leaving angono at noon, we continued going east to the town of tanay for daranak falls. it’s more or less an hour from angono, (angono is 2 hours from binan at speedy driving without traffic) passing by towns of binangonan, cardona, morong, and baras. ‘had a stop over lunch first in chowking, where each of us gorged a meal at least for 2 persons! it’s hilarious that the waiter had to clean up the table in between meals! the stopover (in crossing with jolibee and chowking) was perfect as nearby alley on the left (facing eastward) is the way to daranak falls. the road becoming more and more remote, rice paddies, and then a quick rally off the rough road down to danarak, which was a bit frightening and exhilarating at the same time!, we then reached daranak falls. there’s an entrance fee of 20 pesos each, and another 20 pesos fee for the parking. since we only knew that we were going to danarak falls on that very day, some of us had to buy shorts at the venue. good thing i was wearing shorts already, and i brought an extra pair.

the amount of food we had earlier is easily digested by the swimming effort we had. there’s a small cave-like formation at the bottom right of the falls, and to get there, you had to get across the gushing water in between 2 falls facing each other (opposing waves!), and the water as deep as 30 feet didn’t help much! we rented a medium-sized salbabida and sharing it for all 4 of us, we looked more than dumb!! the water was so cold that it took a few moments before i get in, but it was clean and tastes good! the rocks on the sides of the falls is shaped good enough to climb on, and from here, the water splashes downwards hitting your back, a very relaxing experience, really one with nature.

pictures of course, we even asked kuya (salbabida keeper) to take pictures of us, and a couple of jumps from the falls (not from the very top of course!! though that sounds enticingly good!), we started packing up and head our way going home. we’d actually gone in circle as on the way back, we decided to continue on east, then south encircling the province of laguna beginning with mabitac, siniloan, pangil, passing pagsanjan, reaching los banos (a quick stop for buko pie), then to calamba for expressway, and exit at carmona for binan. this route is traffic-less, however, this will traverse mountain sides (sierra madre?) so there’s some needle-sharp turns, lot of uphills, but the scenery is topnotch classic province!

Route info:

Biñan, Laguna -> Pasig, Metro Manila -> Angono, Rizal -> Tanay, Rizal -> Laguna (east part) -> back Biñan, Laguna = ~240 kms = or Php. 588.00 worth of unleaded gasoline

Total travel time (on the road) for the entire route: ~6 hours

Danarak falls fees:

Ps. 20.00 / head
Ps. 20.00 / car for parking
Ps. 50.00 / table

More pics -> here