Budget for Baler

When I was searching for other things to do in Baler other than surfing, the usual stuff was the city tour that would cover the Museo de Baler, Dona Aurora House, Ermita Hills, Baler church, Dimadimalangat ISlet, Daguisit Beach, Anao Islet, Cunayan Falls, Ditumabo Falls (Mother Falls), and Balete Tree. So when we got in Baler, we decided to visit most of these spots in one day to maximize our pay to the tricycle. Ofcourse, this is a do-it-yourself trip. :-)

Here is a suggested budget and itinerary for 4 persons: (Baler for less than Php 2,000.00)

Budget and Itinerary

Note that we visited Baler last 18-19, 2013 so it was still peak season so we didn’t have to reserve a seat since there were a lot of buses travelling from Cubao to Baler. Upon arrival, we were informed that there Joy Bus (which was a lot more expensive than the normal aircon bus) was already full. And that there were direct trips from Baler to Cubao but it will only be until 11AM in the morning so we opted for the Baler-Cabanatuan-Cubao route since we wanted to leave in the afternoon.

We booked at Pedervera since they were the only one who had an extra room to accommodate the four of us. They offer free pick up to and from the Terminal so that’s a saving of Php15.00 per way.

It can also be cheaper to cook you own dinner since Pedervera has a kitchen where you can cook and some utensils that you can borrow, but ofcourse, that would depend on your group’s number.

If you’re planning to visit Baler, you can contact Kuya Clifford for a Tricycle tour of Baler with a free tour guide and photographer: 0916 630 4022

I highly recommend that first time travellers to Baler take the Baler tour to maximize their time. The Mother Falls experience was really awesome as the hike was a great exercise and the water was soooooo cool and refreshing.

Here are some shots from our Baler Weekend Getaway

Mother Falls

The Balete Tree

On the way to Mother Falls

Surfing 101

Spelunking at Ambongdolan Caves - Bengaongao Cave

After our Paterno Cave adventure, we walked a few meters for our next cave - Bengaongao Cave. Before we got there, we had to walk down around 700 steps. There is a diversion at the end of the stairs. Taking the right path leads to the river where we ate our lunch. The left path leads to the Bengaongao Cave.

Since we were all tired from the crawling, climbing and walking inside Paterno Cave, we decided to take our lunch at the river bed. This is yet another memorable experience especially for the kids who seldom experience eating in such a lovely place.

Preparing for lunch



Yum yum yum

  
 

Im on top of the .... rock!

After satisfying our tummy, we then headed to Bengangao Cave. The entrance was as big as the entrance of Sumaguig cave in Sagada. We were told by the guide that not everyone who visited Ambongdolan was able to visit this cave since this cave easily gets flooded because of the river water that passes through it. We were lucky it was not raining... yet.

 Upon entering the cave, we immidiately noticed this formation. It was called the mushroom. It was really nice.

Climbing up

 Getting inside the cave was more challenging since the floor is a bit slippery and there's no rope to hold to. So making a small mistake is not acceptable.

Walking up the slippery floor

 After the great challenge, we were greeted by this formation. It was called the heart of the cave. It was so beautiful that the challenge of seeing it was all worth it.

 After seeing the heart of the cave, we had to climb down but we did not take the same route. The guides then had to prepare the ropes since we had to rapel in some instances to get ourselves down.

Rapelling

This adventure was really awesome! It was a day well spent. It was a great bonding with the family and relatives. And best of all, it was a great Mother's Day treat to all the mothers who were with us.

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Spelunking at the Ambongdolan Caves - Paterno Cave

As a celebration of Mother's Day 2013, I decided to take my family and some relative to the Ambongdolan caves in Tublay, Benguet. The place was just 2 hours away from Baguio City.

When we got there, we registered then went to the Paterno cave entrance where we had a brief orientation conducted by our tour guides.

Listening to the orientation

 After the orientation, we went down a steep stair where we saw the entrance to the cave. Everyone was laughing when they saw the entrance since it was so small that we had to crawl to get inside the cave. Little did we know that there was a smaller hole just after we enter this opening.

Crawling from the entrance of the cave

 When we got to the cave itself, we were greeted by some very nice formations:

Formations inside Paterno Cave

We had to wait for our turn to go down since the stairs are only made of wood and could only hold one person at a time:

 Then, after the wooden stairs, we had to walk through a long metal stairs:

 Some of the formations we passed by:

 We thought that the entrance we passed through was already the entrance to the cave. We were wrong. It was just a way to get to the cave's main entrance. When we got in Paterno cave, we were immediately amazed at the wonderful formations:



Happy relatives inside Paterno Cave

 More formations:

 When it was time to go back, we were told that we had to use the same route we took going inside the cave. We were a bit worried since the path was slippery. But thankfully we made it.

Going down

 The most exciting part of this adventure was passing through the two openings. Here a picture of the second opening.

Passing through the narrow opening

For those interested to visit the Paterno Cave or any of the Ambongdolan Caves, you may contact the guides at 0918 495 4531. Hope more Filipinos, especially Baguio residents, visit these caves. It's so much fun!

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Mt. Pulag Friendship Climb

I joined the 5th Friendship climb to Mt. Pulag organized by Sir Jovi from Adventurista Camping trip. Since we were around 50 participants from Manila, he hired a tour bus to bring us from Manila (Crossing in Shaw) to Baguio. We left Manila around 10PM and were in Bagauio around 3AM. We were picked up by the hired jeepneys at the gasoline station accross Victory Liner in Baguio. And before we knew it, we were on our way to Mt. Pulag!

But we had to stop by at this restaurant for our breakfast and packed lunch:

Before we went our way, some of the participants wanted to try the "Top Load" so they positioned themselves at the top of the jeepney.

 And off we go.... Next stop was the DENR where we listened to the orientation on the do's and don'ts while at the camp site and the summit.


After the orientation, we then headed to the ranger's camp. Here are some of the pictures on the way to the Ranger's Camp:

At the Ranger's Camp, we ate our lunch before starting the trek towards the camp site:



And the trek starts here




Spring water



Going up to campsite

When we arrived at the campsite, we had to set our tent. Since we were so tired, we took some pictures of the view then slept and waited for the food to be cooked. Haha.

Setting up the tents at the Camp Site



Lovely grassland


 We woke up around 3AM to eat some noodles as preparation for the climb to the summit. At around 3:30AM, we were gathered for a brief orientation before we started the trek. It was good that I brough my flashlight. It was really useful during the climb since it was so dark and all we can see were the lights from the other participants.


On the way to the summit

After an hour of trekking, we finally got to the summit and it was almost sunrise. We were lucky we saw the sea of clouds. The view was just breath-taking:


My first sea of clouds



A panoramic view





Beautiful





Here comes Mr. Sun

Since we were able to witness the great view and it was becoming too cold for us, we decided to go back to the camp site:

On the way back to camp site

 Some of the wonderful grasslands we saw on the way back to site:

From the camp site, we were able to see the mountains we had to pass by to get to the summit. Just look at how far the summit it!

When we got down to the ranger's camp, some of us took a bath there. The others waited till we get to Ate Gina's place to refresh. After that, we had lunch at Ate Gina's Restaurant (the same place we had breakfast the day before).

Before finally going back to Baguio, we had a quick stop at the Ambuklao dam for a quick picture taking and distribution of the certificates from DENR.

 The Pulag experience is a memorable one. The climb, the temperature, the new friends, the over all experience was just priceless.

Hope more Filipinos get to experience this too.