Aug 29, 2011

It was a long weekend, and people were just so crazy going out of town. Some of my friends were going to Biak na Bato, some to Pico De Loro, some to Club Manila East, or to Hidden Valley in Laguna. But us, hmmmmm.... to Aurora.... again and again.... We wanted to go to Sabang in Baler, then to Digisit in Baler, then to Caunayan Falls in San Luis. I had to finish my job on the 28th of Aug at 1400 hours, then pack and head to Aurora at 1500 hours with my wife and son. And so we did. It was raining hard in Balintawak that afternoon... but still we had to be in Aurora.... Our adrenaline tells us to... It was dark when we reached the Sierra Madre using the Pantabangan route. We could not use the Bongabon trail, 1st it was raining (fear of landslide), 2nd it was dark already.

There was thick fog in the Sierra Madre that time... and wow it was cold. When we reached Baler at around 2100 hours, there was no rain, we went straight to Sabang, only to find out that there were lots of visitors. All of the few hotels there were full, namely Bays Inn, Ba0hia de Baler, etc. There were lots of surfers, dirt road enthusiasts, families, etc.. And man i could really say, Baler is already a tourist destination nowadays... :) We drove around and found no vacancy. After 30 minutes we went back to Maria Aurora town to look for a place to stay, and we stayed at MALAMIG HOTEL. It was a motorist hotel type of place and cheap at 700 pesos per 12 hours. Fair enough, we had to sleep.

In the morning, we drove back to Baler to have our simplest breakfast at Triple B Mae adjacent the museo de Baler. Then we headed to the Baler public Market to buy Blue Marlin fish, ice, etc. Then we headed to Digisit beach, but my son was more excited to go Caunayan Falls.

I lost my Caunayan Falls tracklog. Anyway you can use my previously posted Ditumabo falls tracklog. Caunayan and Ditumabo are about 5 kms difference. Caunayan falls is also in San Luis, Aurora.

The road from the highway to Caunayan Falls is dirt road. We used hilux 4x2 by the way. There are 2 vehicle entrance fees, about 20 pesos each. The reason is road tax / road use thing. Caunayan Falls is just 2 mins walk from the parking space. And the entrance fee to the falls itself is 10 pesos per person and 100 pesos for the table rental.

Caunayan falls is a small falls. But the good thing about the place is that the catch basin is big enough for kids and adults to enjoy :) Watch the video below. We then went home on the 29th Aug 2011 at 14 hours after the Caunayan falls. Those were days filled with good things. We were happy. By the way, the water is clear in Caunayan and refreshing :)