Pagsanjan: Magdapio Falls

That photo is my husband's. He just used his Samsung camera phone. Anyway, the falls is breathtaking even in the pictures! Had he used a much sophisticated camera, it would have been better. But then again, we don't own one although I hope I could give him that someday as a gift. As I've ranted in my previous post, I was left to enjoy at least two orders of Aling Taleng's Halohalo while they conquered the Pagsanjan River to see the the infamous Pagsanjan Falls which is actually the Magdapio Falls located at Cavinti which is another town bordering Pagsansan at the east. They were charged with 1250 Php each wherein two of them share in a boat navigated through the Pagsanjan "rapids" by two boatmen. This included the balsa ride to the cave behind the falls. (balsa is a bamboo raft) Also, a group could stay as long as they want at the falls since the boatmen are there to wait on you for the rest of the day since they could only afford a single trip to the falls due to their (boatmen) number in queue for tourist. They (husband, sis-in-law, brother & future sis-in-law) were four together which meant they hired 2 boats to get them there. It was Aling Taleng's son who helped us get to trustworthy boatmen. If you were to take the rapids alone, then, you ought to pay them for two still. Had we came on off-peak season, the rate would have been only 1000 Php. By the way, Aling Taleng's is a stone's throw away from the Pagsanjan Church which is a sight of its own as well while the entry point to conquering the rapids is but less than 5 minute walk from the halohalo place.

Pagsanjan: Aling Taleng's Halohalo

Last weekend, my brother & his girlfriend went to visit us here in Laguna. We went for a road trip last Saturday to see Paete and Pagsanjan along with my ever loving husband and my sis-in-law who drove our party of five around (or six if you'd count our baby Joram in my tummy). As I am in my 7th month of pregnancy, I did not join them in shooting the rapids and conquering the Magdapio Falls, better known as the Pagsanjan Falls. Instead, I just stayed at Aling Taleng's quaint place where I enjoyed their famed halohalo. I need to borrow someone else's photograph which I found at Google since none of us remembered to take a picture of it before we went ahead and mix it. The truth is, I was excited to taste it! And indeed, it did not disappoint. It is the first ever halohalo that I had eaten to the last drop. And it is the first time that I didn't have to add sugar nor milk/creamer to it. It is the best I've had, no doubt!

photobook: our first road trip

These pictures are from our first road trip last September. We took a trip around Laguna, the province where we're in. I hope I have a picture of the province's map here but I don't. There's a lot of it at Google though. ^^< That was a Saturday... we started left Binan at 7am right after breakfast which we learnt later that we should have left earlier because the toll gate had about 500m of traffic with the Pansol tourists (Pansol, barangay in Calamba, is a popular destination among NCR pips for their private hot spring pools). We drove through Los Banos, Bae, Victoria, Pagsanjan, Cavinti and Lumban. We decided to head back home at around 3pm because the sky was threatening a heavy rain and we are still 3 hours away from home. No. we weren't able to look up all the places that we would have wanted to go to but there would be plenty of time indeed to catch up when we'd be having visitors. This May, we are expecting Ate Rieza and her family, and Jon (my real big brother) and Tintin (his gf). With Ate Rieza, we would probably be going on a visita de Iglesia here in Laguna where there's plenty of old Catholic churches. While with Jon, we're going to go to Pagsanjan to shoot the rapids in the renowned falls (but I couldn't do this because of my pregnancy although I could really go with them for the drive) and maybe to Paete and Antipolo for some exotic dish (frogs, lizards and snakes)! I'd go for simple fish or pork... a pregnant tummy is not a good time to experiment on weird food. Since, I am so inspired in making photobooks which I probably couldn't print. So, I'm posting them here instead. I'm looking at printing all of these photobooks in one thick one which will be BOOK 1 of the DENNIES & JOY. (dating from Januray 2010 to August 2011) It is a blessing to be in love to my big love, my best friend and big brother especially since I don't think I deserve this much! Thank you, Lord!