Oslob and Kawasan Falls: Queens of the South
8:00 PMWe woke up early that day to catch the earliest bus ride to Oslob. We rode one of the taxis staying outside our hotel to get to the terminal. Taxis are so convenient here in Cebu that you would choose it rather than any other means of transportation. We thought that we'll make the first trip for the day but our luck pretty much ran out because the bus departed a few seconds when we arrived.
I didn't get much sleep even on the road because I just wanna soak everything in. I just stared outside and just enjoyed how Cebu's slowly unraveling its beauty. At some point, we were talking about how we're going to ride habal-habal if we wanted to roam around Oslob. I felt so frightened because of some past traumatic experience riding it.
It was so windy that day, clearly not the best weather for whale shark watching. But we didn't fret or anything. There's no way in hell we wouldn't do it. And so, after a little seminar about the do's and dont's of swimming with the gentle giants, we strapped our vests and head on for a ride we will never ever forget our whole lives.
Our bangka drivers we're so funny that it made us forget how hugely frightening it was to see the butanding. I remembered when we first dived into the cold waters, I was shaking like crazy. Then this enormous pale gray object swam near us. All I could think of that moment was to never get eaten. You can't blame me, its so big, it's literally bigger than the boat we were riding on. I have never felt such urge and such high at the same time. Finally, I'm able to witness something that's bigger than all of us. I'm a part of something so spectacular. A definite out-of-body experience. Too bad I hadn't been able to take some photos. I was just left in awe. I guess the best experiences aren't all captured by cameras.
As soon as we hit the showers, rain started to pour. I will admit that I thought it was some kind of a gift from God that it didn't rain while we were diving. It would be such a disastrous experience.
After swimming with the whale sharks, we asked a cab driver to take us to its nearest tourist spots. We saw the Parish Church of Immaculate Conception, built with pearl white stones and with ornate blue glasses. Nearby, was Cuartel, a house that was built for the Spanish troops back in the day.
Oslob is such a quiet town, postcard-ready and picturesque. People are kind to tourists and kids are still innocent from all the modernization of technology. I would miss the smiles I saw from those kids we met, though they thought I was a foreigner. I'm still laughing about that until this very moment.
After picking out souvenirs to bring home, we made our way to Badian to visit Kawasan Falls. Unfortunately, we just found out that we were actually going the wrong way when we got to Carcar. We were dropped off in a mall and we rode another bus to Badian.
There were two unforgettable ladies who guided us through the way. They were so nice asking other people how to actually go there because they,too, were clueless where Badian was. I was so disappointed at first. We lost a lot of time getting lost. But then, I pacified myself and just looked outside and actually enjoyed the view. Cebu has a lot of wonderful seaside towns. They are almost too picturesque to capture through my lens. I tried my hardest but I just couldn't. My lens could not translate how beautiful it actually was in person. I guess you have to go there too and get lost to enjoy what I have seen.
Sometimes, I feel like God must've been unfair to bless Cebu with so much beauty. But I guess it will all boil down to how you perceive beauty or how you take care of the beauty being given to you.
We arrived at Kawasan Falls just in the nick of time. I caught the powerful falls streaming down a lush greenery in the right moment. Unfortunately, I hadn't produce a lot of photos because we were busy swimming in the cold water.
It was a lot fun, feeling like a kid swimming restlessly in the coldest water ever imagined. We have met some tourists, as well. They were listening to us making correlations between the cold water and our cold hearts. We were feeling a little bitter about love that day.
We didn't know that buses there are following a certain schedule. We just found out that the bus heading our way was actually the last bus for the day. Thank God we are in perfect timing again. I remembered us talking about how lucky we were because we didn't know where to sleep if there's no bus taking us back to the city.
That day was in a way, perfectly imperfect. If it weren't for the windy weather then maybe we'll never enjoy the waves as much as we did. And if it wasn't for that little detour we took, maybe I'll never have this funny story to share with you guys. I would love to come back to Kawasan Falls in a different circumstance, maybe. But I am never regretful of what adventure we had that day. It was truly unforgettable. I will always remember how unlucky we were in the beginning and how we were redeemed by some divine intervention in the end.
I'm Eden Morales. A UI/UX Designer by day but a full-time dreamer. To travel and explore outside my comfort zone are the things I crave to do ever since. These are the chronicles of my first-hand experiences from all the places I have gone to and will go to in the future.
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