At first I was just unwinding and readjusting to the laid back lifestyle of a traveler. Doing lots of walking around and meeting the locals, which is one of my favorite parts of solo backpacking traveling. Traveling solo can get, lonely at times but it is the best way to meet many native people in any country.
I went to a cock fight which is a favorite pass time and something to gamble over, for the Philippino’s. Not really my kind of thing but interesting to watch and find out about and as always I love anything new, once. A few days later I arrived at the town of Moalboal, which is a place of a lot of adventure activities. I went scuba diving one day and saw a very large school of sardines, very cool the way it flows back and forth as if it were all one fish; I also one sea turtle and of course many beautiful fish. I watched one fish about a foot in size eating a smaller fish that it had just caught.
One night while on a walk around the village, I branched off from the main part of the town and soon was walking on a dirt road with just a few houses every now and then. Many travelers are too afraid of doing this but it has led to my meeting many interesting people. After a while two teenage boys said hi to me. Within a few minutes I had a small gathering around me and was offered a few beers. Fifteen minutes later five of us are off walking towards their favorite bay, once we got there again a small gathering built up. Before heading back to my room I had made arrangements to rent a motorcycle and to pick up the first two boys the next morning and to go to a waterfall. Yes three on a small motorcycle, (I have briefly done four once and seen as many as six including a couple children). It was about an hour ride to the start of the hike. First you get to the big falls with a pool at the bottom; they have a bamboo raft at the base of it so we swam out to it and jumped off of it and some rocks a few times. After climbing up several more falls the river gets narrow and becomes almost cave like with many cave like features. It became quite challenging to go further, so of course I did, and it was great. Fighting the strong current all the way up and then getting a fast free ride on the way back down.
Next I went canyoneering which is the reason I had come to this town, because it was the only place in the Philippines that I knew had canyoneering. This is a wet canyon unlike what I normally do in Utah. Much wider than what I do in Utah but with flowing water. When we set the rappels, they are set in the waterfall; and deliberately short so that when you get to the end of the rope you are still on the wall about 20 feet (6 meters) up. You have to turn around while still grasping the end of the rope and jump. The water is so deep that even with that much of a jump you don’t hit the bottom. In a few spots we just jump from the top, one was 30 feet (9 meters) plus you needed to jump out 5 feet (1 1/2M) to clear a rock that stuck out half way down. This was great fun. I’m sure those of you that are canyoneer’s can appreciate this while the rest of you probably think I’m crazy. I still prefer the canyons of Utah.