Our friends cancelled their visit, so we had some time today. The day started with a beautiful sunrise and the volcano peaking from the clouds in the distance.
We decided that it’s a beautiful enough day to go to a waterfall that we haven’t been to yet, so we made some rice, marinated some pork belly, got some apples and asian pears, and off we went. The waterfalls that we were supposed to go to was Kataw falls in Bobon, a baranggay that is about ten minutes motorbike ride from us. Kataw means mermaid, so I was curious as to why this particular falls is named as such. Maybe it’s home to the lesser-known mountain mermaid that is endemic to this area.
After a very bumpy and curvy ride to Bobon (which is next to baranggay Camandag, where Imoy falls is. Imoy is the one that we usually hike to) we finally got to the entrance of Kataw falls… and found out it’s off-limits to visitors. Their baranggay captain died just two days ago, so they closed off all public spaces, and also because of the pandemic. Not exactly sure the exact reason, but that’s what I got from the conversation I had with a local. We could see the waterfalls in the distance, and it looks like a fantastic hiking area with lots of possibilities.
This is the lesser known waterfall of the two (Imoy and Kataw) and there are no houses in the vicinity of Kataw. Imoy has a school next to it, so the vibe is quite different, even though we couldn’t really get close to it. We ended up backtracking to the bridge that crosses the river that connects to the waterfalls and had our picnic under the bridge. It rained buckets after we were there for about an hour, so being under the bridge was an excellent idea. We were able to grill, swim, take lots of photos. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it, so the falls being off limits was not a big deal. We’ll definitely come back and explore this area more.
