2013 Heller Baler (Day 1 of 2): Chasing Waterfalls and Riding the Waves of Sabang!

Date of Trip: January 19-20, 2013
Where: Baler, Province of Aurora
With Whom: High school classmates and new friends :)
Itinerary: Click Baler Itinerary 2013

The weekend before this trip, I met up with my highschool friends in Manila for a supposed-to-be-farewell-dinner-for-me-but-Fern-ended-up-paying-for-it get-together. Since Fern didn’t make it to our Talamitam–Batulao twin hike before, we thought of having another backpack trip somewhere in Luzon, and just then Jillian mentioned about her officemates’ plan to go to Baler. We wanted to explore Baler too, so immediately that night, I came up with a rough itinerary. After sending the itinerary the following day, Jill informed us that we could tag along with her officemates, since that group could still accommodate around 3-4 persons. And so we’re in it! :)

Itinerary, accommodation and arrangement for vehicle, and other stuff like that, were all arranged by Carl (Jillian’s officemate), so we just literally tagged along with their group. hehehe! :D There were 11 of us, and I only knew two of them (Jill and Fern haha!), but I’m glad it wasn’t that awkward, madali silang pakisamahan. I guess that’s because we all shared the same goal, to travel and escape the busy metro haha!

Took the bus at Cubao at almost 2am, took breakfast at Nueva Ecija; and then got off at some barangay in Baler at past 8am, where our van and Carl’s aunt and uncle were waiting for us; Carl’s uncle was the one who drove for us, during the entire trip.

Day 1

When we reached Sabang beach that morning of day 1, we (kind of) inspected how the waves look like and kind of imagined how it would feel like riding the waves of Sabang Beach…

Yes, it was a bit gloomy that day, and windy and uncomfortably cold… After a few minutes, we headed on to our first stop, Caunayan Falls!

Caunayan Falls

Tadah! That’s Caunayan Falls, cute lang yan, so don’t expect some splashy moments here. The water’s shallow too, so no diving :). It was at this place that I met some of my former officemates in Makati who are also on a weekend trip hehe! Small world!

It was chilly that my allergies started coming out! Yay! My arms and my legs looked like they’re filled with bruise; oh those exposed parts, tadtad ng allergies! :( And I was so not prepared! I didn’t have my antihistamine with me, so sobrang hassle lang! Wanna see how my skin looks like pag nagrerebelde na??! Gross! Ehehe!

Told you! Haha! Forgive me for posting these pictures. Don’t worry, that’s not contagious! Haha! It’s just me and my sensitive skin! =p Just wanted to prove how cold it was that my skin could not tolerate the temperature! :0

Anyway, back to Caunayan hehe, We had our lunch at this place before heading to another waterfalls, Ditumabo! :D

While on our way to Ditumabo (otherwise known as Mother Falls), we had to find a pharmacy to buy antihistamine and end my suffering skin! Haha! Thank heavens we found one! So, inum-inom din! :) And before reaching the starting point for our hiking to Ditumabo, my allergies slowly fade away. Oh ha! :) Effective antihistamine, clap clap clap!

Hiking to Ditumabo Falls

So we had to hike. Yes, we had to hike for 45 minutes to an hour before we could see Ditumabo Falls.

I was the only one who brought a cam to Ditumabo; well sabe wag na magbitbit kase baka mabasa. But then I was bringing O-Tough with me (in case you didn’t know, that’s the name of my underwater cam, and it was her first trip.. hiyes, bago! =p)

Slippery rocks and strong current… The obstacles that we need to surpass before we could see Mama Falls! :D Crawl if we must. Hop at some point. Assist each other. Yes, we had to. And at some point, we had to rest, and camwhore! :D

Yes, that’s badly needed hehehe! We had to stop for a while, and flash those smiles… As if it was easy to get to see Mama Falls! :D Enjoy enjoy din! Oh there they are, my former officemates, second encounter, kaya pinikchuran ko na! :D

Chasing Ditumabo Falls… And Swimming!

After almost an hour of hiking (mabagal ba? Petiks lakad lang! =p), we were welcomed by this sight! @__@

Ooh lala!

And more!!! Because we really can’t get enough of Mama Falls! Hhaha! =p

That’s it! Happiness! :D

After the fun moments at Caunayan and Ditumabo Falls, we were back to Sabang for our late afternoon surfing! Yay! First time! Ehehe! We found this group of instructors, and registered for an hour session of surfing (that cost Php350)! From 11, only 6 of us registered (2 girls–me and Jill, and 4 boys)! Hehe! The rest just watched as we rise and fall against the strong waves haha! =p

Riding the Waves…

Planking lang ang peg! Hahaha! Demo demo din! Each of us had an instructor, who oriented us on how to position ourselves on the surfboard, and what to do when the instructor says “Ready”.. “1” “2” “3”. It’s all about balancing, they said. It’s all about how you stand up and how you position your feet and how you bend your knees so you could get that needed balance! Hehehe! And it’s all about concentration! :D

It was scary… Yes! First time haha! I found it hard to concentrate, honestly, as I was a bit scared of the gigantic waves when Peter, my instructor, led me afar, while I was on the surfboard. I remembered I kept saying “wahh nakakatakot naman ‘to, parang hindi ko kaya!!” and saying “pwede bang hindi na tumayo, nakadapa na lang hanggang makarating ng shore?! Haha!” after my first attempt. And Peter kept on saying “kaya yan, ma’am, relax lang, wag mag-panic, at mag-enjoy lang!”

So I obeyed haha! Concentration it is! After countless times of falling right after a few seconds of standing on the surfboard, I finally was able to stand for more than 3 seconds hahaha! Nakakagigil ang waves!!! :D I guess my instructor’s a bit disappointed at me not being able to master the art of standing on the surfboard hahaha! But he was so encouraging, in fairness! Haha! Even to the point na napapamura ako ng “**ng i*a, ang lakas nyan kuya!!* upon seeing the gigantic waves approaching us. Haha!

When it was almost an hour, and I can feel my hips already aching due to twists that I had to do when standing on the surfboard, plus my knees were almost bruised, I finally ended the session. It was tiring, but super fun! :D

Thanks to Peter (the instructor) for being so patient with me hahaha! Apir!

After all the activities for Day 1 were done, we went back to our cottage. Took a rest, bathed, and prepared for dinner and socials… hehehe! Socials… So what happened during socials?? Since most of us were strangers to each other (as in we only knew each other’s first name, at least), we decided to do some sharing thing… Parang college retreat lang ang peg! Hehehe! So we had to give our full name, age, work and workplace, relationship status (with some details haha!), and something interesting about oneself—these were all done over some shots of GSM blue and pulutan (i.e., pork sisig and chicken barbecue). Oh ha! Adding to my list of New Found Friends! :D

We were done with the sharing and the drinking at almost 1am. We had to take some zzzzzssss for an early breakfast at Lukso-Lukso! :D

Day 1—done!

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