Road trip to Oslob

May 31- June 1, 2013
[Oslob Trip]

My friend (middle of picture) who is spending her vacation in the Philippines wanted to have one last get-away before she goes back to Abu Dhabi. My other friend suggested that we go to Oslob and experience whale watching. Since I haven't done it yet, I immediately agreed and planned our overnight trip for 3. So here we are..all set to take on a road trip after a long time of not seeing each other. 

Oslob is located south of Cebu and is roughly about 3-hours bus ride from Cebu City. We took the air-con Ceres bus from the South bus terminal near Elizabeth Mall. We already bought our snacks and water from the mall so we're definitely good for the 3-hour ride. After all the bus 'catch-up' chika and sleep, we finally made it here at Tan-awan, Oslob around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. We checked-in at BCD's place. Since we arrived late with no chance to glance upon a whale shark, we decided to go to the nearest tourist attraction instead.

Here's our first stop:

Going there, we rented a multicab at Php120 per pax. It was just a few kilometers away and we arrived in no time. We were so excited! Just then our driver informed us that he cannot take us to the foot of the falls, we needed to take a 10-minute hike. No problem for us! Off we go!

Though the road was paved, it was very steep. Public transportation would not be able to course through.

Looked okay but our knees where shaking because of this steep pathway.

When I took one step backward to balance myself, I felt like I was going to fall back. Creepy!

Nonetheless..pictures!pictures!pictures! The lovely view is just too hard to miss.

After a few more clicks, we decided to move forward because we're afraid it might get dark soon. 

Finally, here we are! It was surprisingly 'low-tide' when we arrived at the foot of the falls.

Once the water hits your toes--it's freezing!!

Enjoy the photos below:

My friend and I under a dome of rock with the falls cascading in front of us.

If you notice, there was not much water pooled at the foot of the falls. Those puddles are only ankle-high.

This is our favorite spot.

Seem like a very forceful shower. haha!

Too bad vandalism is also evident here. Some people just wants to destroy the beauty of nature by carving/engraving their names on rocks. 

After only several minutes, we decided to head back. It was actually getting dark and the sound of the birds hovering above the trees sounded creepy to us already. We were the only guests there at that time and we  didn't hire a guide--so it was just the three of us and the mighty Tumalog falls.

Scared little ones we were, we hurriedly made our way back to our cab with our driver waiting for us.

We felt so hungry after that we decided to be dropped off across the place where we're staying to have dinner already. It was past 6:00 in the evening and we just wanted to eat.

However, the food served wasn't that good :(( We swore we'll never eat here again.

Fast forward to the morning after, we woke up at 6:00 am to get an early start on our 'swimming with the whale shark adventure'. But that deserves a separate post. 

This picture will do for now.

Because we had plenty of time to spare after our early morning interaction with the whale sharks, we decided to explore the town. We already asked the BCD staff the night before on what other places we can visit here in Oslob. They suggested we visit the Old Spanish Cuartel located in the town center or poblacion.

We just took a jeepney and told the driver to drop us off at the Cuartel. It only took us about 15 minutes to get there. The old Spanish Cuartel was intended for the Spanish soldiers or guardia sibil but it wasn't really finished. It is made up of coral stones and resembled a barracks stand. It would've been a promising landmark but it remained unfinished all these years.

Just across this cuartel is the Oslob Church of Immaculate Conception. 

This church was built by Fr. Bermejo in 1830 following plans of Bishop Santos Maranon and was finished 18 years later. They said that during World War II this church was burned, however it was restored and it still stands strong up to this very day.

After we lit our candles and said our prayers, we found manong icecream seller.

It's been a while since I last had a taste of dirty icecream. This one is a winner. Not too sweet. It was yummy! Oh and icecream cones are the best!

We continued to look for the beach that the people in BCD mentioned. We walked across the church and reached this plaza. There were not much people around at that time so we just tried to find our way.

We reached this seawall and noticed how inviting the water was! 

This might just be what they were talking about.

That is definitely white sand right there. We just have to figure out if we could or if we are allowed to swim.

As I've said, we were the only ones there at that time so we hesitated a bit. This area might not be open for swimming. We looked around for signs or warnings but there weren't any.

After debating for a few minutes, we finally decided to take a dip.

The water was shallow near the wall. There were some slippery rocks but we managed.

And we had the water all to ourselves.

Yey! Thanks Oslob! We'll be back soon!

photo credits
[soleil & dave]