“Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to…” – TLC

Dang, this song came out in 1994. Wow, that was 15 years ago. Nuts. Anyhoo, this song is an expression of how people chase intangible dreams with no thought of consequences. If you’ve read yesterday’s post, I literally chase waterfalls. Contrary to popular belief, I actually do think of the consequences, such as “if I hit that rock, it will hurt” and “if I miss that point, it will hurt”. This proves that I am actually responsible for my consequences and will continue chasing waterfalls. So, onto more waterfalls today. I apologize in advance for all the gifs. I really like these things.

I got to sleep in till 7am this morning. It was nice because my body felt a bit sore. Not sure from what. I think it’s partially riding a motorbike for so long. It actually takes a toll on your body. And no, I don’t think any of the soreness came from cliff diving.

Today was quite tame compared to yesterday. I visited three falls, Tumalog, Aguinid, and took another route in the Asyong Falls. I ended the day at the Mabugnao Mainit Hot Springs.

Tumalog on viewing from afar, wasn’t too impressive. But up close is where these falls become unique and beautiful. From afar, there doesn’t look like much water at all is falling. However, once you get near there, you see a wall of water droplets falling form the sky. I used the GoPro a ton during this stretch and really just want to say again that gifs are awesome.

Standing under the drops of water was really pretty. I enjoyed it but thought, “hm, wouldn’t it be nicer from higher up?”

View was actually nicer, but then I couldn’t go up any further. I initially thought I could jump off, but thought better and climbed down. Also, decided to use both my hands to climb down. See. Responsible.

I told my tour guide that I just wanted to climb more waterfalls so off we went to the Aguinid Falls.

There were parts where you needed to scale rocks to get up. It might look hard, but really wasn’t. There are groups of tourists going through here after all.

Okay, this portion I could see being a little scary for some who don’t like to climb. I was really glad I wasn’t with a group of people cause this would have taken quite awhile.

Then I told my guide, i want to jump off the highest one as possible around here. So he suggested we go back to Asyong Falls but take a different tour. I was not disappointed. Can’t even remember how many jumps I did. Here’s a few of my favorites.

Okay, now here’s the one that my guide saved for last. All these last ones were small compared to the next.

This drop was 65 feet. He said I could chose to drop from 60, but that seems like a waste. Just add the extra five. Before we climbed up, he informed me that when I jump to plug my nose if I wanted, make sure to point your legs, do NOT dive headfirst, cross your arms across your chest, and clench your butt. Just kidding, he didn’t say the last part, but someone else told me this. Not sure if it’s a myth, but sometimes the impact on water can give you a surprise cleansing. I don’t think it’s true, but I clenched anyways, cause.. well, ya know. No one likes those surprises.

Once we got up to the point and were in position, he tossed my helmet down telling me to land there. If you’re not far out enough, you’ll hit rocks. Sweet. Overall lesson learned so far is, jump further if you don’t want to hit the rock wall. Makes sense to me.

I won’t lie. I was scared here. Almost as much as the Binalayan fall. 65 feet is a lot higher than I thought. I nailed the landing though. Look at how close to the helmet I got. Also, side note: the helmet comes off at higher dives.

That was the last one! I don’t think I went cliff diving again the rest of this trip. If I did, it wasn’t as memorable as these couple days. Then finally on the way back, I got to really enjoy the Mabugnao Mainit hot springs. Here’s me just simmering in 42.6 degrees Celsius water. Felt nice to relax.

After almost an hour in the springs, we headed back to the other side of the island, where again, I ate two dinners and fell asleep by 10pm.