Hikes and falls: discovering gems in the middle of mountains

After our descend and good night socializing in the middle of a Filipino world class heritage, we all woke up to another exciting day. We started the day with sumptuous breakfast prepared by our coordinator and a few were not yet done with their breakfasts when our tour guide arrived. Yes, we have a tour guide to our next destination - Tappiya Falls!

The Tappiya Falls Trail starts from Batad main village where our accommodation was and where the Catholic Church is. Google Maps was saying it is about 17 minutes walk but I would say that would depend on someone's stamina and photo shoots along the way. It took us around 45 minutes.

^{Map courtesy of Google Maps}

The start of the hike is traversing the rice fields then go up to a view deck. Just like our descend from the school where our outreach was held, we did not want to join the crowd so we - Anne, Justin and I but this time with Jen who joined us in our room last night - immediately followed our tour guide.

These in front of me were Justine, Anne, Jen and yes, we have more. We have three senior citizens who were as excited and active as we were in joining the hike. With their competitiveness, they wanted to join us who were going first.

So here they are, our senior citizens with all their walking sticks. When we were socializing the previous night, they were sharing their other hikes and gimmicks like youngsters. They are a testament to the saying that age does not matter.

We were near the foot of the stairwell to the view deck when I looked back and smile at the sight. Apparently, we were lining up along the dike. Some of them were having challenge keeping their balance but that did not stop them from joining the hike. I can see a few who were so conscious of their steps as if they will fall at the whisper of the wind. So far, they all made it. No one fell down the riprap.

When we were about half-way to the view deck, I looked down to see a few who haven't yet started the climb. Still trying to hold on to the air so as not to fall down? Maybe...

This was when I noticed the fields were not uniform. A portion is full of grasses, another has stalks of harvested rice, one is vacant and another has pitiful rice plants which, even from afar, look infested. I easily noticed the differences because it was not what I got used to during my childhood.

My parents used to plant the whole fields at once and we harvest at once. When the rice plants are still young, the whole fields are green. They were following certain cycles. I remember my mother saying that different rice varieties are good at different cropping period so that was what they observed. It was very rare when they pick a small portion in the fields and have a different cropping in it because they were experimenting on a new variety of rice. Most of the time if the rice plants are still young, the whole fields are green. If harvesting period is near, the whole fields are golden brown.

The climb to the view deck is almost a ninety-degree hike. I thought I felt my knees touching the slope from time to time. There were few times when we stopped and waited for the senior citizens to catch their breathes and let their knees rest for a while. I guess that was also to our benefit of not straining ourselves too much.

When we finally reached the view deck, this nature beauty presented right before my eyes! It is the more that I noticed the different patches of the fields. I was used to all-gold when harvest time is nearing, all-brown and water when the lands are empty and being tilled, or all-green with young rice plants. I am sure it will be lovelier to see these terraces in single color.

By the way, that area of pool of houses in the middle was where we came from.

The next batch after us finally caught up. We asked our tour guide to take our group picture and this is what I got. Apology to those whose head were cut on the photo but it was not intentional. I was wrong to just take my phone back and go back to taking more photos without checking first our group photo. I could have asked for another shot. Anyway, at least I have this souvenir.

And where were the senior citizens that they were not with us on the photo? They were busy with their own phones shooting here and there.

After the group photo, the others who just caught up got busy too with their phones and cameras. On the other hand, Anne asked that we move on. We asked our tour guide if we can go ahead and she agreed. She said the others can just follow us. She was saying that they won't get lost anyway since the way is not complicated. They just follow the concreted pathway. Yeah, right. The trail is concreted so that makes life of any hikers a lot easier.

She led the way behind the view deck and I was surprised that she "submerged" down the flooring. I looked down and realized that we are descending from the view deck. I thought we will continue climbing. From this spot, a river came to view which I suspect is where the water from the falls flow.

At about one-third of our way down, we came across this thrift shop. It has the typical souvenir items in a tourist spot like key chains, ref magnets, trinkets, purse and more. What's unique in this store were the native products in the mountains like where we were at this point. They have the wood crafts like eagle and carabao table decor, paper holder, ash tray, wooden display utensils and those very cute rattan baskets.

Farther inside the thirst shop is a coffee shop which I was not able to find any poster or signage stating the shop's name. It can not be that Travelista Cafe on Google Maps because that is already very near the falls. That is unless Google Maps miscalculated the scaling.

After we passed through the thrift and coffee shop, this stairwell came into view. The river looks clearer now. I asked our tour guide how far are we yet and she pointed at that snake-like pathway below to the left. She said it is a little just at the "back" of the mountain. Okay, that sounds promisingly near.

When we reached the bottom of the stairwell, the path have flattened somehow. It was an easy walk... Notice that the pathway is still concreted and there is still the hand rail as barrier. This tells me that people in the village have highly considered the safety of their visitors. That is because if someone makes a wrong move from the view deck area, one can end up flowing with the river below.

Then a little more of easy climbing. No sweat. I can almost smell the falls.

Finally, we saw this shanty. For some reasons, I had the impression that this is the view deck to the falls. I was right. And yes, these young boys came way ahead of us. They are the son and nephews of our coordinators who have been here before so they need not a guide.

"It is like a small and solo version of Maria Cristina Falls," was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw Tappiya Falls. With the steam-like splash of the water hitting the pool below, I had the impression that the volume of water coming down is really huge and heavy. That was the same observation I had with Maria Cristina Falls when my friend and I visited it years ago. It is a twin falls with very strong current that gave the government the opportunity to build hydroelectric plant beside it. Back then during our visit, one of the locals were saying that we were lucky because they released the water thus we had a sight to see. That is because sometimes, the government stops the flow of water and trap it into the hydroelectric plant. It is the primary source of electricity of industries in Iligan City.

Of course, the water volume of this Tappiya Falls is much much smaller as compared with Maria Cristina Falls but looking at its current, I can say that it is still strong enough to carry a human being along.

It rained the previous night and early in the morning thus the water was muddy. We asked the tour guide if we can go to the falls and she said it is not recommended because of the previous rains. The ground is muddy, the rocks are slippery and the current is stronger this time so it is a bit unsafe, she said.

So we just kept ourselves busy with photo shoots!

Then here comes the batch behind us. The three senior citizens were with them. The seniors were not able to keep with our pace that they went along with the rest. While they were having a commotion for photo shoots, we were already done and watching them instead.

When Anne said that we start moving on back to our inn, we looked for Jen and she was nowhere to be found. Our tour guide was saying she joined the few who went to the falls area. I asked Anne and Justine if they also want to go and both said no. Well, the three of us listened to our tour guide. I noticed that we were all photo enthusiasts but apparently, safety is still the top priority. We three agreed that we start our way back while the others are still having commotion on who takes whose photo. The tour guide stayed with the majority this time.

The beauty of not being with the whole crowd is that we have the pathway all to ourselves. We were taking all the time we want and not competing with a lot of people to appreciate a view or take a shot of it. These two ladies enjoy resting while appreciating the beauty of nature around us...

... and I did my appreciation by taking photos here and there, including of a worm that majority would consider as a pest! This is just one of the worms that my mother would scare us to stay away from in the fields when we were young. She was saying the spikes would sting so we should never touch worms with the spikes. That kept me away from touching them but did not make me scared after all.

I can not identify the name of this little creature. I thought it is the same as this yellow-winged pareuchaetes caterpillar but I am not so sure.

I've been trying to find Spidey on my next subject but I was not able to. Even catching the threads on camera was a challenge. I did not know what to adjust on the settings so it was I who has been tilting and finding a good angle. That is what happens when you are not really a photographer but just a hobbyist. Thanks to auto-mode of all cameras, including those that are integrated on a phone. And thanks to the rain earlier that made the web more visible. The wet threads look thicker because of the water.

When we first passed by a pool of orange flowers, I was thinking about marigold. Now that we have more time to observe, I realized that it is not marigold. I do not know its name at all but I see these flowers just growing around without being planted and taken cared of, like grasses. I searched the web and finally go to know this flower. It is cosmos flower with scientific name of cosmos sulphureus. It has different shades of color yellow. There are dark orange, orange, yellow and light yellow.

Looking down to my feet, I noticed these cute plants that look like ferns but small enough to be classified as moss. I did not know its name but what amused me to take a photo is how they lined up decorating a rock. These will be very nice to have in a home landscape. In the city, these will cost money and will not be cheap. Here, there are many of these around that one can take home as many as he wants for free. I can not help to think how one place has abundant supply of something while it is scarce in other places. If the locals can learn to earn from what they have, that will certainly help their way of living. However, on another thought, I'd rather that the locals leave these natures untouched.

By the way, my Google search resulted to Thuidium tamariscinum as the name of the moss.

When we got back at the view deck, we definitely took more time in taking photos. These two ladies enjoyed selfies...

... while I can not help taking a lot of shots of the beautiful nature in front of me.

When Anne noticed that I was not taking photos of myself, she volunteered to take mine. I said I am fine and declined her offer but she insisted. She took my phone and motioned me towards the edge of the platform.

"So how do you want me to pose? Just stand here and face you with the view at my back?" I asked her.

She said yes at first. She took a couple of shots for my solo facing her. Then she asked me to turn around, face the rice terraces and raise my hands like a free-willy. Her idea came out really great. It looked like I conquered the world. I love this shot!

We were enjoying our photo shoots when a young local guy came and stood by. He was observing us. I started a conversation in Ilocano dialect as I was sure he will understand. I asked how many cropping do they have in a year and he said, "it depends." I asked further and I did not understand what he said. Oh well, he is just a teenager. He may help in the fields but my not care about cropping cycle.

Then he asked if we are with the tourists who lost their helicopter yesterday. Yes, he said the word helicopter so I stared at him.

"You mean there was helicopter crash here yesterday!?"

"Yes. There were foreigners who came here yesterday asking if we saw their helicopter. The very small one."

"Ahhhh! Drone!" I exclaimed. Not helicopter. I thought I would burst into laughter but for some reasons, the joke did not kick in.

"Why are they looking for their drone? What happened?" I asked instead.

"They said it ran out of battery power so it crashed somewhere."

I frowned at him. "Why would anyone fly a drone without making sure that it has enough power to fly?"

He laughed. "They said they forgot to re-charge last night."

I frowned all the more, and he laughed louder. We both understood the unspoken.

Not a soul from our fellow volunteers have shown up yet when we looked down behind the view deck. We decided to move on and get down.

A big thanks to the locals who concreted the whole length of the trail. If it was not concreted, I can only imagine the mud and possible accidents that we could have encountered given that it rained.

Down the stairway from the view deck, we enjoyed the sight and fresh air of the rice fields. Anne took the opportunity to have photo shoots while she "owns" the place all to herself. I realized later that I envy my shot of her in the middle of the fields. I too should have had one. Well, regret always comes later.

We kept our distances as Anne and Justine were exploring the rice fields. I was catching other creatures. I just wished they cooperate with the camera but not all of them did like this red dragonfly. At least I was able to capture it on a rice leaf and not while flying. I could have fallen down the riprap following it.

Aside from catching insects, I was also observing the rice plants. It was a saddening sight because the grains were not good. They were infested by pests. Harvest will be bad and I can not help to think how bad the farmers will feel. It takes so much of hard labor to till the lands, plant the rice and take care of them, only to come to the end of not having anything to harvest.

When Anne came back to join me, I told her about my observation that the harvest will not be good for the owner of the field where we were standing on. She asked why.

"Look at the rice grains. They are not good. They were infested by insects."

"How did you know? How do you tell good from bad grains?"

"Look at the grains again. Those with dark brown color which are many are not good. Most are flattened and not full. That means insects sucked the content before it even gets matured. Nothing will develop into full grain now."

She asked then how good grains would look like. I can not find a whole panicle with good grains so I told her that I will show her when I find one. What I showed her instead is this panicle with a pest camouflaging with the grains. Do you see the insect?

The rice grains are still young and supposed to be forming its content. But with the pest hovering over it, the grains were already consumed before it got matured. That dark brown grain has nothing in it anymore. That pest got them all. This is the challenge when you want to go organic and yet pests are the enemies. These little devils will not respect the thought of organic product for humans.

I hoped to find a panicle of good grains and show to Anne before we leave. I will keep an eye on the plants along the way while we are still in Batad.

She asked how I knew that much about rice planting. It was simple. I am a couple of farmers' daughter.

The hike was so exciting that we had a great early morning exercise. When we got back to the inn, we immediately lined up to the bathrooms before the mob arrives. At least we were not competing with four bathrooms. Let the other 26 find their slots later on. We will see how fast we all can get ready for our trip back to Manila. It will be another climb, the reverse of our descend yesterday.

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