It was the final weekend of January 2023, and Ran was thinking of how we would cap the month. We have been climbing mountains during all the previous weekends since the year started, and we would want to cap it off with another one.

He thought of three options: a twin hike in Rizal, a twin hike in Batangas, or waterfall chasing in Laguna. We already had a load of Rizal mountains and have also been recently to Batangas when we climbed Mt. Batulao. What was left among the options, hence, was Laguna. Ran agreed.

As it was in our previous hikes, I started looking for guides online and I found one. His name is John, and we immediately made arrangements for our trip. He told us that the guide fee is at PHP 600.00 and the registration fee is just PHP 50.00 per head. For the climb alone hence, the damages would be at PHP 700.00 only.

Our target was to reach the jump-off point in Siniloan, Laguna at 04:00 AM so we would have an early climb. We hence decided to leave Malolos City at 12:00 midnight as it takes around four hours to reach Siniloan from our place.

A day before our scheduled tour, John reached out and said that we will be accompanied by another guide as a prior engagement that John thought would no longer proceed became active again. He endorsed us initially to a certain Efren, but then he found out that even Efren would not be able to make it. John then endorsed us to his father, Tatay Dexter, who looked for a guide for us. We ended up being accompanied by Martin. John remained very helpful all throughout though, still checking on us from time to time.

We arrived at the meeting place as scheduled. We met with Tatay Dexter who introduced us to Martin. Martin then led us to the registration office where we paid the necessary fees. After registration and payment of necessary fees, we drove to the jump-off point. We left the car in the parking lot of Greenhouse Glamping Site, which was across Siniloan Cultural Center.

Our trip to Mt. Romelo would not be like our peak chasing in Mt. Batolusong. Standing at just around 300 MASL, Mt. Romelo should be an easy climb. It doesn’t boast of any high peak, anyway. The beauty of Mt. Romelo lies in the waterfall system within its range. It has another reputation though, and it is notorious at that: thick mud. Very thick mud.

It was still dark and it was raining hard when we started the trek, and the downpour only exacerbated the terrible mud along our trail. Yes, the ascent was already way too challenging just a few minutes into the trek.

At around 06:30 AM, the weather has not cleared-up yet, but the sky and our surroundings have already become brighter.

By 06:45 AM, we were already at the peak of Mt. Romelo, which was our gateway to the waterfalls system.

I was wrong when I complained about the mud when we took down the peaks of Mt. Mataripis and Mt. Batolusong. Both mountains combined cannot equal Mt. Romelo’s muddy notoriety, and we haven’t even reached halfway of our hike.

From the viewing deck on the peak of Mt. Romelo, we started our rather grueling path to the first of the four waterfalls that we will visit. Honestly, save for the mud, the trail would have been easy. Add the inclement weather to the equation and we could only go as slow as we could possibly get.

When the trail started to transition from mud to garden landscape, I had the feeling that we are not far from our destination.

After around 30 minutes, we finally reached the marker to the first waterfalls in the Mt. Romelo waterfalls system: Buruwisan Falls.

We just had a quick stop at the Buruwisan marker, then proceeded to see the actual falls. We had to cross a river, on the other side of which lies the Buruwisan camp site. There was actually a makeshift wooden bridge where one may step to avoid the strong current of the river that goes further downstream, but I chose to go down the water as I would really want to wash the mud off my feet.

A few more minutes into the hike and we made it to Buruwisan Falls. The beauty of the falls is accentuated by the growth that surrounds it, it is almost enchanting.

Buruwisan Falls is not something one would just let pass without having photos taken. This is part of the drill by now. Solo pictures!

After the solo pictures, the goofs!

We took advantage of the water in Buruwisan Falls to wash off all the remaining mud that we accumulated during the hike and to take a little breather. As soon as we’re clean and rested, we wasted no time and went back on the trail, as there were still three waterfalls to go.

We spent around 20 minutes in Buruwisan Falls. It was just a little past 08:00 AM, so we were pretty confident that we will be able to finish the entire waterfalls system early. Little did we know that the challenge could only go more difficult.

We had no idea.