Inside the largest Balete tree in Asia, also known as "Millenium Tree".
I'm back once again in Aurora province for an out of town weekend with some friends. This is actually my second time in Baler and I'm glad the weather cooperated. The other reason why we're back is that I wanted to pickup the kitten I'm adopting from my college friend. New year, new pet, why not? :)
Paolo (the boyfriend) and I left Manila around 5:00AM and drove all the way to San Fernando, Pampanga to meet my best friend Faye. From there we had to wait for her friend and we all had breakfast in Nathaniel's. Baler is approximately 4-5 hours away from Pampanga and 6-7 hours if coming from Manila.
For this trip we booked the Casita de Bahia room (good for 4 pax) of Costa Pacifica via Agoda which cost us approximately ₱2,800 per pax (overnight rate), breakfast included. When we arrived, I was kinda happy to see that the place looked like a ghost town and then we were greeted by this view:
Minsan ka na nga lang makapag check-in sa Costa Pacifica, sabay walang tubig sa pool. LOL
The whole resort was basically under repair and maintenance, maybe they took advantage since it wasn't surfing and/or summer season yet. Because of this, our room was upgraded.
We didn't want to waste our time so after having lunch my friends invited me to go on a trekking adventure to Dimutabo Falls, also known as Mother Falls which is located in the neighboring town of San Luis, Aurora. From Costa Pacifica, we drove for approximately 20 minutes to get to the starting point of our trek. For those driving their own car, take note that there's a parking area available in the starting point so no need to hire tricycles and other modes of transport to get to the entrance.
If you plan to go trekking please make sure you're wearing proper trekking shoes. My fried told us that wearing flipflops will do but I beg to disagree. The walk to the falls took approximately 30-40 minutes. Like any other adventure, expect it to be hard at first. And if you can, don't bring anything except yourself? :) Paolo and I managed to bring our gadgets though, his Fujifilm X-T1 (water resistant) and GoPro Session (waterproof) cameras.
According to locals, Aurora got hit by a typhoon by year end of 2015 and badly damaged the passage going to Mother Falls. Huge trees and big chunks of stones literally blocked the way.
Do not be fooled by the photo, the flow of water from the mountain was a bit rough so you need to be careful when crossing 'coz there's a high chance that you'll slip, lose your slippers or whatnot. Here's Faye with her friend Manuel slowly crossing the river with the help of a rope.
We arrived around 4:00PM and there were only a handful of people left which was good I guess? Haha. It's been a while since I last saw a waterfall so it felt good to see one again after so many years.
According to Faye, waters were wayyy shallow now compared before. Thanks to the huge chunks of rock maybe? At least it lessened the chances of drowning.
We didn't stayed that long and made sure we were back in our hotel just in time for dinner. Speaking of dinner, I failed to took photos of the food we ordered (which were all good by the way and reasonable priced) 'coz everyone was hungry after our afternoon trek. This is just me and my bff Faye posing for the camera. LOL
The next day I invited the gang to visit another tourist spot near Baler which is the Millenium Tree found in Quirino, Aurora. It is considered one of the biggest and oldest tree in Asia.
One of the tourist guides knew how to take a panoramic photo using the iPhone so he basically asked us to pose and this was the output of his shot.
Talk about cheesy. ♥♥♥
Before I end this post I'd also like to share a photo of my new pet that I adopted and named Sydney. She's a mix breed of Persian and Siamese cat. This is also my first time to actually be a "cat mom" to a kitten so wish me luck! If you have time, follow my posts about her using the hashtag #SydneyThePussy. Hehehe.
To properly end this post I'm sharing my first travel video for 2016. Enjoy! :)
Baler, Aurora
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