 |
| Hulugan Falls, Luisiana, Laguna |
How To Get There?
From Buendia, we took the first trip (4:00 a.m.) of DLTB bound to Sta. Cruz, Laguna and arrived at Suncres Mall by 6:00 a.m. At the side of the mall were jeepneys bound to Lucban/Lucena wherein you can ask the driver to drop you off in San Salvador. From the arch, you can start walking if you want to have a warm up or take a tricycle down to the house of the Capt. Ramon Rocreo for registration and a short orientation. According to the wife of the captain, Hulugan Falls was just accidentally discovered by a lost man in their area up until it was visited by Biyahe Ni Drew sometime in November 2015 that tourists started gone wild to see the 70-meter waterfalls in Luisiana.
We paid the P20.00/head registration fee and start our chasing waterfalls for the Hearts' Day. Our tour guide during our visit was Mr. Rommel Fernandez, the head of the 120 tour guides. According to him, it is best not to contact any of them for your future visits so that all of his other colleagues will have equal chances. Even though, they have this numbering of tour guide, might as well respect their rules which I think is fare enough especially that being a tour guide is one of their livelihood nowadays.
We didn't know that it rained the night before our visit and Sir Rommel warned us about the muddy trail ahead. After roughly 30 minutes, we reached Talay Falls. Mona decided to wear her slippers instead of her shoes and eventually ended up bear foot as we go along.
 |
| Talay Falls (Mona, Joan, and Me) |
 |
| Hidden Falls |
Kuya Rommel informed us that we can eat at the cottages located before the Hidden Falls, but we opted to continue with the trail after our photo ops. Besides, the three falls were merely 30 minutes apart and it's a good thing to enjoy the beauty of Hulugan Falls while having our snacks. We went back at the Captain's House for tidy up and asked about side trips nearby. They suggested Kamayan sa Palaisdaan for lunch and Kamay Ni Hesus later that afternoon. After we ate at the Palaisdaan, it is already raining so were not able to visit Kamay ni Hesus. We went back to Manila and still in awe of the our chasing waterfalls experience in Luisiana.
Backpacker Tips:
- Take a weekday trip to avoid the large number of tourists.
- Cut off time is 3 p.m. for tourists coming in and they should be back at the jump off by 5:00 p.m.
- Bring insect repellent.
- Wear trek shoes/sandals for your safety especially during the rainy season where the trails gets a bit hard for you to reach one waterfall to another.
- Bring enough water and trail food since there were no stores inside the forest.
- Always check for weather forecast before scheduling a visit.
Expenses: (P457.00/head; food not included)
- DLTB Bus (Sta. Cruz): P132.00/head
- Jeepney (San Salvador): P30.00/head
- Tricycle (Captain's House): P20.00/head
- Registration Fee: P20.00
- Standard Guide Fee: P300.00/3 pax
- Tidy Up: (P15.00)
- LLI Bus (Buendia): P140.00
