“If you are scared, you can’t see beauty. Fear kills your ability to see beauty.” These were words uttered by actor Will Smith in one of his vlogs of a family vacation they had somewhere in Italy. And I’d have to agree with what he said, because I have seen a lot of people fail to appreciate nature because they are afraid of this or that when, in the first place, they haven’t even tried it, much less stepped one foot out the door.
But could we add complacency and utter laziness – to complete indifference – to it, though? Because so many more just don’t care to appreciate beauty in its raw form – for example, nature – because, as they claim, there are more important things to focus on.
In a way, I’d agree to that, because yes, there are indeed more important things… like, LIFE. But to the exclusion of all else?
That’s just… sad.
And here ends my short discourse on nothing. *peace!*
Let me pick up where I left off in my previous post, after we left Tekip Falls.
To the 2nd Waterfall: Pikaw Falls
Using the Tourist Assistance Center as a jump-off point for the hike to Pikaw Falls, it took us around 40 minutes to arrive at this somewhat hidden waterfall.
Unlike Tekip Falls, this one would require more walking and, yes, hiking. First you would have to pass through residential houses, then to rice fields, coming one after the other.
One thing I noticed about hiking past rice fields and rice terraces? You lose track of time and the fact that you’ve actually already crossed a mountain. Or two. One minute you’re walking, just keeping on, then you lift your head, look back, and realize that, “hey! we were on the other side of the mountain just a while ago!”
These are not your ordinary rice fields, though. I noticed how the grains seemed to be visibly bigger and more “filled”, shall we say? Then we were told these are grains of balatinao rice. A traditional or indigenous, native variety grown in the mountainous regions of the country, particularly the Cordilleras.
In some cases, I’ve heard it referred to as “black rice”, because they do end up with that color. For nutrition- and diet-conscious individuals, it’s seen as the healthier rice option.
We passed by several local ladies harvesting by hand. I find this a bit refreshing, considering how larger operations mainly make use of machines to harvest grains. But these ladies seem to have a relaxing time plucking them each by hand.
And the fact that they greeted us with welcoming and warm smiles as we passed them by is proof that visitors and hikers in these parts are no longer new.
40 minutes after we left the barangay proper, we arrived finally at Pikaw Falls.
The water isn’t as clear, again thanks to the days of rain that disturbed the river beds.
Pikaw Falls has several smaller tiers, and I saw previous visitors that were able to go up the higher tiers. Our guides, however, advised against it, because the path is quite precarious. In fact, they said there are no paths going up there. Unless you clamber up those rocks on the sides. (And by that, I mean, ‘crawl’.)
We rested for a bit, climbed atop one of the larger boulders, took photos and generally savored the sound of running water. The sun was actually shining a bit that time, too and after the previous days of rain, it was a welcome, albeit brief, respite.
Since we knew that it was going to rain later that afternoon, we decided to move on to the next stage of this adventure: to Sakup Falls.
To take a peek at Sakup Falls
It was another 30 minutes hike, this time on a steeper terrain, to get to Sakup Falls or, at least, as close to Sakup Falls as we could.
And even from afar, we can spot Sakup Falls, like a thin trill of white on the side of the mountain.
It was mostly an assault as we climbed higher and higher, past several residential houses, more rice fields and vegetable gardens. Definitely steeper and a more exhausting trek.
(So I think we will be forgiven when we partook of the cucumbers that our guide took from one of the gardens we passed by. Hah! Yum!)
When we came upon this noisy (and yes, it was quite a loud noise that the water made) stream, which obviously came from the waterfall, I felt my excitement level go up. Verrrry promising….!
Only to go pfffft not less than 5 minutes later after we crossed a narrow foot bridge.
Because you see, this is the end of the road. Or the trail. We can’t go any closer to Sakup Falls.
You see, according to the guides, there are no trails. At least, not yet.
I think that won’t be the case for gung-ho hikers and adventure-seekers, if the guides (who are the authorities, mind you) allow them.
So we made do with just viewing the waterfall from a distance.
Disappointing, but still I’ll take what I can get.
I was fully planning on taking a dip in the last waterfall, so if I knew I won’t be anywhere near it to get splashed on, I’d have done so already at Tekip Falls. Oopsie~
The descent was a more relaxing one, at least for me. Because we are done with the day’s itinerary, and we could only look forward to washing up, having supper, and turning in for the night.
And I also liked the fact that, while going back down, we can turn back any time and see Sakup Falls. You know, kinda like a guardian watching over us, saying “hey, you weren’t able to get close, so the least I can do is keep my eyes on you as you leave”.
Even if we weren’t able to get close to the 3rd waterfall, I am still glad for this hike. Maybe in a couple of years, there’d be a trail to finally bring visitors directly to it. Maybe I’d go back then, too, because there are certain things that we cannot resist, and this is one of them. At least for me.
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