This is part 6 of my post about Iligan City's waterfalls. Please check out Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 if you haven't read them already.

My former high school classmate who wishes to remain anonymous has sent me some fine pics of his hiking adventures around some of these waterfalls which he visited. There were a bunch of these photos in his collection available so I decided to make them into a series of posts with his generous permission.

"Sacred Falls"

People call it "Secret Fall". It is located upstream of Lumbatin Falls at Sitio Lumbatin, Barangay. Puga-an, Iligan City.

But, according to a reliable source who happened to grew up from that place and a relative of the owners of lands nearby it, the falls is actually called "Sagrado Fall", named after the family name of the people who owned the lands nearby.

Sagrado is a Spanish word which translates in English meaning as "sacred". Perhaps there was a language error back then. It may be how the way the word "sacred" was spoken or the way it was heard as "secret". It is now confirmed that it is really known as "Sacred".

Photo taken from above the Sacred Falls

The pond just below the Sacred Falls

Please do hire local kids if you want to come here. Don't forget to give them a generous tip. More than a dozen of waterfalls can be found upstream. My former classmate only managed to observed a few. He got tired easily and was hampered by time constraints.

The easiest way to pass thru here going upstream is to cross that natural bridge submerged underwater and climb that rock wall. And if you choose to go back the same route downstream, you have to pass through here too. There is an alternative route, but its a lot more farther. The shortest way may or may not be the easiest way, that may have to depend on where one is going.

The locals have carved a stairs from the rock wall of the waterfalls for an easier climb

The waterfalls may not be that tall, but the trek to find these waterfalls will surely test one's endurance. In this journey, my former classmate admits to himself that he no longer has that endurance. He wasn't able to see all the waterfalls upstream. There's a cave as a bonus, but he did not reach it. That may have to wait some other time. Like he said, he had some other waterfalls around the city which are on top of his priority list.

One important thing he learned from his trek towards these waterfalls was: "walk where there is water and stay away from seemingly dried up rocks with rock moss because it's slippery". The easiest way might be to pass where the water current flows.

All the photos provided courtesy of bike2waterfallsphilippines and were taken with an iPhone 6s while older ones by old model GE G3WP digital camera.

Follow me as @darthnava: "The Horse is Strong in this one!"

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laurapandaw