Majestic. Grand. Overwhelming. Magnificent. Breath-taking.
These are just some of the adjectives I could use to describe the Tinuy-an Falls in Burboanan, Bislig City, Surigao del Sur. You've got to see and feel the place personally to appreciate it!
From Mangagoy, the largest barangay in the country, we hired a habal-habal to take us first to Tinuy-an Falls. The barangay road is cemented and flat on initial part, where we crossed about 3 wooden bridges.
The view from the longest bridge we crossed show a very clean and tranquil river, with mangrove and nipa trees. Colorful paddle boats are docked on the banks where a few houses are situated.
After passing a man-made lake and about 30 minutes of travel, we finally arrived at our destination. The scenery below will greet the visitors, as a prelude to this famous 4-tiered waterfalls.
We paid the Php 50 entrance fee per head. I paid extra Php 30 for the life vest rental, and Php 100 for the raft service that will bring me to the base of the main waterfall.
Snakes and turtles caught on the area are displayed in cages, outside the registration office.
A wooden bridge was constructed for visitors who want to transfer to the other side of the river. There are also some cottages for rental on that part. The bridge is also a good spot for photo ops. If there is morning sunlight, locals say that multiple rainbows appear from this vantage point.
But for the more adventurous visitors, they could swim on the cold river. On my case, I wanted to feel how it feels like on the base of the 95-meter wide waterfall. With about 4 staff pulling the bamboo raft, we looked smaller as we got nearer the falls.
The locals mentioned that there is a cave behind the water curtain, but I did not bothered to check it. I don't know, but I had a hard time breathing as we got underneath the waterfalls. Its like I was drowning, or having an asthma attack. Perhaps its the lack of air on that space, because my breathing normalized as soon as we got clear from the splashing water.
To see the first 2 tiers above, I climbed the cemented and steel staircases on the right side of the main waterfall. Again, the local staff escorted me for safety reasons. This is how the upper waterfalls look, before the third highest drop.
From the picnic or wooden bridge area, I look like a dot on the top of the waterfall. That's me inside the yellow ring.
Looking at the picnic areas from this part is quite scary. It is a 180-feet drop on the waiting deep basin below.
Tinuy-an Falls is Philippines' biggest waterfall, our closest version to Niagara or Victoria waterfalls.
This is something that should not be missed by waterfall chasers, well worth the 4-hour long ride from Butuan City.
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