The Lakwatserang negra: Exploring Dumaguete

Day 2: August 19 2016

We had to slow down because we need to find a place to transfer before moving on with our itinerary. We find the PHP 1000 room expensive. We changed our itinerary and decided to start with the city tour instead.

My body is still aching probably because we're on the roll whole day yesterday.
We woke up very early but chose to stay in bed for few hours planning where to go the whole day.
Went up to Harold's roof top to eat free Filipino breakfast at 8:00 AM. I was actually expecting silogs but my expectations is far from reality.

Menu (free)
Pandesal with coco jam
Toasted bread
Hot Chocolate
Sticky rice
Tea
Coffee

9:00 AM Went out to start our city tour but before that we head to Harold's dive shop which is just 1 door away from Harold's and scheduled our Apo Island trip on a Saturday.

Package fee: PHP 1200/pax (includes lunch, gears, land and boat transportation)

Walking on an endless concrete road, All affordable accommodations are fully booked.
Decided to rent a Motorbike and proceed to Casaroro falls in Valencia.

There's an ongoing road improvement going to the falls that's why we had to use this improvised stair to our own convenience.

We started the trek going down to a countless concrete stairs.

Entrance fee: PHP 10/pax

100 or 200 or 400 step ish, I lose counting.

I am already imagining our faces back, I'm sure our tongue would probably on the ground when we get back lol.

At the bottom we start trekking and passed huge boulders. There is no clear trail because it was broken by flash flood i think. It's only the 2 of us and we are just following our instinct on which way to go.

Cross cold streams

The path felt endless, I was even thinking about giving up but when I heard the gush of water it made me realize that maybe we're close, we both exclaimed "you better be worth it!"
The falls is high, the water falls to a small basin and all I can say is everything was worth it!

We enjoyed soaking on the cold water and the silence with nature. It was fun.
It helped us detoxify and clear our minds.

And of course I will not miss taking a pose to this lovely place.

From Falls back to the stairs took us around 13 mins.
Might take you longer on the way to the falls as mentioned above there's no clear trail, you have to figure it out yourselves. Trust your guts in other words.
From the bottom of the stairs to top, it took us 15 mins of course with rest periods in between. I was expecting that it would take us roughly 30 minutes.

12:24 PM The Forest camp

Entrance fee: PHP 90/pax

Ate our lunch, their price is quite reasonable.
We ordered pancit guisado - recommended!!
Grilled pork

We met a group of tourists while eating, they were really friendly.

Shared them my thoughts on Apo Island and Siquijor. You know it's heartwarming to know that people take away something from my experiences.

Experienced the super COLD water for a bit

This place got so many things to offer. Aside from it's natural springs, you can also enjoy their Horse back riding and wall climbing etc. Kindly visit their website for more information.

2:00 PM head to Red Rock hot spring

Going to the spring is not so easy nor hard. Some sections of the road are well paved while some are not.

We asked few locals to reach our destination

It's just a single pool but if you will be going here on small group I think you will appreciate it more. Less people, less noise, less stress.

There is an ongoing improvements on the area.

After a really tiring trek and stair hike in Casaroro falls I think its fun to treat yourself swimming to this relaxing place. It's a good place to be. Rest your body and let the warm water do its job.

Rocks are close to color red on the surrounding area and that's probably the reason why they call it "Pulang Bato"

Skipped twin falls which is just few meters away from Red Rock hotspring.

4:00 back to Harold's Mansion.
Dumaguete city was known to be the motorcycle capital of the Philippines. Most locals use motorcycle on their day to day life.