after the successful, albeit suicidal, trek up to the miraculous shrine of st. joseph, we went back to the lowlands to have our fill of lunch. oober hearty lunch! and to pick up the thesis-ers and to refill our stash of yosi.

we then met up with our tour guides from the dept of tourism, spearheaded by ah-reden (reden lang, actually, without the ah). a lot of scuffling and cramming to get to our destination before the sun fails on us and we were on our way to the foot of the mountain where we were set yet again to climb.

thank god for the habal-habals, the motorcycles' four wheel drive version, and to our very capable manong kickass driver! still, it was no laidback ride up, as we soon found ourselves wishing to just get off the damned bike and just walk all the way up again.

after the life-threatening cruise by the side of the mountain, we then started on yet another trek, this time to cross the batis, cling to ravines (not really, pero something like that) and do gymnastic splits on boulders amidst the rushing fresh water. i swear, kung may pagiisip lang ng sarili ang mga paa ko, sinipa na nila ko sa pagod.

but upon reaching our destination, the cagnitoan falls, all the exhaustion evaporated into the air. it was breathtaking, and the pool was just so refreshing. really cold, too. kaya mahirap magwiwi kase mabubuko agad. hehehe.

to make the most of the time left (we got there around 2pm), we decided to go into the cave then. from the mouth of the cave, we had to swim some 30 meters of about seven feet deep waters. for those who swim, oks lang sya. but the thing was there were about 15 of us, and we only had one working gasera, and one headlight - as in yung flashlight na nakakabit sa helmet ni ah-reden. scary! pero exciting!

anyhow, so we all managed to get in and out of the cave alive, but with no pics, kase nga i left my underwater cam in my overeagerness that morning. T_T thank god for fischer's oober reliable ziplock, which housed her wallet, her celfone, and her digicam. whoohoo!!! at dahil dun, may pictures kame sa bunganga ng cave. at saka sa pagtalon sa falls. wheee!!!

my favorite: odie's attempted-dive-turned-belly-flop-splat-painful-oh-painful-maneuver. lurvs it! ;) pish!

lessons for this trip:
1) trust in the almighty ziplock! they work!
2) trust in the mighty havaianas. in fairness... pwedeng pambundok.
3) when jumping off a falls DO NOT HESITATE.