The journey to Aurora’s Mother Falls began with a tricycle ride along a smoothly paved road that took us away from Sabang Beach to the neighboring town of Ditumabo, San Luis, where, the poor tricycle went through two (2) kilometer’s worth of A Very Rocky Road and ended in a bit of an uphill trek (1.3 kilometers to be exact) that forced us to wade through a river, cross more than a couple of flimsy looking bamboo bridges and climb a slimy cemented path no thicker than a sidewalk.
Was it worth it?
Yes, a thousand times yes.
The Paved Road:
During the tricycle ride, I rode behind the driver while my two friends were inside the sidecar. The paved road between Baler and San Luis were nestled in between luscious green rice fields that stretched on for miles. The greenery was only sparsely broken by the occasional one-storey cement house, usually painted in a bright hue (blue or yellow). There were no sidewalks, but there were gravelled walkways that were shaded by huge (and most probably ancient) acaccia and balete trees. The roads, given the amount of leaf-fall, were surprisingly clean.
Very dangerously I whipped out my camera to snap these photos (don’t ask me why, but I have a thing for empty road photos).
A Very Rock Road:
After a few minutes of smooth riding, our tricycle made a right turn into what looks to be a small village. Very quickly our calm and relaxed drive turned into an extremely bumpy one because the road we were on was filled with fist sized gravel. Apparently they could not cement this road because the gravel helps during the rainy season when the place is flooded.
I have no idea what it was like inside the side car but I strapped my camera onto my person and clung to each and every railing I could get my hands onto. I flinched every time I heard the painful thwack‘ of a particularly big rock hitting the side (or underside) of our ride. As a vehicle owner myself, I’ve got to tell you that those sounds hurt. There were a couple of instances when we had to climb off the trike because on top of navigating through The Very Rocky Road, the 800cc motorcycle also had to go uphill.
We passed by more than a few people walking, and after reading about the Mother Falls on the internet, I learned that they were taking the old-school way of trekking the full four (4) kilometers up to the falls.
The Official Trek:
The “jump off point” consisted of a few picnic huts (where people who brought their lunches can eat – no food was allowed in the falls vicinity), a cleared area where private vehicles and tricycles that make it all the way up can park, an incredibly basic toilet and a few vendors selling the odd junk food and sodas.
Like the other attractions in Aurora, the Mother Falls (officially named Ditumabo Falls) had a table manned by a few locals, where visitors are required to enter in their information on a log book and give a donation for the preservation of the sight.
Because we started our city tour so early, we didn’t catch the “rush” of tourists. We didn’t have any walking mates on the way to up and we only passed a couple of groups going down. The ground was grassy and there was no sand, so even though it was up hill, the climb wasn’t too difficult. Although our confidence almost wavered a bit when we saw that we had to cross rickety bamboo bridges that were only wide enough to accommodate one foot at a time.
Thank goodness we were all wearing the correct footwear because about midway to the falls, it seems that whoever built the rickety footbridges got tired and just gave up. We had to cross the freezing river multiple times in a zigzagg-y kind of way just to get through. The trail was pretty wide so there was zero chance of getting lost and also, since the Ditumabo Falls feeds the San Luis Mini-Hydro Power Plant, there’s a long tube that runs directly at the side of the trail that doubles as a guide.
We knew that we were near when we chanced upon this makeshift bamboo ladder which we had to climb to get up to the elevated cemented walkway. It was a good thing that there weren’t a lot of tourists when we were there because this narrow strip of a path wouldn’t facilitate two-way traffic very well.
The Falls:
After a few more meters of walking, and of course posing for a couple of selfies, we finally heard the thunderous roar. Unfortunately, because of the hydro-plant, the pool that the falls was feeding was hindered by a man-made dam. This made for a very limited space for tourists and there weren’t any place to hang up our stuff. Unless one was going to swim, one would literally just have to stand there and take pictures on a small strip of cemented platform.
The pool was very beautiful though, with turquoise waters so pristine that you can see all the way to the bottom. Unlike other falls, the pool it feeds weren’t littered with small rocks that make for a bruising swim. Except for the occasional boulders on the sides, the pool was just like a swimming pool in the sense that there’s a lot of space for actual swimming. I read somewhere that the height of the falls was clocked at a hundred and forty feet (140) and this must be true; even when I was just standing on the view deck, I can feel sprinkles of water hitting my face from the force of it all.
I didn’t opt to swim because I just knew that the water would be freezing (Fred, who did take the literal plunge, said that I was right). He said that although the pool was relatively small, there was a huge dip somewhere in the middle that he had to swim over to reach the other side. He wanted to go near the falls for a better photo op, but the water was too strong.
After satisfying our need for photos, we made the trek back. Apparently the Mother Falls is usuallly the last stop to most of the city tours by the tricycle drivers; we passed by hordes of people on the way up with (at least in my case) silent glee. I can’t imagine them all fitting in the teeny tiny pool at the top, carrying all of their tripods and photography gears.
All in all the Ditumabo Falls was a spectacular way to end our tour of Aurora. Sure, it involved a little bit of elbow grease to get there, but it was definitely worth it.
THE VERDICT: Must See.
