In a quaint town of Alubijid, Misamis Oriental, I fell in love with Baloyon Falls, a place where I spent quality time with my partner and our friend. How I discovered this place is not by any coincidence.
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| Beer, friends, and falls. |
On a Saturday morning after eating breakfast at Humbaan ni Aling Violy in Cogon Market, we went to my boarding house to wash up and pack things, then later we went to Bulua Terminal where we need to ride a bus on our way to Alubijid municipality.
The trip should only take 30 minutes but due to road widening at Opol, it took us almost an hour until we finally took off the bus to ride habal-habal that would then take us to Barangay Tula.
Upon arrival at the barangay, we greeted the locals and informed them of our purpose - to climb and run Mt Salumayagon. For those who didn't know, hikers will get to pass by Baloyon falls on their way back to Barangay Tula. That's the reason why we also have the chance to spend an hour of good time here.
Baloyon Falls is tucked 2 kilometers away from Barangay Tula. It boasts of pristine, clean and cold water. It is also popular among the locals of Alubijid and its neighboring municipalities.
Going there requires an easy trek and I would recommend that first-timers should have a local guide since the trail could get confusing. As for us, we were able to drop by Baloyon on our way back to the jump off coming from Mt Salumagayon. We didn't ask for a guide because among us three, Kuya Paul have been here many times and he was already too familiar with the trail.
Disclaimer: Embedded photo is Instagram-filtered.
The cascading water of Baloyon Falls looks short and the basin shallow. Yet official blog of Alubijid municipality claimed the falls to be 15 ft in height and the catch basin 20 ft in depth. Accordingly, the falls is also called Kasilihon Falls which is derived from Kasili (sea snakes) and named as such because kasilis were abundant here in the past.
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| First tier. |
If you wish, you can also climb the cliff to see the first tier of the falls. It has two cascades and is a bit secluded which I find perfect for blogger poses. However, the basin gets shallow on some days which is not ideal for swimming, not to mention there were also many insects up here. I think that could be the reason why aside from being the main attraction, people prefer to swim at the second tier of Baloyon Falls (as seen in most photos featured in this post).
Here's how the basin looked like from the cliff:
* I'm still processing the video for this post. Check back when it's ready. For the meantime, lemme show you the trailer I uploaded on FB through this link.
Overall, I find Baloyon Falls a hidden gem of Alubijid municipality. It is a gem where only less people get to marvel at its beauty. It is a gem that should be experienced by many because it's a happy place to be; but whoever visit here should be a responsible tourist because few people who have been here just left their trashes behind and it sucks.. :( So I hope that this place gets promoted and maintained as it deserves to be.
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