Negros Series: Mambukal – The Mighty Seven Falls

After spending a night in Bacolod, I checked out of The East View Hotel after breakfast and rode the regular bus to the town of Murcial. It is around 45 minutes of travel and I bought a whole roasted chicken before leaving, for lunch (and dinner) later at Mambukal.

When I got to Mambukal it was lunch time and I ate and took a nap (so it won’t be too hot) before finally conquering the 7 Falls. I took a tour guide with me, at PhP 200 (not his asking price but based on the whole experience-plus stories of his life on the side).

Kuya (I forgot his name) is a very natural Tagalog speaker. There’s a distinct Ilonggo accent, but very understandable – said he worked in Quezon City for a few months. He carried my bag and told stories along the way to make the journey a little easy.

First, I registered and the logbook said a little ahead of us is a group from Paranaque. Then I started harnessing myself for a short canopy walk.

There were huge trees that one can climb, and hanging bridges to cross for us to get to the starting point of the actual trek.

After that we crossed a few small streams and as you may have guessed it, I tripped once or twice–again.

Then we saw the 1st Falls, which is not a place to swim. You would signs that would tell you it’s not safe to swim because of the falling debris. We can just took pictures and then moved on.

The 2nd Falls is the same thing. We can take pictures and watch it, but no swimming for the same reason.

Between the 2nd and 3rd Falls, there’s more trekking. At this point, it was already exhausting so we stopped for a moment and refreshed ourselves. I was saddened to hear that the 4th and 5th falls got damaged by a storm that rummaged the area in the past.

The 6th falls is by far the most crowded falls, as this is one of 2 of the falls where tourists can swim. There were others jumping off, others taking pictures and others just enjoying the water. We watched for a few minutes and then headed off to the 7th and last falls.

By the way, just a tip. In the long journey to reach the 7th Falls, we came across a couple of water buffalo comfortably enjoying the waters leading to the lower falls. So, if you want to swim, you know it’s best to swim at the 7th falls. It’s cleaner and colder. Haha.

See that water buffalo? He’s between the 7th and 6th falls. Know what I mean?

Reaching the 7th falls after a much longer walk was heaven for me. This is my first falls-trekking and the pictures sometimes couldn’t express what I feel, but I know those who’ve been to places like this would agree…

It’s something I want to watch forever.

The water is VERY COLD. It is not too deep. It was peaceful here, as if I rented the whole place because the only people here were myself and the guide. Everyone else settled with Falls #6 because the 7th falls was a long walk farther up.

The walk home at dusk is enjoyable. We trod a different trek, one which went through the village up there. Along the road, “mickey mouse plants” were sold. I think it’s a hybrid between tomatoes and something else. The leaves are known to the locals to help with hemorrhoids. It was sold at PhP 20.00 per piece.  I declined because I didn’t know what to do with it and kids may start to hound us to buy from them, too.

The sunset from here is great, but we can’t stop to watch it as it was already getting dark in a very unfamiliar place so we hurried back down to the resort.

Hungry is an understatement when we got down. And so after giving kuya an above average tip (according to the girl who served us dinner), I indulged in my very affordable dinner.

After dinner, which did not cost me more than PhP 200, I headed back to my room, showered and prepared for the next day.

This was my first outside-Luzon trip which spawned a lot other trips in the years that followed. Footloose started travelling in 2010, and this was in 2011.

Check out he next one in the Negros Series. Thanks!