Finally something to relax to....

First off, I realize I am giving you two blogs with two very different topics in the same day that really happened a few days apart. However, I wanted to keep them chronological and I felt that I would be doing a diservice to the first by abruptly switching gears to the second, so please read the following blog second. And please leave me a comment if you get the chance just to let me know who all is listening (a little self-indulgence, but please humor me).

Also, the spell check isn't working, so these two posts will be FULL of some bad spelling, the one thing I was NEVER good at in school. My apologies.

So I finally, after a long and intense few weeks, have had a chance to relaxe and enjoy the beauty of the Philippines again. It is tough to say that I could put the troubles of the world out of my mind for a few hours, because right now I feel that I definitely can't do that, but we all do need a chance to remember that there is beauty in the world, even in the difficult things. And soemtimes we need to be able to just see that easily instead of always having to look so darn hard for it.

So whether or not beautiful is what I was looking for, beautiful is what I got. Today we took an amazing trip to the Pagsanjan Falls. I couldn't tell you where exactly it is, or even which direction from Manila we travelled (I have a limited since of direction here, which is a little out of character for me). There are a few pictures on google images you can search for to see a brief glimpse of it, if you get the time and energy to do so. (**update** obviously I now have pictures on this blog, which I borrowed from Helen)

We arrived at our location and were "greeted" by a pack of men attacking the car and motioning us down a side road. Needless to say this made me extremely tense and a little frightened. I hadn't yet had time to calm down and process from our last immersion and was even feeling like I would have rather stayed in Manila and just slept and journaled. So I was amazingly stressed out by these men, banging on the windows and motioning to our driver to roll down the windows.

So we follow these men, down to a little, well, commune it seemed, park the car, and get out. We were quickly ushered down some steps, into some crazy pink lifejackets, and divided into three boats. The boats were very skinny canoe-like things, that rocked with the slightest change in weight balance. Great, I thought, we're going in the river.

We began to travel down a river, pulled in a chain by a canoe with a motor on it. On either side, there wasn't much of a view. I kept thinking I should have stayed home. Then the motor stopped, the drivers of the boats in the front released our ropes and broke our chain, and then continued on with our round paddles.

That's when the view changed. Suddenly we were going against the stream, sharing time between the calm and the rapids. On either side, sheer cliffs rose and our guides' voices echoed as they called forward to see if other boats were coming back from the falls down the same rapids. Let me just take this time to give these drivers/guides some credit. To anyone reading who is an avid rock hopper, especially in Montreat, you have nothing on these men. The best Montreat rock hopper couldn't stand a minute doing what theses guys do. They manuevered the boat in and out of rapids, between rocks only big enough for the boat. And to do this, they would jump in and out of the boat, pushing off of rocks, sometimes laying for a split second completely horizontal, their arms on the boat, their feet on the rocks. It seemed too as if they just inately knew the rocks, and the very half-square inch of rock upon which to place each toe. It was amazing.

So we manuevered down the river and then came upon an opening and a covered area on one bank. We stopped here to eat, in the middle of a river with cliffs on either side. And to top it off we were treated to barbequed chicken, something I was certain didn't exist in the Philippines.

When we continued on, it wasn't much longer until we reached our destination. The end of the line for the boats, they coudn't go any further. We got out and walked along a smooth-stone path until we turned a corner and saw the falls. They were beautiful. Japanese and French tourists (an odd combonation) were gathered around, waiting for their turn. There turn for what? The falls.

When it was our turn we boarded a raft and were pulled towards the falls by two raft guides, pulling along a rope. But we didn't go around the falls to the other side, we went UNDER the tumbling water. It beat down on us as we laughed and screamed. We stopped behind it, at an entrance to a cave, and were told we could get out. It was like being in the middle of a storm and enjoying it. We swam to the rope and held on as we walked back and forth to the falls. When the guides had finally had enough of the twenty-something-year-olds acting like eight-year-olds, they motioned us back onto the raft and told us to lay on our stomachs. They then took us back under the falls, where we were treated to the greatest back massage and the worst beating we had ever received. And of course when they offered, we obliged to do it again. About this time another raft reached us, full of Japanese tourists. An older man in the group caught the fever, and jumped out of his raft to splash us all as we lay, helpless, pinned down to the raft. He too, had turned into an eight-year-old.

We happily got back in our boats and travelled back, this time with the current, towards our ride home.

As I said before, it was really just nice to be able to have a day off. Not from the world, not forgetting about it, but being able to put it in the back of your mind, maybe selfishly, for a few hours and just enjoy something else. The weight of the waterfall replaced the weight of the problems I've been seeing, and I was glad I hadn't slept in. Of couse my mind went straight back to what came before and what was ahead, but I wish I could plug my memory into the computer and download it for you all to see. Who knows, maybe in another millinium they'll be able to. But until then, have your own adventures and tell someone about them.

Peace, I hope