Pagsanjan

Pagsanjan Falls is about 100 km from Manila. It is located in the Laguna province near the town of Santa Cruz. It has become a popular day-trip especially for Korean and Japanese tourists. My friends and I rented a car and went there in April 14. It took us about 4 hours to get there. When we arrived in Santa Cruz, we went to the tourism office and asked for a reliable hotel that could provide us a canoe. The officer told us to go to Pagsanjan Falls Lodge. There are a lot of hotels which have restaurants a long the river. Behind the restaurant down the riverbank was where the canoes embark. The canoes are about 6 meters long and made of wood. It can carry 2 until 3 people. Each canoe is pulled and pushed by two men. We had to pay 600 peso for a canoe. Each passenger will be given a life vest so if you can't swim or have young children along, you can feel a little bit safe.
In beginning of the trip, you can see homes and palms crowding the banks. After passing that area, the river valley turns into a deep gorge, with a rainforest canopy, and the quiet waters become cascading rapids.
Just like other paddlers, our paddlers often had to jump out of the boat to manhandle between boulders while dodging other canoes on their way down. As a passenger, we could only support the paddlers and tried to enjoy their hard work. We also had to wave to other people in other canoes. Most of them were Korean and they thought us Korean too. After a couple of hours, we reached the dead-end box canyon where Pagsanjan Falls tumbled over. Then, we took a raft-ferry across the plunge pool to the base of the falls. The waterfall was not really big but its water tumbled fast. Thus, we could not swim near the fall. We could only swim near the raft after it was tied to its pier. The trip back to the hotel down was faster but not less exciting than the trip to the fall.
Tips:
bring extra clothes and pants
bring something to protect your camera
bring extra money for the tip because after seeing the hard work of your paddlers…you muss give them extra money 

Here are some photos from my trip.








Pagsanjan