SENIOR BYAHERO
Pagsanjan Falls does not exist. Try searching “Pagsanjan Falls” on Google Earth and you won’t find any. So, what happened to the Philippines’ most popular waterfalls?
The name Pagsanjan Falls probably started during the early years of American occupation in the Philip-pines. Pagsanjan was the commercial capital and trading center of Laguna, being accessible by boat from Manila via Pasig River and Laguna de Bay, and by river from mountain towns along Sierra Madre. The first Americans were probably travelers and they got bored staying in Manila, and so they went to Pagsanjan looking for adventure. They found the two confluence of two rivers, Bumbungan and Balanac, where the name of Pagsanjan came (‘Pinagsangahan,’) and explored upriver and discovered a magnificent 390-ft. waterfalls at the end after paddling for over five kilometers. They actually reached Magdapio Falls at the next town of Cavinti, but having accessed it from Pagsanjan, it was simply called Pagsanjan Falls.
News of a magnificent waterfalls easily spread, and tourists, mostly Americans, started coming in to the sleepy town of Pagsanjan. A train line from Manila, connecting via Calamba, was soon opened in 1912 to make travels to this new tourist town faster. Hotels and resorts were built to cater to tourists who came to “shoot the rapids.”
Rafting to Devil's Cave
Pagsanjan Falls became Laguna’s most popular destination for many decades, until the 1990s when its reputation started to go sour. News of guides overcharging tourists, prostitution and child exploitation started to spread and Pagsanjan Falls became a tourism embarrassment.
Cavinti also came to claim the waterfalls that is rightfully theirs. They built a backdoor trail from Pueblo El Salvador made up of steep steel ladders that go all the way down to the waterfalls, which the local government also campaigned to be called by its original name, Cavinti Falls.
I have tried the backdoor trail in 2014, and it was physically punishing. My body was sore for several days for pulling my whole-body weight up 580 steps of vertical ladders, and I promised never to do it again.
But the planets conjured that I must try it again when I received the invitation from the municipal government of Cavinti to explore their eco-adventure destinations, including Cavinti Falls.
Steel Ladder
I arrived at Pueblo El Salvador together with a group of influencers and vloggers. I was looking at the group and saw that many of them were half my age. They had no idea of how things will go through, but when we were told to start wearing our belt harnesses, things started to get more exciting. I was getting jittery about how this 61-year-old man can keep up with the pace with the millennials.
From the park, we walked on a paved road for about 15 minutes before we reached the start of the narrow trail descending to the waterfalls. From there, its another 15 minutes of trekking along gravel path with exposed roots of giant trees leading to the view deck where the life size statue of El Salvador del Mundo, the patron saint of Cavinti, stood.
The view deck was the final rest before we hit the series of vertical ladders. I started to get worried that I will delay the line as I started going down on the ladder, a step at a time. I became even more nervous when it was time to rappel on the 15-meter shoot. “Just relax,” shouted the guide as he released the rope to lower my body. “Good job, sir!” said the young vlogger who waited patiently for me at the bottom of the ladder. “I wish I can do that when I reach your age,” added the young man.
Cavinti Falls
I felt better after hearing that. I never realized that while most people my age simply stay home, I continue to do things that I enjoy most like travelling and doing adventures, and that I’m inspiring a new breed of travelers that we can travel at any age.
After that, the second rappel and the vertical descend to the waterfalls was a breeze. I reached the waterfalls with a smile on my face knowing that this is what I love doing most. Retirement is just retirement from work, but never about retirement from things that make us happy. Pagsanjan Falls is long gone, but here’s Cavinti Falls, the same waterfalls that continue to challenge us and make us happy.
(The author is a senior who recently retired. His taste for adventure has not kept him from travelling, usually via not-so-usual routes.)