mga lakwatsa sang sjhs 1982

i thought the whole barkada would be joining us for this overnight trip to patag. as it is, only three of us went there: bitoy, tindoy, and me.

this used to be a well-kept secret among mountaineers in negros, one of those scenic places in negros that was never bandied about. it was popular in the post-war era but when the "nice people around" in negros set up camp there, it became too dangerous to go up there. its fame lies in the fact that the japanese used this area for their airport during world war 2. patag means flat plains in the vernacular, which describes this portion of the kanlaon mountain range.

we left bacolod in the middle of the afternoon back in april of 1997. we dropped by bitoy's uncle's house in silay city to borrow the tents we were going to use. the way up the mountain was both smooth and bumpy. the road was solid concrete from the city up to the foothills. An hour's travel from the city proper, the road became interspersed by rocky stretches that alternated every 5 kilometers or so with solid concrete.

bitoy pointed out a timber nursery. here we saw a concerned environmentalist land-owner replacing the trees that were cut down for lumber. the saplings were only three to four feet high in most places but i feel hope for negros to become green again when these trees mature in a couple of decades or more.

a few men hitched a ride on tindoy's pick-up. our good samaritan turn for the day.

just before daylight faded, we got to the last village that lay before the camping grounds. then we had to climb a steep incline before reaching the camping grounds themselves. it's actually bitoy's uncle's property. at the village, bitoy asked one of the villagers to capture and cook a chicken for our dinner. then we went up. at the camping grounds, we set up the tents and were done just in time to see the sun go down across the guimaras strait, behind the mountains of panay.

while waiting for our chicken dinner to arrive, we swapped stories and bitoy and tindoy kept up a steady stream of hilarious anecdotes and funny memories from our high school days.

finally, hungry and impatient, we decided to go back down to the village to check on dinner. bitoy told tindoy not to drive the pick-up anymore because there were no lights on the road, which could be dangerous if we meet someone. he asked if i preferred to stay behind because the climb back up may be too tiring for me. i told him i would rather walk with them. i'm scared to stay up there alone! when we arrived at the village, the man that bitoy paid to cook the chicken dinner told us that they had ran out of chicken. he apologized for not going up to let us know because he had to do another errand and he had no one to entrust the errand of letting us know. we trudged back up the mountain, tired and hungry. but the sights that we saw more than made up for that. we followed the glow of the fireflies in the fields. our flashlight beam hit a sunflower or two. the full moon was out by the time we hit the road. the boys kept trying to frighten me. on the side of the road, there was a scarecrow-type figure dressed in military uniform and one of those helmets that GIs wore back in that tv series, combat, and carrying a rifle. that was scary! i know this area used to be a bunker for japanese soldiers and there were a few years in which patag was overrun by treasure hunters looking for japanese treasure, so that was really creepy!

back at the camp, bitoy built a bonfire to keep warm.

good thing i brought food... pork adobo and rice! the boys loved it! before they ate, they asked me who cooked the adobo. i told them it was my mother. but when they said it was delicious, i owned up and told them i cooked it, just didn't want to let them know in case they didn't like it... (*wink*wink*) but they didn't believe me! oh well!

after dinner, we sat on the grass and swapped stories again. the hot topic that week was heaven's gate, the cult whose followers committed mass suicide when the hale-bopp comet passed by planet earth. i didn't know about that. i wasn't following the news at that point. when they told me what happened on the news, i vowed to do research on it so i wouldn't sound like such an ignoramus when they talk about it again. come to think of it, it's almost eleven years to the day since the comet shot thru the heavens.

by 10:00 o'clock that night, i was ready to hit the sack. i got inside the smaller tent and the boys shared the big one. it was sooooo cold even with my bedroll zipped up but it was fun! i just didn't enjoy the hard ground and some stones were poking through the bedroll. it wasn't very comfortable but i was gazing at the stars through the flap of the tent and didn't mind the stones much. after a while, i dozed off. during the night, i heard some creatures sounding off like cellphone ringers. it was unnerving! in the morning, bitoy told us the noise was made by a bird! that's reassuring! as long as it wasn't a frog or a snake, i can live with that.

the next morning, we had bowls of instant la paz batchoy for breakfast. then we started the twenty-minute trek down to the river where bitoy told us we can find a waterfall that very few people have seen. on the way, bitoy kept telling me it will take us an hour to get to the river and the falls. the path was just wide enough for two people to walk abreast. there was a cavity in the rock to our right, big enough for a person to enter. bitoy told us to stay on the path and he'll meet up with us later. ten steps away, he was on the path again, emerging from another cavity. i doubled-over with mirth! it was so funny! the openings were connected by this really short tunnel!

the nearer we got to the waterfalls, the louder the roaring sound became. the rainforest was getting thicker the farther down we climbed. it was almost noon but this deep in the rainforest, it was gloomy. but strong rays of sunshine penetrated the foliage in places so we were able to see quite well going down. the falls were hidden by the trees and the sunlight is not so strong around the falls. the light was too poor for my camera to capture the beauty of this hidden waterfall. someone got a more powerful camera, though, and here's a picture. the bottom of this pool is like a giant wok and the water is as high as my knees before overflowing into the river itself.

they call these falls as "pulang tubig" in patag. in english, it means red water. bitoy never told us why it was named thus, and i didn't probe anymore. the water was so cold and very refreshing. after that 20 minute trek, cooling off in the water was totally a treat!

after our bath in the huge wok-like pool, we went back up to the ridge and broke camp. going down the mountain in broad daylight, we were able to see a long stretch of giant trees. there was a spot in the road where we had a grand view of the valley below but i ran out of film. sorry, digital cameras were still a novelty eleven years ago.

in silay, we took a rest-stop at el ideal. we cooled off with halo-halo for bitoy and tindoy and mais con hielo for me. delicious!!!