Exploring the delights of Valencia, Oriental Negros

                 We woke up rather late today, having slept late the previous night from our stroll in Robinson's Place Dumaguete, Buglasan of Sidlakang Negros and Boulevard. I myself am quite stirred by the driving I had the day before. It's my first time to travel bringing a vehicle to another island. It is really an enjoyable experience! :D

         After settling down my troubled head, we decided to forego breakfast. (Okay, it's fine with me.) We checked out of the hotel, and slowly moved in the morning streets of Dumaguete City.

          After driving southward for a few minutes, we reached the city limit marker. We're now in Valencia!!!

     The first thing you'll notice in Valencia is the presence of so many plants along the way (aside from the ringing of your ears because of the high altitude). Most of them are ornamental in variety and are for sale. Even if you'll be given the idea that people here do agriculture for a living, and our thought of agriculture is a poor man's livelihood, many of the houses lining the road exude taste and luxury. 

    Very curious indeed! Why??? Anyway, I've been told that Valencia was declared the cleanest and greenest municipality in Negros Oriental. Her Police Station an awardee for great performance. She is a first class municipality. And that, developments were made in Valencia by the government to tap her hydro and geothermal resources. As such, people of Valencia enjoy royalties from these, like the Php 800.00 rebate in electricity and an abundant supply of freshwater. Perhaps, these things contributed to the better quality of living in this municipality.

           But what attracted me most to the place is the presence of grove after grove of LANZONES and RAMBUTAN TREES in almost all of the houses. I can say that the people here has this penchant for planting these two everywhere.

It is haven for me who loves to eat Rambutan. I've searched the net for the English name of Rambutan, but found nothing. Rambutan is Indonesian for hairy... (I tried prickly pear, but it's a kind of cactus.) 

Just across the New Valencia Cockpit, this woman displayed Rambutan Fruits in her makeshift store. She sells this at Php 50.00 per kilo because she said the trees did not bear fruit abundantly this year. I agree with her. She is the only one selling along the way. Also, I bought a kilo last week in my hometown in Cebu for Php 160.00 a kilo, so her price is really "not bad." She even added, to my nostalgia, that there was a time they sell Rambutan at Php 15.00 a kilo... WOW!!! I just hope I'll happen to be around when that time comes again...


          The night before in Buglasan, we sampled Valencia Rambutan, but we judged it inferior in variety. It was yellow and good looking outside, but the meat is a bit sour and is partly damaged by parasitic growth inside. In contrast to that, the fruits sold to us by this woman looked rather "ugly and dirty" with plenty of black ants on the exterior, but the meat is sweet and gummy. We bought six kilograms... Yippee!

We passed by this place which has twin pools of flowing freshwater coming from the river. The place is not yet filled with people. It's Sunday. At Php 10.00 entrance fee, the place looks tempting. (When we came down that afternoon, the place was full.)

Roadside apple-mango stand... The apple-mango's soury-sweet taste is best when dipped in salty-weird "rotten-smelling-odd-looking" pink shrimp paste...

Wanna have some??? :)))


         Another thing I've noticed is that all stones and rocks here are rounded and dark in color. The roads are covered with them. Being a newbie, I found it rather difficult to drive in this terrain. Which is why, after some time travelling, we decided to stop and leave our vehicle and walk for the remainder of the journey to where we are going... But where are we going???

We stopped here in this farm, bought some flowering plants and left them to be picked up on our way back...

We walked... the lady who runs the farm (I think the farm is a cooperative venture) said that our destination is near...

 So... Mt. Talinis??? No! 


It's CASARORO FALLS!!!

We saw old man who said (as a matter-of-factly) that Casaroro Falls is 30 meters ahead and that we have to descend 350 stairs... Yep! Haha! He did say "stairs." My wicked smile... I just hope he's just kidding...

And we're here... :))

The old man was partly right...

This is getting exciting... Look at my face.. Hahahahaha!!!

"The Stairs" :DDD

The Hanging Bridge...

The view along the way...

I really wanna jump near the falls... But honestly, my wounded knees and elbows throbbed lightly and gave me a reminder that last week, I cut them in another falls in Cebu... (Besides, the water here is EXTRAordinarily cold...)

This is perhaps the highest drop of falls  I've seen... next is Mantayupan Falls in Barili, Cebu...

Since I cannot bathe, I'll just have a picture of myself taken with the falls... I guess we're early, only a Foreign National and his Tagalog associate were there when we came...

A bamboo thicket along the river... (Bamboos are common in riverbanks...)

After climbing a considerable number of steps, one can drink(?) from this faucet with a raised relief image of me... LOL


        We took the road back, but one of my cousins wanted to revisit "Forest Camp..." So we decided to come there... At Php 80.00 entrance fee, one can enjoy the pristine ambiance of Forest Camp with its pools coming from the river fed by Casaroro Falls and the watersheds in the uplands.

Another Hanging Bridge...

Same bridge as above...

Yeah, you're eyes are still good... The color of the water in the pools here is brownish... It's coming from the river... They cannot treat it with chlorine and stuff because its free flowing towards the river... 

 If you don't want the pools, then you can swim in the river...

The place is clean and filled with old trees and native cottages... The place is so big... Some cottages are located on the other side of the river... You can only go there through the hanging bridge... They also have a camping area... A function hall... Picnic grooves... At least three pools... A restaurant... a coconut tree-house... and a pond... ALCOHOLIC DRINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED...

This is the beautiful pond stocked with Tilapia... 

While waiting for our ordered lunch, we ate the Rambutan... People are slowly filling the place... 

Our lunch consists of Bihon Guisado, Native Chicken Adobo, Chopsuey and Seafood Special... I have a high regard for the food here... First, the presentation is good... The look is appetizing... Second, the combination of the ingredients made the food creative... And lastly, the aroma and taste of the food were as expected... delicious... No surprises and no pretenses...