The global economic crisis has pressured our company to have forced vacation leaves on the last week of January. I was off to the fields of Negros. For the first days of that week, I indulged in the eat-tv-sleep routine. The outdoor activities were limited by the continuous rain.
The heavens cleared up for two days and on that second day, I headed off to Mierkolesan, a rural area within the mountainous Barangay Prosperidad in San Carlos City. This is approximately 71 km away from Bacolod City. My aim: to take silhouettes of Mount Canlaon during sunset.
I arrived there at about 3PM. I specifically selected this area because I can stay in the “nice but cheap” Nabatang Peak Mountain Resort for the night. Nabatang is situated along a hill’s slope. The golden hour of photography started at around 5PM. I went to the higher adjoining hills to have unobstructed views.
And then, it happened for the second time! While I was scouting for possible perspectives, a cow was rapidly approaching me. I had no time to do some metering to adjust my exposure, or even compose for the scene. All I was able to do was to decide for a vertical shot. As a result, the cow was washed out in her portrait together with my shadow. Fortunately, its leash is not long enough for the cow to really reach me.
While waiting for the sunset, I strolled and saw this pathway along the grass.
When I arrived in Nabatang, I already noticed black clouds moving from the northern skies. Just as the golden hour was about to end with the sun slowly slipping behind Mount Canlaon, the clouds have reached the mountain.
I have not made a single, clear silhouette of Mount Canlaon. While it was behind the dark clouds, I decided to move to the highest adjoining hill and waited until much of the clouds have passed for pink-orange lights to be visible. After I took this picture below I then called it a day.
I was up early the next day. It was an overcast morning. Armed with banana chips, biscocho, 1.5L of water and a painkiller ointment, I decided to trek the rising and falling slopes of the national highway from Prosperidad, San Carlos City to Talos Falls, Don Salvador Benedicto.
Six kilometers away from Nabatang is a natural formation slightly similar to that of Bohol. Against the boring, uneventful, and cloud-covered skies here’s our version of Chocolate Hills.
After about 5 hours of walking some kilometers (I purposely did not count) and many, many rests in between, I finally reached my final destination: the Talos Falls.
Talos Falls is actually on the other mountain opposite of the viewing deck where I took the picture above. The pic was shot using a 300mm lens – exactly 6x magnification. From the viewing deck, the base of this waterfall could be reached within 30 minutes but it would take at most 2 hours to come back. The viewing deck actually has clean comfort rooms. Due to this, it has become an established bus stop. It has also offered opportunity to local folks to sell bottled mineral water and other snack foods to passengers.
From there, I walked a little further along the road to have another angle of the waterfall.
This is another shot using 300mm lens from the same angle.
After hours of walking, I decided I deserved some comfort. I waited for about an hour for the airconditioned bus and headed home.
Note: Nabatang Peak, where I spent the night, is ideal for short summer vacations for people who want to stay away from the noise of the city. The place is simple, rustic and windy. They have no electricity during the day. At night, one may opt to have generator powered lights or their solar battery powered LEDs. I opted for the latter to somehow relive my childhood days. The rooms have no fans or aircon units. They are not needed. The place will give you a chill. Water supply is abundant. Travelers may opt to bring food or call ahead for their preferred meals. I did neither. I just requested the caretaker to buy a kilo of rice, a can of corned beef for supper, 4 eggs and another can of corned beef for breakfast. Well, part of the preparation for those kilometers of walk is that I have to stuff myself ahead. 
Ayos na lagaw a. I saw a few “chocolate hills” in San Carlos before. I never knew mas damo pa gali.
ang ganda..napaka relaxing ng view…hindi nakakasawang tingnan..
coolwater po..may tag/award po kayo po sa blog ko po..pakisilip naman po..wala naman pong pilitan kung ayaw po nyo pong gawin (blush like makopa)
salamat!!!
Lovely. Pregnant with the language of the Sacred…
grabe no? san carlos and don salvador are reaaaaaalllyyyy beautiful places. i fell in love with both and made me actually think I might want to retire in either places someday.
Off-topic kapatid but the buzz on the latest book technology from Amazon is truly amazing, especially if we have the access to it. Just visit my latest post on this. Thanks for the ad, no thanks from Amazon though.
ang galing mo talaga.naiinggit na talaga ko.hehe.
kaw lang ba nagtatravel mag-isa pag ganyan? yung iba, laughtrip. yung iba, sadtrip. yung iba, badtrip. ikaw, nature trip.ayus. :p
dati ko pa ‘to iniisip kapag tinitingnan ko yung mga kuha mo, ngayon lang siguro ako nagkaroon ng words:
karaniwan kasi ng photographers, parang pang postcard na pang postcard ang dating ng mga shots nila kaya parang fake. yung mga shots mo, merong certain rawness and honesty which i like. tsaka meron syang certain serenity. yung iba merong certain sadness. ewan. hehe. tsaka parang meron silang ability to move one into meditation
wow i love those waterfalls. galing ng photos…
Ang ganda nmn, gusto ko ding lumaboy sa pinas pag uwi ko.. ang dami ko palang namiss sa sarili kong bayan.
Tanong ko lang kung ineedit mo pa ba sa photoshop ung mga photos mo?
I wanna see ‘Talos Falls’ after reading this post.
It’s now added in my “To Visit List”.
Kapatid, ‘yung pangako natin sa isa’t isa na trek/s together pag-uwi ko diyan ha? I hope by that time, meron na akong new DSLR. {paging sponsors!!! yoo hooo!! i don’t mind receiving a brand new DSLR cam on my ordination!!… ha ha… aba malay mo may makarinig!}
Yeah, nice place sa Don Salvador. I rode on a hired jeep though, with friends, and we stopped at this place. What amused me was those vendors (selling all kinds of snacks), running after our jeep as soon as they saw our jeep slowing down. They also did it to other motor vehicles stopping by the viewing deck-something, excited to sell their goodies. I also took pics of the place, but iba talaga ang high tech na cam mo Mark, ganda talaga ng kuha.
wow!!! the pictures are great! i love them!
keep shooting beautiful sights!
aside from the shot.. i love how you put stories in every photo. keep it up.
and actually.. the kind of camera that we use doesn’t really matter. it’s how you make the most out of any “tool” that you use. it’s how creative you can be in finding the right spot and the right subject.
i own several kinds of cam including a DSLR.. but i still have a lot to learn. you are a great photog. keep it up.
nice mark.. grabe sa 71km…5hr walk…
wow, i did not know we have some kind of chocolate hills in san carlos. i have not wandered around that place of negros, and the waterfalls with the clouds is stunning.
nice photos! it’s the first time i heard that san carlos has its own chocolate hills and there’s a falls in don salvador.
bugnaw to tuod sa don salvador. nami! our own version of tagaytay or baguio.
nami upod sa imo trek kay damu pahuway. hehehe…
nice vah ung talos river? i’m interested to see that place…
wahehehe! nice pix! i was there last tuesday. april 14. we came from la carlota then canlaon city, san carlos city, don salvador b., murcia and back to la carlota with a motorcycle!
hey me and my friends were planning a road trip to don salvador and we were wondering if you know any places that we can stay (yes preferably “nice but cheap” haha) any kind of help would be great. thanks!
hello!!!
kamusta kamo dira tanan sa taga pandanon
sa igmayaan kag sa bunga hello their…