Philippines, Pagsanjan Falls

Well, I’m home now from that super camping trip to Dungeness and then to Chimacum. I have great memories from that trip.

Such memories are certainly wonderful, aren’t they? Some of you will remember that I lived in the Philippine Islands, in a very nice home in Forbes Park, just outside Manila, with my parents and my brother. And boy do I have memories of those five-and-a-half years as a kid growing up there!

One memory that has resurfaced over and over in the past 30 years or so is a driving trip our family took to a small village in the forest/jungle, where we stayed overnight in a rather rustic “hotel” with mosquito netting everywhere. In the morning we walked down to the river’s edge, put on life jackets, and climbed into two long wooden canoes … my Mom and I in one canoe, and my Dad and brother in the other canoe. Two Filipino fellows got in each of our canoes (one in the bow, one in the stern) and they proceeded to paddle us up-river through gorgeous, magnificent jungle, and up and over rapids and rocks, across many calm stretches of the river too, eventually arriving at a glorious waterfall. We had timed the trip so we would be there just at the very end of the rainy season, so the falls would be full and stunning.

But for the life of me, I haven’t been able to remember the name of that village nor the name of the waterfall … until today! It popped into my head like it had been there all along. 🙂

Pagsanjan Falls! and the name of the village was also Pagsanjan, located in the province of Laguna on the island of Luzon. [It’s pronounced pog-sahn-HAHN.]

I suspect not many readers here will know right off the bat where these places I’ve named are, so let me show you …

The largest island in the Philippines is Luzon. It’s at the northern end of the archipelago. On Luzon island, Manila (the RED square) is the capital of the Philippines. We lived just a few miles southeast of Manila. Pagsanjan (the RED star) is the town, and it’s where the river trip is to go see Pagsanjan Falls. Pagsanjan was about a 4 hour drive from where we lived. So, we weren’t very far at all from major metropolitan cities. But, back in 1957, we were definitely out in the jungle with only one very small, rustic village nearby.

One interesting note about the Philippines is that there is an extrememly deep trench just off the east side of the islands. The trench runs north/south past almost all of the islands and down towards Indonesia. In the map above, the words “Philippine Sea” are further east of the islands than the trench is. Until 1970, this trench (the Philippine Trench) was believed to be the deepest spot on any ocean on the planet. Since 1970, two other, deeper, spots have been found. Still, the Philippine Trench is about 34,600 feet deep … or about 6.5 miles deep!

Ok, back to my memory of our trip to Pagsanjan.

Here’s a video I found on YouTube made by two people who took this same boat trip very recently. The video shows a bit of the “village” at the beginning of the video. It’s a small city! Not anything like what it was when I was there in 1957 or so. But the boat trip seems identical.

I remember sitting in that canoe, in front of my mother, and watching the fellow in the bow do all of these same things, paddling, stepping off of rocks, getting out of the canoe to lighten the load over shallow areas. I also remember learning from them, by watching them, how they guided the canoe, and that the deep part of the river, the easiest part to transit, was actually very often not in the middle of the river. It was often easier and better and safer to head off to one side or the other … a great life lesson to learn early on.

So, here’s the video from YouTube, dated July 15, 2021. What a great childhood memory of a fantastic boat trip and experiences with wonderful, gentle, people.

Salamat sa pagbabasa mo ng aking blog. 🙂