Angelo mentioned that Sarao Motors had bought up all the vehicles the US military had abandoned when they left the Philippines and had extended the backs. Voilà - the jeepney, the most popular mode of transportation in the Philippines, was born!
When we visited in June 2024, Manila's population was a staggering 20 million, and the country of more than 7,000 islands had 120 million. It was hard to grasp those numbers. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, the price of gas in the Philippines had more than doubled, and everything else had also gone up in price. Angelo added that Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte had people killed in the streets and put signs on their chests, saying, "I'm a druggie." He was later charged with committing crimes against humanity.
The only time Steven and I drove through Makati, Manila's central business district, was to pick up the other tourists who were staying nearby. The difference between it and the rough-and-tumble area where we stayed was night and day. Angelo joked that it would be tough to be a vegetarian or vegan in the Philippines because meat is mixed into most entrees. Filipinos love sugar so much that it's also mixed into spaghetti sauce. We love anything sweet, he added!
It took about two hours to get out of the Manila sprawl, and then we had views of acacia trees.
The country's favorite fast-food place was Jollibee, a primarily fried chicken chain like KFC, which has become a symbol of Filipino culture and identity. It has expanded globally, with particular success in countries with large Filipino communities. Lina, did you know that people lined up for hours in the bitter cold weather in Winnipeg for Jolibee's grand opening in Canada?! It's more popular in the Philippines than Mickey D's! Our last meal in the Philippines was at Jolibee at the airport - and yes, we did like it, although I'm not sure what that says about our culinary taste!
When we drove through Tagaytay on our way to seeing Taal Volcano, I couldn't get over the string of furniture stores that seemed to go on and on and on. Angelo told us it was because all the raw materials were located nearby.
The country's third-largest lake, Lake Taal, sits in a caldera below Tagatay and was formed by massive eruptions between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago. In the center of the lake on Volcano Island is Taal Volcano, which erupted several times between 2020 and 2022, causing 39 casualties, severe crop damage, and disrupting air traffic. Angelo said that the 2020 eruption was in the middle part of the volcano; the one on the right has been dormant since the Spanish era. Tons of ash blew, even reaching Manila, a 90-minute drive away. As the ashes were up to people’s knees on the shore, it took two months to clean up the mess.
In the past, the norm was for 50-plus typhoons to batter the Philippines every year from June through September; but last year, i.e., 2023, only 20 did. The drop was attributed to climate change, he said.
Angelo stopped first at the Lake Taal and Taal Volcano overlook, where he told us that 5,000 people a day head to the island to tend to their crops and animals, but they must return each night.
After that, the road was so twisty and narrow as it wound down to the shore that it became a favorite among cyclists!
At the bottom of the hill, we saw what we’d call tuk-tuks from our experience in other Asian countries. Here, they were called tricycles, because they had three wheels.
June is the foggiest month in this area south of Manila because it rains at night.
The view from the Tanauan lakeshore:
After watching the lone fisherman for a bit, we headed to the Pagsanjan rapids, a further two-hour drive away.
Angelo explained that piping at the Makban geothermal power plant transported steam or hot water from geothermal wells to the power plant for electricity generation. This sort of power plant is common in regions with high volcanic or tectonic activity.
We passed rice fields in Laguana Province, one of the few agricultural areas we'd eyed, even though we'd been driving for about four hours already. When we saw a banana plantation, Angelo said it’s popular to eat bananas with ketchup because ketchup is so sugary!
Angelo pointed out Makiling Mountain, one of the most famous among Filipinos. Perhaps I should say "infamous," as they believe that ghosts will get you and you will never return!
I had known that the Philippines was a strongly Catholic nation, but what was new to me was that the Roman Catholic Church is more popular than its politicians. There is no such thing as divorce or same-sex marriage in the country. Annulments cost 400,000 pesos, making them unaffordable for almost everyone. Seventy percent of the population is Catholic, 20 percent is Muslim, and the remaining ten percent practice another or no faith.
Pagsanjan means Two Branches, because the town lies at the confluence of two rivers, the Balanac River and the Bumbungan River. The three-tiered Pagsanjan Waterfall, the result of this meeting, has been a famous tourist attraction in the Philippines since the Spanish Colonial era, with the earliest written account dating to 1894.
Pagsanjan is known for its Spanish colonial architecture, including an unusually ornamental stone gate, Puerta Real.
Through the windshield, I caught a quick glimpse of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which dated to 1690.
The fun began as we entered the Bumbungan River, which leads to Pagsanjan Falls; it is often called the Pagsanjan River because it is located in the town of Pagsanjan. The river runs through a gorge and is known for the popular boat ride to the waterfall, typically called shooting the rapids.
A motorized canoe, almost like a tugboat, tied a rope to our canoe, and then others carrying tourists tied themselves to our canoe so the motorboat could all pull us a chunk upriver. We looked like a long millipede, with the motorized canoe pulling five other long boats behind it!
The Pagsanjan experience, essentially unchanged for more than a century, starts with a two-hour canoe ride up the river, through a beautiful, verdant gorge, in a narrow wooden canoe with one boatman at the front and one at the rear, and two or three passengers seated in the middle.
It wasn't practical to take photos and also write notes about what we were seeing along the way, so I have no idea what these next two places were. Google Lens wasn't any help either, unfortunately, as it said they were places in India!
One boatman, Antonio, sat in the front, while José controlled the canoe from the back. They both paddled with very short wooden paddles with only one blade.
When we reached the point in the river where the serious rapids started, the ropes were untied from the motorized canoe. From that point on, each canoe's boatmen were responsible to chart its own destiny.
Antonio warned us in advance that the boatmen would demand a large tip and that we would have to buy them food and drinks when we stopped at the falls. The hard sell began almost immediately, with Antonio telling us how many kids he has, how he can normally only work once in a ten-day period, so that all boatmen have an equal opportunity, and even then, if tourists do not sign up, he has no work.
We knew, however, that boatmen were considered the highest-paid workers in the region and most had jobs as pedicab drivers, fishermen, or farmers. I know that some tourists opt not to tip their boatmen, but our philosophy when traveling is to tip generously, as we feel they need that extra money far more than we do.
The views of the gorge along the journey were just spectacular, whether when the gorge was at its widest point or when it narrowed substantially, so that we could almost touch the sides.
There were 14 spots along the river where the boatmen really earned their pay AND tip, as they navigated particularly challenging terrain. I think the pictures tell the story better than I can.
José had legs as thick as an ox and shoulders and biceps sure to be the envy of many bodybuilders!
We counted ourselves extremely fortunate to have come no later than mid-June, because once the rainy season started, all river trips were canceled because the higher water level made the journey too dangerous.
The most arduous part of the journey, at least from our perspective sitting in the canoe, was watching, mouths agape, as José and Antonio lifted the canoe over a series of bamboo poles that crossed the river. They had to do this time after time while jumping in and out of the canoes like nimble gymnasts, pushing against rocks with their bare feet, kicking huge boulders so as not to let the canoe crash into them, and landing back in the canoe. This all had to be done while paddling our canoe to avoid others passing narrowly from the opposite direction.
I marveled that not a word seemed to pass between the men, as they instinctively knew what each of them needed to do to get us safely upstream.
You can see how low we sat in the water and how critical it was to keep our hands inside the canoe at all times!
Movie buffs might like to know that the film Apocalypse Now, with Marlon Brando, was filmed on the Pagsanjan River!
Just up ahead were the falls and, therefore, the rest area for all the boatmen. We bought meals and drinks for both men, figuring they must be exhausted after their grueling work. Whether they consumed what we bought or asked for a portion back in cash from the vendors was up to them as far as we were concerned. We did what was comfortable for us.
A lot of the tourists chose to swim in the pool by the falls, but others chose another exciting activity: hopping on a bamboo raft and being pulled across the river by local boys with a rope tied to the rocks on both sides to another set of falls across from the pool. When Steven said he preferred to stay ashore and take pictures, I was on that raft lickedy split before he could change his mind!
Having the opportunity to go behind the falls to see Devil's Cave was like the icing on the cake as far as I was concerned!
We started back downriver, and after José and Antonio portaged through the narrow, rocky portions of the gorge, we pulled over to the side to wait for our tow by the longboat back.
In case I've left the impression that only tourists get a blast on the river and at the falls, we saw a boy doing his best Tarzan impression by holding onto a vine and swinging far out into the river! It was fun seeing other locals picnicking on the beach and taking advantage of the fabulous surroundings.
Hard to imagine a more bucolic scene than the horses and the cow grazing!
Our adventure was almost at an end, while other tourists were about to embark on the time of their lives!
I hadn't noticed the murals on the embankment on the way out.
I was relieved to see José finally resting after his arduous efforts. He and Antonio deserved every peso of our generous tip.
Words to remember as we ate lunch in Pagsanjan before heading back to Manila:
As we sat in clogged traffic, Angelo commented that pedestrians in a crosswalk had better run for their lives, as no cars would stop for them! These were vendors, however, hawking bags of fish crackers for 20 pesos, about 30 cents.
The town of Los Baños was not only famous for its hot springs but also for its bamboo and coconut groves. It became famous for its Buko Coconut Pie, which was sold along a stretch of the National Highway. Shop after shop selling inflatable toys catered to people enjoying the hot springs and swimming pools that local residents rented out for the day.
As we neared the outskirts of Metro Manila, Angelo drove on the SLEX or South Luzon Expressway, a very short toll highway owned and maintained by the San Miguel Beer Corporation but administered by the government. Traffic in Metro Manila is so horrendous that it can take three hours to drive three kms! That was a prime reason why electric cars wouldn't do well in this part of the Philippines, at least, according to Angelo.
As we dropped off the American-Filipino father and son at their hotel in the central business district, we caught a quick look at the Ninoy Aquino Monument, which honors the slain Filipino political leader and staunch critic of the Marcos administration.
Like so many metropolises, Manila was awash in faceless highrises. That was why it was refreshing to admire the Yuchengco Museum, created by a major businessman and former UN diplomat to foster Filipino artists.
From the attractive, if boring, downtown, returning to our gritty neighborhood was a culture clash! It was a free-for-all at intersections because either none of the lights were working or no drivers paid attention to them!
After Angelo commented on the state of politics in his country, he said that Filipinos believe there are two ways to get rich quickly: either by becoming a politician or by establishing a religion, because there are so many cults in the Philippines.
If we return to the Philippines, I'd suggest to Steven that we hire Antonio in a heartbeat to be our driver as we explore northern Luzon province for several nights. We've found in our years of traveling that a good driver and guide is worth his or her weight in gold, and it's always a crapshoot what sort you get. I was sad to say goodbye to Antonio, as he had helped make our day trip to the Taal Volcano and to the falls one we'd always remember.
Next post: I just realized I erred when I wrote at the bottom of my last post that it was the final day for Steven and me in Manila - sorry about that, as we did tour more of the humongous city on our short jaunt to the Philippines! More Manila mayhem!
Posted on April 6th, 2026, from Wellington, on New Zealand's North Island, where we flew into today from Fiji. I visited both islands with a friend in 2019, but this is Steven's first trip here. I'm looking forward to showing him some of the places I loved discovering and exploring with him over the next two weeks. As always, please take care of yourself and your loved ones.
Amazing how the other half lives…Working full time, we hired Philippino nannie for our kids. They were always wonderful. One in particular, the kids used to call Benjie Enjie. They stayed in touch with her even after they grew up. She later became a real estate agent in Ottawa! Amazing travels you have. Love reading your posts.
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