Philippines: Casaroro Falls & Twin Lakes

From Cebu we hopped on an OceanJet boat with free wifi for an ocean voyage toward the south to Dumaguete. We loaded up on ginger pills in anticipation of seasickness since neither of us had ever really been on the ocean before. We expected the trip to take about 4 hours from what everyone in Cebu had told us. We watched the sunset on the water as we cruised out to the sea. Neither of us got sick until the sun went down. With the sun went the horizon and there was nothing for us to fix our gaze on as we tossed up and down on the ocean water. To top it all off they played a movie on big screen tv in the boat. The movie was 2012. I watched this movie in horror as the ocean capsized boat after boat, drowning thousands of people in it's wake. Unable to watch the movie, I stared off into the black abyss of the deep, dark ocean. Looking for some sign of land, 4 hours soon became 6 and we eventually got to the dock in Dumaguete which may have been the worst of it. The tide was coming in and while we were on the dock the boat was swaying up and down creating some of the worst seasickness of the trip. Solid ground was home for us as we made our way from the boat to the dock. I felt like dropping to my knees and thanking God for our safe journey. Our bags were tossed to the dock from the back of the boat and I noticed some guy was there hanging around Dayton. I figured he was from out hostel since they offered a free pick-up service. This man showed us to his Tuk-Tuk and we hopped on while he took us to town. (literally and figuratively) He drove us in what seemed like a big circle, stopping at a gas station, he filled his bike then made us front the bill. Then another circle to our hostel, Harold's Mansion. We had been taken, it was embarrassing. I think we both wanted to hunt down that tuk-tuk driver and punch him in the stomach. I'd be lying if I said for the rest of our stay in Dumaguete I wasn't keeping an eye out for him. We were both exhausted and ready for a deep sleep. We checked in with a very nice receptionist whom we came to call Inez. No, that isn't her real name, but she looks like Inez from Bottle Rocket. And no, she didn't like it that we called her Inez. The next morning we joined an "adventure" guided tour to Casaroro Falls and Twin Lakes by our soon to be good friend, Glenn. We rode in the back of a small truck with a married couple. The man was form Holland and the woman was Filipino. They were very nice people and we enjoyed the time spent with them. The truck drove us through some small towns, one in particular was amazing. The town of Valencia sits on the foothills of the mountains near the southern tip of the Negros. It is a small town, with a few churches (one LDS) , a school, a market and a public pool. After driving through I was filled with the desire to live there one day. We'll see. :) We made our way up a canyon road until we parked the truck to walk the rest of the way. We made our way up a jungle road through amazing palm trees and small bamboo huts where local farmers live. I was impressed with their humble dwellings and simple lives. I wouldn't mind living that way myself. We eventually reached the trail head to the falls and made our way down many many steps until we got to the bottom of a deep canyon. Following a path though the jungle we rounded a corner and were awestruck by the view of the falls coming down a wall of green jungle plants. The falls landed in a pool of deep green water which was more than inviting after our hot, humid descent. We took some time to swim around near the falls and even found a decent rock to cliff jump off. It was amazing to feel the current of the water pushing me away from the falls the very moment I landed in the water. We hung out there for a while, enjoying the cool water and surrounding jungle. We made our way back up the stairs to the truck and we were off to our next stop: Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is on top of two sister volcanoes. The two craters are filled with water forming two beautiful lakes. We hung out at one of the lakes, ate lunch, swam in the cold water and enjoyed the sunshine. I was still feeling pretty tired and being able to relax by the lake was really refreshing. On our way back to the hostel Glenn pulled over and got out of the truck to take a leak, then asked us to follow him up a hill to look over Dumaguete. The view was amazing, we could see surrounding islands off in the distance and the entire city of Dumaguete. My desire grew even more to live in this place. Mountains, beach, ocean, hiking, mangoes... what more could I ask for? I was quickly falling in love with this place and was happy to remember that we still had a few more days to enjoy it. Once we made our way back to the hostel we had some dinner and called it a night. I fell asleep to dreams of all the adventures that still lay ahead.