Pagsanjan Falls is a beautiful 60ft high water fall at the end of a 1-1/2 hour canoe ride in a shallow dug out style canoe. In order to get to the falls, two boat men paddle, pull and push you up the river. Together with Luc and Christine and their family, we boarded our canoes at the Pagsanjan Falls Hotel. We all strapped on life vests and were almost immediately surrounded by locals selling their wares. These included pop, water, carvings and hats. Even though the sun is intense on the open river, within about 15 minutes we were between the cliffs and did not see much sun after that. It was cool between the cliffs and with the water splashing on you.
We were actually towed up river in a convoy of about 5 boats until we hit the first set of rapids in the cliff enclosed area. At this point, the boatmen jumped out of the boats and started to work us up the river hoping from side to side and pushing off the rocks with their bare feet. It almost appeared like a 2 lane expressway as canoes were moving both up and down river.There were a total of about 15 sets of rapids that we had to maneuver through. The boatmen were working very hard, and they made sure you understood that (they do work for tips). This included a lot of loud huffing and puffing, and immersing themselves when they came to deeper calm areas in the stream. Along the way, the scenery was gorgeous. There were mini waterfalls coming down the cliffs. There were areas that the runoff was being collected and used for washing cleaning.
About 2/3 of the way up was a rest stop that you could buy food, drinks, clothes and souvenirs. There was also a pay toilet, but we had no takers. As we got closer to the falls it got quit crowded on the river as a lot of people were already heading back. We had to wait our turn as groups came downstream before groups could start going back upstream. In some places they had wedged pipes across the rapids to make it easier to ramp the canoes up the river.
We finally could hear the falls and came around a bend to a beautiful site. There were people and canoes everywhere. We made our way to the drop off place where we got out and our boatmen then backed out and went down stream to wait for us to return. There is a large pool at the base of the falls, and you can take a bamboo raft across the pool and under and behind the waterfall. We probably had about 2 dozen people on the raft. The raftmen then pulled the raft across the pool by pulling on a rope hand over hand.
We went directly under the falls and got our free hydro massage. There is so much water movement and pressure that it is difficult to actually get your breath. We got off the raft and went into the shallow cave behind the falls. We then swam in the pool behind the falls and went back under the falls, but not at the center of the falls. Returning on the raft, we were pulled off to the side to get a different view of the falls. We signaled out boatmen and they came and picked us up for the trip back down the river. The downstream leg took about half the time as it took to come upstream.Once we entered the open area of the river, there were people wading out in the river and many on some decorated barges. It ends up that there was a local festival going on while we were there. The people on the barges and those wading out were spraying and splashing all of the boats. So even though we had dried out, we got a little wet again. The worst part was not having our cameras put away when the splashing began.
We enjoyed the adventure and would recommend it for all to enjoy. It highlights the beauty of the area. This was an area where the movie Apocalypse Now was filmed
