The house we stayed in at Barangay Poblacion, Abra de Ilog was as wonderful as the trips we had there.

Built during the early 1900’s, the Abeleda Zoleta Ancestral House has been around since the Spanish period. Abra de Ilog being a settlement for the Spaniards during the 17th century, it stands as a  testament of the olden village life this part of Occidental Mindoro.

After four and a half hours of sleep, we groggily got up, unzipped our tents and were up and about to wait for the sun to peek through the eastern side of Abra de Ilog’s Amazona beach.

The coast this side of Abra de Ilog is a pretty popular swimming spot for the locals, being made up mostly of soft brown sands and devoid of rough rocks to hurt bare feet. This however was a problem for us photographers as we were unable to find a suitable foreground object for the sunrise.

After a heavy lunch and a restful siesta, we were up and running again. We filled up two tricycles with our bags, tents, food and firewoods for a night of camping at the coast of Occidental Mindoro’s Amazona beach.

We were running pretty late; having overslept due to lack of one the previous night coupled with the exertions we did trekking to the waterfalls earlier. The beach was about thirty minutes from our friend’s house and the sun was already nearing the horizon once our tricycles went a-bumping along the unmarked rough road to the coast.

The hike back down from Agbalala Waterfalls was as difficult as the climb up to it. The only consolation we had was we were well rested before tackling the boulder-ridden path. With the tide rising, we were unable to pass through the beach we previously came from so we had to take an alternate route.

It’s breakfast time once we reached Abra de Ilog’s Agbalala Falls! We laid down our bags, looked for a flat enough place to eat on and opened up our small banquet. We’ve got some tasty pork adobo, juicy steamed crabs, crunchy pork chicharon, ultra-sour mangos and fresh white rice for our little picnic right beside the cool green pool of the waterfalls.

We arrived at our friend’s Spanish-era house by midnight; had a quick dinner, chit some chats, and prepped up before hitting the sack. Wake up call would be at four in the morning for an early start up to two of Abra de Ilog’s waterfalls.

Everyone’s phone had been set before sleeping and alarms were going off one after another come 4:00AM. Still hazy from the short shut-eye, we blearily got up and had coffee to perk us up. Breakfast was held off as we were planning to have it once we reached the first waterfall. 

For the longest time, a photographer friend from Occidental Mindoro has been inviting us to visit her hometown in Abra de Ilog for days of shooting, exploring and swimming.  On a whim, I started e-mailing some friends for us to finally go and convinced five of them to come.  With no idea as to what Mindoro’s Abra de Ilog held, we packed our bags and headed of to one of the most enjoyable summer tour of the year for us.