Friday, March 4
Our early morning trip took us to the Los Banos campus of the Philippine University at the foot of Mt. Makiling. The birders soon outdistanced the botanists as we lingered over unknown species, marveled at the tree ferns, and enjoyed erythrinium, spathyphyllums and acanthus in bloom.
We had a canoe ride up the Pagasanjan River to see the falls and the site of the movie set for “Apocryphal Now.” The river narrowed as we entered an area bounded by three-hundred foot high cliffs. We transferred to a half submerged bamboo raft and pulled ourselves around a cliff by a rope. The view into that cascading fury was worth the effort.
We spent the night at the Calirya Country Club, a resort on a man-made lake developed with philosophical and ecological ideals. Then we traveled to Lumban on the southeast coats of Laguna de Bay. Here we were invited into the home of the mayor where several women were embroidering ramie cloth held in two foot hoops. I bought one for 130 pesos and later at Dumaguete a local seamstress made me a blouse overnight.