Wildflowers near the Falls

I purposely went to La Union, a province >6 hours by bus north of Manila to see waterfalls. (My previous post earlier about the Simminublan waterfalls). My travel buddy met me at Evelyn's house there, our base while looking for whatever interesting things we might go into. Evelyn is also looking for buddies who just want to go nature tripping, butterflies and photography. The only concrete plan is to go see a waterfalls, wherever that might be. Through the circuitous and undulating steep roads we went, enjoying the incredibly difficult trip. As most say "it is the process not the product", or  "enjoy the means more than the end". So we go, they plunged into the water, Linda even jumped from the cliff. But i stayed dry, looked for butterflies, dragonflies, and wildflowers. I even looked for hoyas at nearby trees, but found none!

So i might as well share with you the wildflowers.

 I am sorry, i do not know most of their names. Maybe i am the only one who love them that much. Above and below looks like a species of Impatiens. Both the stems, leaves and morphology of the flowers and fruits have semblance to Impatiens balsamina, even I. walleriana. When i searched in the web, i just realized there's a lot, as in a LOT,  of species of Impatiens. Unfortunately, i was not able to find one image that looks like this.

 those flowers are lovely with the bottom petals darker than that on top

 This one has very minute flowers in spikes, but the leaves have smudges of red like drops of blood. Of course, i don't know it too. They are actually weeds.

 What a lovely color for flowers! I haven't seen any flower design or structure like this. And they are so small with half of that petal only one-third of a centimeter. If you don't call that small,  i don't know what is. Again, a NOID for me.

 Above is so striking in golden yellow. I am sure it is a legume, flowers looking like peas. I searched for its leaves and they look like that of peanuts. I am sure this is a peanut cousin.

 And while the above is a wildflower i know very much it is lantana. Whether it is L.camara or another species, i don't know. I watched for butterflies nectaring on it, but i didn't see any.

 This one is the favorite of butterflies, as we have them too in our property as weeds, and butterflies love them, the porter weed, Stachetarpheta jamaicensis. I will not forget that long scientific name because i had been teaching my nephew and niece this name since they are 5 yrs old. Now they can recite that long name even if they just woke up! That is the first Sci name they learned, hahaha.

Another NOID (No Identification). This is an umbel and the white flowers are arranged around it, i wonder why there are no white flowers at the center, maybe the maturity starts from that bottom. The golden yellow pollens are very prominent.

I searched for more wildflowers at the vicinity of the waterfalls, but the dragonflies and damselflies got my attention most. So next time i will be posting them too, maybe next post. Thanks for your visit and comments. Your comments are the life of my posts.

Our World Tuesday
Floral Friday Fotos
Nature Notes
Macro Monday 2
Wildflower Wednesday

Exhilarating Experience

I did not go to the office last Friday, 17th March. I left at 3:00am to take the 4:00am bus for a 6.5 hours ride to the north of Manila. I will be joined by my friend from Baguio City and we will be staying with my friend in La Union. She will take us to a waterfall near her place. Serendipity came in as the tourism officer will be bringing some people who won the raffle in their Agri-fair Exhibit. It is one of their promotions for people to visit one of their waterfalls in their town, in fact there are a few more waterfalls there. So we left my friend's car at the Santol Poblacion for the hired vehicle that brought us to the Simminublan Falls. The jeepney was full and a few guys together with my friend took the topload, or on the jeepney rooftop.

As far as this lifetime is going, i can say that this ride and that route to the Simminublan Falls, Santol, La Union is the most exhilarating and scary one! The road is paved to the top of the mountain but rough downwards to the other side where the waterfall is. But the slope, OMG, is definitely only a little less than 90 degrees. It is circuitous and both sides of the road are deep steep ravines, that if we fell there nothing will stop us from reaching the bottom, not even a big boulder. I tell you, it is more than a roller coaster ride. All of us held tightly to the jeepney roof handles! Sometimes, someone gasped, or screeched, involuntary controlled screams that got out from their mouths.

I was able to get a few hurried shots, although they did not show the real dimensionality of the area. They still appeared flat, not that scary as in the real experience. (please move over your mouse for a bigger and clearer picture)

 This is taken while going up to the top of the mountain, afterwhich, it swiftly went down on a rugged unpaved road. I can just think of what it is during the rainy season, maybe more difficult and more scary! The tourism officer said only single motorbikes can traverse this road during the rainy season.

above shows the not so steep part of the road to the top

 The barangay road is only as wide as a jeepney, it is good that nothing comes here but single
motorcycles. Or else the other vehicle will take reverse until the point it started, and that is at the bottom of the mountain. There are portions of the road where both sides are very steep ravines, with nothing to bar you from falling, not even a big tree!

 another view of the other side of the mountain

another expanse at the side of the road

I felt that everybody almost held their breaths most of the time. And maybe a few said some secret self prayer of thanks to God when we at last reach the bottom of the road, a dead end. And from there, a few more steps brought us to big boulders, which kept our destination, the Simminublan Falls.

All of us have picnic baskets, some even have a radio, and of course a large tarpaulin for shade. Most of them swam in the big basin-like catchment of the falls. All the men tried jumping on the water from the rock cliff.

 I did not join them, as my other purpose is to shoot some wildflowers and butterflies. There are also a lot of dragonflies and damselflies, so they also took my fancy.

 
This is the total expanse of the waterfalls, in cascades. They said it is about 30ft in height. The water now is not as big as during the rainy season. It would be lovely then, but i doubt if i can be brave enough to take that single motorbike on slippery steep road during the rainy season.

 the 2nd cascade from the bottom

2nd cascade even enlarged

My friend is the only lady who took the plunge from the cliff. She even wanted to start from the topmost rock, but there are no holds to get there. We were all at the sides, taking her picture. 

the vegetation around the falls

That is a summary of that experience. My more extreme-adventurer friend still wants to visit more of the falls that need more hiking hours. However, i think i need to ask for more details of the road going there before i decide to join her again. 

Below is my friend's video of the road going there and back. 

Video going there: 

Video going back: 

Through My Lens
Outdoor Wednesday
Our World Tuesday
Wednesday Around The World
Wednesday Waters