April 26,

We awoke and had our morning routine of Javas. Our place had some Malaysian brand coffee beans that I have had for a couple of days. It is good, and has been a nice change. It will also enable me to get through without having to buy more beans before we leave the Philippines. Breakfast was Muesli with chocolate milk, yogurt, and we split the last bagel. Then we hung out until lunchtime, watching some YouTube.

Around noon, we headed out on the scooter. We had another waterfall in mind. But as we were heading there Google maps lead us astray. We decided to just keep going uphill as far as the road went. That turned out to be at Bashaco Mountain Restaurant, which was where Baslay Highland Brew Coffee is. They sell Philippine Baslay Forrest Coffee. (I did not try it, because I did not need any.) The place is up at 2600′ elevation, with sweeping views down the mountain, to the coast line and then the ocean to the unknown horizon due to haziness of the clouds. It was cool and just refreshing to sit and enjoy. While we waited for our food, we saw four or five, free range turkeys. We haven’t seen those in quite awhile – since Vietnam on our motorcycle tour, I think. Our food arrived – we had a Pork Sisig, which was pork seasoned with Calamansi, onion and chili peppers & an egg, all sizzling on a hot plate; and an order of Potato & Mushroom Fries, which was fries with a sauce and mushrooms. I had a Calamansi and Honey Slush; Jeff had a Buko Shake. The meal cost us 742 PHP or $13.19.

When we finished we left, back tracking, and found the waterfall turn. You actually go through someone’s property to get back to it. We arrived and were warned by the “dog patrol” that it is someone’s place, called Malmag Farmhouse Park. The falls are called Malmag Waterfalls. A lady shushed the dogs, greeted us, and pointed the direction to go – following the white painted dots marking the trail. There was no entry fee, but there’s a donation box. We started noticing the downhill trail is covered in loose leaves and steep at times, no stairs, very natural. The white circle marks do stick out well. As we continued, about six to eight people greeted us – they were leaving and had been swimming. I asked and they said it was good. We have had our bathing suits on under our clothes hoping that would be the case. The trail then came to the stream, it was not as full or rapid flowing as the one yesterday. We did have to cross through it a couple of times to get back to the fall. The water is warmer than yesterday. We saw on the map there are some hot-springs nearby.

As we arrived, we noticed the first small fall going into a little pool. A man and the young boy were enjoying this first pool. The lady was just off on the side enjoying watching them. We stepped closer to see the other part of the waterfall. It shoots down a slot canyon like area into an upper second pool. We did not get into the pool or explore to see a better view of the upper fall/rapid area. It seemed it would take some maneuvering – beyond my capability – to get up there. We took some pictures and decided to leave without swimming. The pool is little and we did not want to disturb the family. The kid was really enjoying the pool and waterfall – it was worth just hearing his enjoyment. Once we returned to the scooter, Jeff gave a 50 PHP ($0.89) donation.

We loaded up and returned back to Dumaguete. We went by where we think the church meets. Then returned to our place. We cooled off and relaxed. I thought of going to the swimming pool here but changed my mind, as I am tuckered out. My cold is way better, but still recovering a bit. Afternoon turned to evening without a real sunset. Jeff got us some Lechon from a local place, and I chopped up some onion and garlic adding to our leftover Mexican rice. We also had another Chilean wine. It was another good venture day!