The Last Rainforest

During our two day vacation from teaching English, we decided to go visit Kevin, a Peace Corps volunteer assigned in Northwest Panay Pennisula. We have visited before but never had a chance to hike around the area, which contains some of the last rainforest remaining on the island of Panay. So with our minds set on some exploration and exercise we headed of from our city life into the wilds of the jungle.

We arrived at Kevin's, in the town of Pandan, in the late afternoon and started out on a leisurely 15 mile bike ride to the next town of Libertad, where we would hike the next day. The bike ride was the best I have been on in the Philippines. It took us through vibrant green rice fields and along a gorgeous coastline bounded by the nearby mountains. We arrived in Libertad before dark and decided to head into town for some dinner and videoke. Our guide, an employee of the municipal hall who Kevin had previously met, took us to the only place that was open where we were greeted by an eccentric host from Manila who welcomed us to his "sanctuary." I do not know how sanctuarious it was but we filled our faces and belted out a few songs before hitting the hay.

We awoke in the morning and headed for the barangay of Inyawan where Kevin had arranged a guide. After a few wrong turns and a bit of confusion about where we were going we arrived in Inyawan to find that they did not know we were coming and did not know about any arranged guide. But within 10 minutes, three teenage boys were rounded up and they were more than willing to lead us on a trek to the Inyawan Falls. So once we were ready, our eager guides dashed off through the creeks and rice fields with the three of us in tow.

We scurried through the forest along the river (because upland Pinoys can scurry like the devil over slippery rocks and makeshift bamboo bridges) for about two hours until we came to the first falls. As I expected it was like many waterfalls that I have seen here in the Philippines: very pretty but nothing to raise your eyebrows at. It was alright though, since the main reason I came here was for a chance to get some fresh air in the woods. Our guides told us that the trail kept on going and there were more falls ahead. So we moved on and sure enough about thirty minutes later there was another set of falls (another dinky 10 foot one). But then to our surprise not much further was the most impressive waterfall that I seen in the 'Pines. It was over 100 feet tall; just a gorgeous torential stream off water dropping off a cliff of green. It was a projectile waterfall as it shot out some 10 feet away from the cliff. It was awesome to say the least.

Along the way we were able to see some decent forest and some really big trees which made us happy. Not much wildlife other than a few millipedes and freshwater shrimp that the boys were continually looking for while guiding us. We also saw some large tracts of forest that had recently been cut and burn. Unfortunately, this last area of rainforest is feeling the effect of the surrounding population of slash and burn farmers and palm plantations. It always makes me sad to see what is happening here to the dwindling natural resources. But the view of these falls, the clear streams and the outlooks from the top of the mountains made us all very content and lucky to be there.

After our longer than expected hike we jumped on our bikes and headed back to Pandan. It got dark before we arrived and we rode the last ten kilometers by headlamp. By the time we reached the restaurant for dinner, exhaustion had set in and tensions were high. This was cured by a large meal however and we were all satisfied with a great day in the forest.