail to Barangay Abungan (4x4 only), lots of river crossing.  We drove in some parts of the river shifting from right side to left side of the river wherever the water is shallow.  (Sorry guys, no pictures of the river crossing, I was busy driving... next time will install GoPRO).  Our Jimny is just using 205 70 R15 without snorkel, without winch, so we had to be careful.  Some parts of the trail were narrow (Hilux will not / almost not fit there).  Some parts have slightly aggressive approach and departure angles slightly scratching the rear of Jimny during ascent and descent.  We made it to Barangay Abungan School adjacent Mang Johnny's house.  We parked our Jimny safely at Mang Johnny's house. Mang Johnny was our body guard that day, accompanied us to Abugan Falls and Laktas Falls.  The exact location of Mang Johnny's house can be seen in my Panoramio:

http://www.panoramio.com/user/4313883?comment_page=1&photo_page=1

You can ask him to accompany you.  He didn't ask us to pay him.  But we gave him 500 pesos for his services that time.

We then walked to Abugan Falls, 20 minute walk from Mang Johnny's house.  We bathed and enjoyed the beautiful, clean place.  The experience was just so awesome!  You may wonder, what was the difference between bathing in Ditumabo falls, Bulawan Falls, Bomod Ok Falls, etc.  For me, every place had different feel, I couldn't explain it in words.

I told Mang Johnny we had to go to Laktas Falls.  He said, walking or riding Jimny?  I said, walk, we needed to walk, we were all fat, needed exercise.  We then started walking, crossing crystal clear rivers.  The place is really beautiful!  The walk to Laktas Falls from Mang Johnny's house was approximately 40 minutes.

Big prawn

Kilometers that day July 8 2012

Cave near Dingalan white beach

Dingalan sea caves in Pacific Ocean

Boat ride near the caves

Nice blue water, relaxing place

Dingalan white beach

Dingalan white beach

Matawe tideland

Jimny in Matawe tideland

Laktas Falls

Laktas Falls

Laktas Falls is also very nice and clean!  It has a bigger pool for swimming.  We asked Johnny how deep the pool was.  He said he had no idea, so he jumped to the pool!  He then called us to jump, describing that the current wasn't strong and the pool was about 5 to 7 feet deep.  We jumped and enjoyed swimming. 

The feeling was like, we were in "time warp", it was like enjoying the moment away from our "responsibilities".  The place was really nice.  We were like kids jumping, swimming, laughing!  We stayed for almost 3 hours in Laktas water falls pool swimming and doing very gay poses for pictures.  By 1200 noon, we decided to go back to Mang Johnny's house.

We then drove to Matawe to eat lunch.  We ate Bicol express and drank 3 liters of coke!  We then drove to Matawe tideland.  But it was so hot and no one wanted to explore the tideland at 2 pm.  We ate ice cream while watching the waves at Matawe tideland. We then decided to drive to the port and rent a boat and see "White beach" and the "sea shore caves".  We just took pictures and decided to go home.  The boat ride costed 400 pesos... hehehe... cheap ha...  We went home, we were in Balintawak at around 2000 hours July 8, 2012.  That was a day filled with good things.  Were were happy.  :)