Thursday, August 4, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
August 1, 2011
There was a storm (Nock-Ten) last Wednesday (July 27, 2011) that sadly hit Casiguran. We were scheduled to go to Dinadiawan on July 30 and 31, 2011. The storm news slowly broke my heart. We all knew the Pacific could be very fierce sometimes. We all knew that the Pacific is also beautiful. It was a never ending effort checking the weather for 1 month now, checking satellite pictures, tracking storms, barometric pressures of radars, wind speed, wind direction, cloud formation, precipitation, temperature, and humidity. Storm Muifa-eleven was also at the Pacific now but will most likely go north to Japan or north of Taiwan.
Storm Nock-ten was at the West Philippine sea on the 28th and 29th of July, while storm Miufa-eleven was at the Pacific ocean. Wow!!! I was still soooooo enthusiastic to go to Dinadiawan, no matter what! I had this crazy theory that these storms having extreme negative barometric pressures will somehow clear our skies vacuuming clouds. And guess what? The theory was somehow true.... or it was true.... Before I slept on the 29th, I checked the barometric pressures all over, and they where all above 1004 hpa, but precipitation was positive in Manila, Valenzuela, and Cabanatuan (just didn't remember the exact figures of precipitation, but not high enough to scare me, or not high enough to cause big landslides in Bongabon-Villa-Baler trail --- I guess). No precipitation in Baler and Casiguran..... nice enough.
Plan A as always = Cabanatuan - Bongabon - Villa - Baler - Dipaculao - Dinadiawan.
Plan B = Cabanatuan - Bongabon - Pantabangan - Maria Aurora - Baler.
We had to do Plan A and so did it. We were 2 vehicle convoy, mine and eric's. My wife, son, cousin, and friends were with us. I missed the fog in Aurora National Park, my body longed for it, like a drug, and I wanted my son to wade in the waterfalls along the way in Villa. :) When we were in Bongabon - Villa - Baler trail, Mr Sun showed up. And wow!!! We were blessed. The trail wasn't so wet, and the landslide prone segments were kinda dry :) except for this 1 fresh rockslide that occurred ahead of us, but not really major, no living thing was hit. But still scary! Eric who was 1st time at this trail was somehow scared at the rockslide, and he was somehow scared when we did cross the river in Villa :)
The Bongabon - Villa - Baler route had always been beautiful.... at least for me. I respect this place. Forest and high altitude (675 meters above sea level) are what this place is all about. We went out to feel the fresh cold water at the 1st mini stream / waterfall. My son touched the water, and i knew he felt what i felt... happiness... We took pictures and moved on. Then we reached this slightly damaged bridge and crossed it. We all went out of the vehicle when we reached the "welcome to aurora province" arc, we took pictures and of course, we walked in the clouds / fog. The place was cold, and the air was just so clean, smelled the leaves of fern.
Then we reached the 2nd slightly bigger stream / waterfalls, all went out of the vehicle again to wade the cold, clean, clear water...... my son just soooo enjoyed it.... i could feel it.... We then resumed our travel and crossed the river in Villa, where eric was hesitant to cross his Montero..... we were laughing at him.... he was pale... he crossed it anyway... the water level was not over our tires.
I told eric i will go ahead to check the trail further and saw fresh rockslide. Eric went pale again....hmmm..... we cleared it and went on. Then we saw this segment that the DPWH was clearing.... landslides!!!!!! I thought DPWH won't let us pass. I glanced at my GPS, and Baler was just a few miles away... It would really be a large waste of time to turn back and use plan B.
We were at the mercy of DPWH to let us pass. The nice DPWH man asked his payloader drivers to clear the landslides and let us pass. :) A large smile in our faces.... Baler.... here we come.
When we reached Baler, we ate a lot in Bays Inn, with ice cream :) We were eating while watching the surfers and the nice waves :) Then we went to the Baler public market to buy fishes (blue marlin, yellow fin tuna, etc), crabs, etc (lobsters not available that day) that we brought to Dinadiawan for supper (grilling and swimming and relaxing). The ice for sale was very near the back of the public market which filled our 2 coolers.
We then drove to Dinadiawan. We reached the 1st resort with cabins, we rented 2 cabins for 2000 pesos per 24 hours per cabin. There was electricity and water. The cabin had ample space with large bed and extra mattresses, restroom, and a veranda. We rented videoke too to make some noise.... We were the only guests. Dinadiawan beach was white sand, relaxing place. We loved walking barefoot. We then wore our floaters and bathed the Pacific ocean..... :) We grilled the fishes that we brought, cooked the crabs and rice. Ate them with Cuervo Gold and Smirnoff Vodka facing the Pacific ocean waves... niiiiiceee..!!!! So damn nice..... I fell asleep while others made noise with the videoke....
I woke up early to get pictures of sunrise.... I called cholo to drive with me to Dinadiawan centro where we bought blue marlin tuna, chicken, pork, soft drinks etc...We grilled again, my wife made chicken paksiw, and some blue marlin was made into "kinilaw".... :) We enjoyed the place..... :)
We packed up to head home, and bought fish again in Baler market to be brought home. We used the Pantabangan route this time to see the canili and diayo dams as well as the pantabangan dam. The geotagged pics are in my panoramio with the link below. Those were 2 days filled with good things... We were happy.
http://www.panoramio.com/user/4313883?comment_page=1&photo_page=1
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