Taytay Falls Day Trip

It was on my bucket list to find my long lost friends – well hindi naman totally lost, but I haven’t seen this group of people for 13 years! Imagine that, 13 years! One of my friends, Jeng, has just arrived from Brunei so all of us we’re excited not just because of the pasalubong (pero syempre kasama na yun. Hahaha) but most especially this will be our biglaaang reunion. There’s a Pinoy saying nga “kapag biglaang lakad natutuloy”, which I believe, totoo.

Based on our group chat, we’ll go to Caliraya, which we normally do, eons ago during Easter Sunday. So I packed my things with my Sunday Dress/Sandals on Saturday afternoon and rode a bus to Sta Cruz. My travel time from Calamba to Kalayaan is approximately 2.5hours- not bad 😀

Around 8pm, my friends started to arrived. Mind you, most of them are from Kalayaan na- it’s just me (Calamba) and Julianne (Antipolo) who travelled to Kalayaan but we arrived earlier than them! Hahaha!

Kalayaan Plaza

We had our (free) dinner thanks to Jeng and Jr, and it felt like old times, and yes, I suddenly felt old because most of them have babies. oh no! *Tick, tick, tock!

We gathered around after dinner, kumustahan, biruan, it was a lot of fun. Then, for various reasons, we had to change the location of tomorrow's mini picnic! Uh oh! It was a last-minute change of plans – it was changed from Caliraya to Majayjay! Now what? What about my Sunday dress and sandals? Hahaha! I'm completely dead. Yes, I have an extra shirt and flipflops, but that's all I have, and yes, the majority rules.

The call time is 0500, but we leave Kalaayaan around 0600. We took a jeepney to Sta Cruz and got off at Areza Town Center in Pagsanjan. I waited another 30 minutes or so for another jeepney ride to Majayjay, but the majority of them were either full or rented (Holyweek).

Areza Terminal

So we took the Nagcarlan/Liliw route and requested that the driver drop us off in Sambat. We then took a tricycle to the Taytay Falls Jeep Terminal. We took another jeepney from the terminal that had Taytay Falls signage on it. We arrived at our destination around 8:30 a.m. It's a long ride because there are only a few modes of transportation, so we had to re-route and use a different mode of transportation. Please see below how to get there easily 😉

Before going inside, we registered at the Barangay Hall first. Cost for entry/registration is 20 PHP per person. We chose to have lugaw+egg muna, which was more expensive than our entrance ticket, after paying the fees. Hahaha. As soon as we finished our lugaw, we started trekking all the way down to Taytay falls. It took us 15-20mins before we reached the awe-inspiring place! It should only be 10-15min walk, but since there’s a lot of people coming in and out of the place, it took us that long + the road is narrow and wet (raining) But man, you’ll thank God for this wonderful creation! You’ll feel the cool breeze and  hear the birds singing their thank you song (char ko lang yun).  The place is surrounded by trees so you surely are breathing the fresh air!

After 5 or 10min walk,  we heard the sound of the falling water that excites us even more! Upon reaching the falls, all of us we’re mesmerized by its beauty. Wow! That’s the 1^st word I uttered when I saw it. The water is crystal clear and yes, I’d say that this is the cleanest/clearest falls I’ve ever seen.

Tents and panlatag are for rents – rates starts at 100-250php. There are paid bathrooms so make sure you have coins on your pocket- but don’t expect too much. You can bring beers and wine and any types of liquors but before you enter the premise, the barangay tanods and security team will check your bags to ensure no glass bottles will be brought to the falls. You have to transfer those into a plastic bottle (empty mineral water or jugs).

The water is cold, no, it’s freezing/icy cold. NO JOKE! And honestly, I never had courage to take a dip. I tried, but that was just a futile attempt. I really cant! LOL :)

I hope the place will remain clean and untouched. So let’s all be a responsible visitor.

Take nothing but pictures, bring nothing but memories and leave nothing but footprints.

How we got there and breakdown of our expenses /pax
Bus	Calamba to Sta Cruz	₱61.00
Jeep	Sta Cruz to Kalayaan	20.00
Jeep	Kalayaan to Areza (Pagsanjan)	17.00
Jeep	Pagsanjan to Sambat	16.00
Tricycle	Sambat to Majayjay Terminal	35.00
Jeep	Majayjay to Taytay Falls	17.00
Entrance fee		20.00
Jeep	Taytay Falls to Majayjay terminal	17.00
Jeep	Majayjay Terminal to Areza	30.00
Jeep	Areza to Kalayaan	17.00
**** Food ****

How to get there (best option)

Bus ride (Buendia - Sta Cruz) – 140.00Php

Jeepney ride (Sta Cruz - Majayjay) - 40.00 PhP

Jeepney ride (Majayjay - Taytay) - 17.00 PhP

xx
Ash