Casaroro Falls

Its hard to even start this, I'm/We're so far behind in our post I sit down to the keyboard with a shudder. But even though its not possible, I must share with everyone reading those amazing experiences that we have seen.

As Nathan said earlier we were in Dumaguete finishing our classes. After getting our new certifications we shopped around to get a good price for diving Apo island. Its one of the top rated dive sites in the world and we can see if from the balcony of our hotel.

We took the opportunity to take our lives in our own hands again and rent another scooter to head south to check out some of the dive shops. It turns out that "Snoopy" had the best prices. As a recap "Snoopy" is the instructor and owner of the dive shop in Dumaguete right next to Herold's mansion called "Underwater ventures"

If anyone is in the oriental Negros and plan to dive, they need to look him up. Dumaguete is a small enough town that if you ask around someone can point you to him.


2/20/10
The trip south to check prices wasn't a total waste though, we stopped by a roadside stall and picked up an unmarked 1/2 gallon jug (that looked like an old bleach container only translucent) filled with a brownish liquid called Tuba. Its basically coconut liquire akin to bathtub made moonshine. Tastes like drinking strait yeast, or really REALLY underdone bread, with a hint of coconut. But it packs a kick without having the burn of hard alcohols.

So off we went down the road on our scooter with no lights, a bent brake, broken rear shocks, and no working console (broken speedometer and fuel gauge) Me driving and Nathan on the back with our 1/2 gallon of booze in one hand.

We headed up to the falls and had a bit of a walk when we made it to the end of the paved road. I've taken a bike out on the dirt road with the too of us but the gaps between these rocks i would cringe to take a four wheeler across. We walked the rest of the way and were ready for a bit of a trail to get to the falls.

No such trail awaited us but a @#$* ton of stairs did. Well over 200 stairs that we knew with every step down, we would have to eventually make in reciprocity. At first reaching the bottom teased us with being a disappointment. There was a falls maybe a meter high at best with a fair stream running by. We followed a little concreate path leading up the stream.

We found a little bridge that lead to a covered area. It wasn't until crossing the bridge that we knew that any thoughts of disappointment were (almost literally) washed away.

Casaroro falls is like something you see in a movie (as I suppose a lot of what we have seen here is) over 30 meters tall, water careened over 90 feet to a huge pool at the base. The roofed area we were in was the end of the path but there was no way that we weren't going to go swimming.

We crossed the stream and made our way in up the stream to the base of the pool. The sound was defening and though I got video I would need a waterproof camcorder to get any closer. The spray from the falls could be felt over 30 meters away from it.

The water brought us memories of home, a chilled mountain water that makes you gasp when you first step in (either that or were getting used to the heat). We made our way toward the fall and could feel the current long before even getting close. The massive amounts of falling water made a natural barrier that only a well practiced swimmer could hope to penetrate. We made our way to the wall just tot he side of the falls and contemplated how deep the pool was (we would find out later that the pool was over 35 feet deep!). The exhilaration of the view and the experience took me and handed the reins over to lunacy. I slowly made my way around the back of the falls more rock climbing than swimming as the current pulling down kept me well aware that thousands of gallons of water were pushing down to the bottom.

I came out the other side to the sounds of Nathan calling out to see if I was ok. The task took me a few minutes to accomplish even though I had only traveled a few meters. We swam to the bank in time to see some other people watching us from the covered area down the stream. I so much wanted to see if i could swim directly through the falls but that was too much lunacy for even me.

I wish we could have stayed longer but the sun was setting and we had a fair drive ahead of us. Neither of us feel cheated on the amount of time we had but there would have been nothing wrong with staying there a bit longer and getting a bit deeper into our tuba.