Location: Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

WOW.

JUST WOW.

I have no idea how to not just write about today in all caps. It was incredible. I had to leave the hostel at 6 am for this tour I’d signed up for (still didn’t really know what it was), and we ended up in the car for three hours, driving towards Moalboal (a town on the west coast of the island). Okay cool new city! Sounds good!

They herded us around and eventually told us to put on our bathing suits… alright what for? Turns out we rounded a corner and were on a busy beach, full of snorkelers. And for good reason! Just off shore a huge coral reef teeming with bright life was accessible. GIANT schools of sardines swam around, moving away from any sound in a weirdly fluid way. Shining and shimmering, we reached towards them and they shied away from your hands but just far enough so you couldn’t actually touch them. It was like putting a handprint into clay, only it was a school of fish!

We walked along the beach towards a locals house who owns the company of the tour we were doing. His wife had made us all a huge spread of local cuisine and my god. Real Filipino food is just amazing. Loud pop music from 5 years ago played outside as we ate different kinds of pork ribs, sausage rolls, egg buns, sautéed veggies and glass noodle salad.

I still didn’t really understand what the whole day was about but the guide then asks the group ‘who wants to zip line?’ Uhhhhhhh me? What kind of tour is this?? We bushwhacked toward a platform where they hooked me up and threw me over the edge. I zip lined over this massive palm tree covered canyon for two kilometres. It was so long I had time to think about how long it was! I had a moment up on the line where I got a little teary-eyed from how happy I was to be here (no it wasn’t just the wind in my eyes).

And then.

AND THEN.

THE MAIN EVENT.

They fit us into life jackets and helmets and said “Alright friends! Let’s go CANYONEERING!”

Wait what?

What is canyoneering?

Is that a word?

It’s this massive excursion spent floating down rivers, climbing up and over rocks and leaping off of waterfall cliffs all in the name of exploring a canyon. We got deeper and deeper, and the cliffs we had to jump off of got higher and higher. The first was only 5 meters and I had a hard time with that one! I latched onto a little group of people, Thai, Jimmy, Samuel and Danielle, and spent most of the day being a canyoneer (sounds so cool) with them.

Huge stalactites dripped into the rushing bright blue water below. Vines and trees overhung the canyon walls, draping down into the space. Little fish swam all around and we picked our way through for four hours of fun. The second cliff was seven meters high, in this thin little section where the guide says ‘don’t jump too far or you’ll hit the wall’

OKAY. YOU’RE CORRECT THAT IS A VERY CLOSE WALL.

I pansied around for a few seconds, almost backing out and then leapt. I lived! It was good fun! I am terrified that these are just gonna get worse!

I was right!

Th next cliff a little while later was a ten meter high platform that you had to run and jump off of. Excuse me. No.

I looked over the edge (big mistake), and freaked out. I watched a few people go and then I freaked out some more. Just as I was on the precipice of deciding, Jimmy went and face planted so hard he got an instant nosebleed. The guide jumped in after him immediately and everything was fine but I said ‘nope I am not running and jumping’ I will die. A lot of people opted out of this one so I didn’t feel too bad.

BUT THE NEXT ONE. 14 meters of waterfall glory and did it just get hotter or am I sweating from nerves?

I need to pee is there a way out of this?

That is unreasonably high.

Jokes aside I watched as the group made their way over to the other side to jump. I stayed with the non jumpers and then last minute decided ‘screw it! What’s the worst that can happen?’

Actually a lot of bad things can happen when cliff jumping, all of which flashed through my mind as I stood freaking out on the ledge for like one whole full painful minute, but that’s beside the point. The guide kept counting down and I kept glaring at him ‘stop counting!’

Eventually I leapt off the falls and my heart just stopped in the air while I thought ‘f*** this is high’. BUT I DID IT. See video below for one ridiculous minutes of me panicking. It’s kind of funny to see me like desperately try to reason with myself from afar, and after the fact. The video does not accurately represent how high this was.

We finished off the day with a snack back at the guides house, a lot of thank-you’s for such an amazing day, and the long drive home.

I loved every minute of today.

Being in the air wasn’t love I guess, but I’m still super glad I did it!

Sav

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New People:

• Thai – Australia
• Jimmy – Australia
• Samuel – U.K.
• Danielle – Canada