A waterfall is something I wasn’t expecting when we visited Bolinao. Most falls can be found on mountainous areas where waters are expected to cascade down into streams and rivers. Bolinao is hardly like that, the surrounding areas are mostly flat and are generally composed of farmlands.

It was surprising then that Bolinao has not one, but two three waterfalls in its vicinity. The first one we visited was eponymously named after the town.

Bolinao Falls 1 is at least twenty kilometers away from the town proper and takes at least twenty minutes to reach. The road en route to the falls is unpaved and quite rocky. We were lucky, our host Puerto del Sol Bolinao, provided us with a van to visit the place. If you’re gonna visit it DIY, you’ll have to hire a tricycle in Poblacion and negotiate with the fare.

The falls can be accessed through a very short walk from a clearing which functions as a parking area. The hike, if you can call it that, wouldn’t last five minutes. Passing through an old stone stairs, we descended towards the gurgling sound of Bolinao Falls.

The blue green water of the falls’ basin presented a very nice opportunity for us to wash the dust still clinging to our skin from the overnight bus ride we had few hours back. After a quick group hug, everyone took off their clothes and jumped into the natural pool.

The water is shallow around the perimeter but gets deep quickly as you start to wander towards its center. I heard you can actually jump from the top of the twenty-foot falls, it was just unfortunate that there were no jumpers when we went there. Since the water runoff is pretty moderate, there are hardly any current. Bolinao Falls’ basin is quite huge, spanning around twenty meters at its widest.

For camera geeks, it was a bit of a challenge to shoot the waterfalls as the dual cascade were cast in shadows, making me wish I had a GND filter on hand. Finding a suitable foreground was also tricky; the good ones where across the water runoff. But crossing the stream would have me wading in deep uneven waters.

After only a few frames, I gave up on getting a good angle and simply laid down my camera. It was my turn to have a swim at Bolinao Falls!

 

Bolinao Falls 1 
Address: Brgy. Samang Norte, Bolinao Trail,
              Bolinao, Pangasinan
Entrance Fee: PHP50.00 per head
Life Vest Rental Fee: PHP50.00
Parking Fee: PHP20.00
Cottage Rental:
GPS Coordinates: 16.305901,119.860137