WARNING: some parts of the narrative might be too graphic for the squeamish. Don’t worry, I didn’t include photos of the open wound.

I signed up for this adventure because of the opportunity to rappel by the 180-ft Buruwisan Falls of Mt. Kapaynutan (formerly Mt. Romelo). It’s the highest and most popular waterfalls in the mountain, and the prospect of cascading alongside it is just too thrilling to pass off. I did not even give the trail much thought, which is a class 1, and the elevation “only” 300 MASL.

I never learn. No matter how seemingly easy it is to hike a mountain because of its humble trail class and elevation, no careless human being is ever prepared for what nature can do. Long story short, I slipped, tripped, and got bruises and wounds on our way to the top of the waterfalls. But hey, I still willed myself to experience the entire adventure. I may have injured myself, but I won’t let my ego get bruised noh!

The fall

The trail was dry, which means there would be parts where loose soil can make the path slippery. There are rocks here and there, and depressions created by work horses make the navigation a little tricky. On the way to the summit, we had to go through some downhill parts before ascending again. At one point, I miscalculated my step and lost my balance as I took one step downward in between crevices with my left leg. In my attempt to regain my balance, I extended both arms to cushion my fall. I still hit my left knee on a rock as my left foot slid.

I got up right away, and my first words to my companions were: “di nyo na-video yun?” (you didn’t catch that on video?). Yeah, I tried to make fun of the situation but I felt the impact of my fall on my knee. When we resumed the hike, I paid attention to my knee to determine if I should continue. It didn’t feel like anything was fractured, and I could still walk okay. By the time we got to the summit, that’s when I felt something stinging on my left foot. About a millimeter of skin was torn off and it was already bleeding. What made it worse was that it was scratching against my sandal strap. Gross no?

I limped the rest of the way not because of my bruised and scratched knee, but because of that tiny but aggressive wound near my big toe.

I was able to wash it with water first, then poured alcohol over the wound (not my first time to torture myself like this). I had adhesive bandages from my own first aid kit, but those would be useless once I rappel down the waterfall and on to the river below. Luckily, the tour guides had a roll of gauze bandages in their own kit. I thought I did a pretty good job wrapping it around the wound and across the toe, until we started to descend back to the jump off point.

The torturous descent

I had to redo the bandage wrap because it went loose after I waded through the river. It has to be said that the wound did not agree with the water from river. It stung!

Anyway, I thought I did a better job with the bandage this time around. What I didn’t anticipate was that since we would be going downhill this time, the web space between my big toe and the toe next to it will get pulled back by the bandage. I tell you, I didn’t know whether to tiptoe down the mountain or land on my heels going downward, which, of course will affect my hurt knee. So I did the next best thing: go down sideways, changing sides every now and then. I call it the “Miss Universe downhill step”.

Chasing waterfalls

I took antibiotics, used antiseptic and disinfectant for a little over a week. To be honest, I reached the point where I got worried that I might get gangrene out of this because of all the swelling, pain and pus. I got paranoid! I told myself, maybe this is a sign that I should really stop hiking. Dang it.

The entire process took about two weeks before I got over the trauma and started checking out the schedule of my next target mountain. Yeah, I don’t think I’m done. There’s still little left in me that wants to continue chasing waterfalls.

So, was it worth all the pain? Totally! In fact, this goes down my list of the things I want to do all over again.