It took those two stripling Filipinos about an hour to take us up the river. Some of the time they could paddle along, but much of it was hard work, dodging rocks and dragging fat Americans over the rapids. Eventually we could see the Pagsanjan Falls up ahead. Notice how high the sides of the canyon are.

When we got closer it was loud. It had rained the night before, so there was a lot of water rushing through the rocks.

Part of the fun ... well, fun is not the right word ... say, part of the full experience when you arrived at the falls was then to exchange the canoe for a raft. This was one of the raft men.

So we climbed onto the raft and a couple of men pulled the raft hand over hand away from the comfort and certain safety of the slippery, jagged, moss-covered, wet, and slimy rocks into the chasm of the roaring waves.

Right across the river we went, directly to the falls.