Baler is the birthplace of surfing in the Philippines. Once a laid-back coastal town on the eastern side of Central Luzon in the Philippines, surfing has since pinned it on the tourist map, bringing in tourists, quirky restaurants, and posh hotels on its shore. Besides surfing, this small town in the Province of Aurora also boasts of a few historic sites—being the birthplace of Manuel L. Quezon—a spread of beaches, interesting rock formations, waterfalls and lighthouses.

While the town of Baler is but a small spot in the whole of Aurora, it has since become the starting point and base of operations for touring the region. From here, visitors can check the nearby municipalities of Maria Aurora, Dipaculao, and San Luis, all the way up to the farther reaches of Dingalan, Dinalungan, Casiguran, and Dilasag. For the purpose of this travel guide, I would be limiting the scope to those areas readily accessible from Baler.

After posting an article about Maria Aurora’s 600-year old Balete tree, I received a pretty strange message from one of my readers, it reads:

     hi christian, what's your email add where i can send you the two pictures you've taken where you captured
     ghosts and elementals... unbeknownst to you. thanks 

     - cielykaye     
 

It was four in the morning and I just got home from work, it was still dark, everybody was asleep and I was the only one downstairs; the hair at the back of my neck stood on end. I caught supernatural beings on my camera? Seriously?

I was scared to see what I got but I was also very very curious about it. So I went ahead and gave her my address.

The reply I got consisted of two photos, here’s a cleaned up version of it:

Dubbed locally as the Millennium tree, this huge Balete located on one of Maria Aurora’s dirt roads has been attracting the attention of local visitors of Baler.

It is unimaginably huge that it would take 60 adult individuals, holding hands together, to fully encircle its trunk. It’s massiveness becomes evident as my friends started walking towards it, they looked like little kids beside the tree.

Balete trees wrap themselves like parasites on the trunks and branches of a host tree. And this is an excellent example of what happens over time, the original tree in the middle is now gone, leaving a hollow inside the Balete.

A passage between its twisted roots allows visitors to even access this hollow; it fitted all six of easily inside. It was dark, hot and humid at the core of the Balete with only shafts of light passing through its roots illuminating its creepy interior.