Born and raised in the place known as Lambunao, it is such a great pleasure to see it's wonder and beauty. I love my work now, because it gives me the opportunity to go to the barangays where I have never been before. There is nothing more than being able to see and know more of your own place.
Lambunao came from the phrase "Mang Lambu sa Linaw" which is a karay-a term for "to go fishing." I still can remember the final question given to me when i joined Lin-ay Kang Binanog 2006 and still can remember word for word the answer that made me win the crown. The question was, "What makes you proud of Lambunao?" and my answer was, " Our being FIRST CLASS is what makes me proud of my dear municipality, not because we are being considered "buki" or "manol" it's because we have so many firsts in this municipality.One we have the first vocational school in the Philippines, formerly known as Lambunao Institute of Science and Technology now the West Visayas State University Lambunao Campus, we have the first congressman to establish a school and that is Congressman Eugenio P.Ladrido and recently we were recognized for having the FIRST in WORLD CLASS HORnBILL BREEDING. So there's nothing to be ashamed of when we are called FIRST Class..We should be proud that we are First Class Lambunaons." Whew it brings back memories, but sad to say as the Ambassadress of goodwill then, I wasn't able to fulfill my purpose.So I am doing it now, I am dedicating this post to our dear municipality. I will tour around those Lambunanons who have never seen the hidden treasures their birthplace have. I'll try my best to share what I have seen and hopefully be able to entice visitors and tourists to visit our humble place.
With 23 documented virgin waterfalls, Lambunao is called the LAND of WATERFALLS. Take note 23 is not a fix number because we are still counting. Because of my work, I am given the chance to visit some parts of this hidden wonders. So I'm going to tour you around to the most accessible among 23 waterfalls, the MONTILLANO FALLS.
How to get there...
First from Iloilo City, you will ride a van/ a jeepney going to Lambunao for 1 hour when you get to the townproper, you will again ride a jeepney/ a single motorcycle for another hour going to Brgy Jayubo. When you get there you ask the driver to drop you at Mari-it Conservation Park because the way to Montillano is beside it then you will have to walk for at least 10 minutes to get there...
This is the entrance to the Mari-it Conservation Park, and the way to Montillano Falls is right beside it...
Then we started to walk for almost 10 minutes...
As we walked I felt that I was with nature savoring the fresh air breathing clean and alive...
I don't have a long range lens so please excuse this shot hahahah....I think that poster has something to do with a research on that tree..=)
Saw this flower on our way..it's beautiful but I don't know the name.. can anybody enlighten me with the name of this beautiful creation?
As we walked, we have seen that the pathwalk to the falls is surrounded with creeks.
After a long walk...we got to a creek..since there's no bridge we have to walk through the water and have our feet and even my pants wet. hahahah!
Can you see those little red toes?That's how clear the water is!
Now as we crossed the creek we saw men working on some huts and this big pavilion. These men are the beneficiaries of the CASH FOR WORK program of the DSWD. This helps the indigent people earn for a living in exchange of working for the LGU. The Montillano falls is actually being proposed to become an Eco-Park. This structure I guess will be the pavilion and in front of it are the swimming pools. That one picture above is a kiddie pool but not yet furnished well, and for the adult pool. I can actually see the progress of this place in few years time and I'm sure it will be a blast for the tourism of our town. I'm soooo excited to see that in the future...=)
I really admire these men who do hard labor, because they earn hard with sweat.
Have you ever seen such kind of bridge? it's man made
On our way to seeing the hidden wonder....
I guess this is a very old tree coz it's been there even before my mom was born as she claimed since we used to live in the same barangay years ago...
These men are on guard 24/7 to ensure safety of the place...
and walk more.............
AND behind the green trees and the cool wind is a hidden treasure only few have seen...
MONTILLANO FALLS- the beauty unknown to MANY and entices the FEW...
I took this opportunity to have my pic taken with the falls, coz the first time I went there I didn't have a camera lol..This is my profile pic now on facebook. Just saying "hey I was there!"=)
This one is the way to another falls called INAS falls..We didn't go there because my co-workers are tired of the long walk. But I was still very energetic ready to climb some big rocks lol.
On the right side of the falls you can see a man made stairs going up and there you can see a little water falls and if you climb higher you will get to the dam, which was used before as the water supply for the school. but it was destroyed along with the pipes during the Typhoon Frank in 2008.
A little source for such a big looking falls..this is the top view of the falls...didn't get that good view coz the big stones are slippery. Next time I'll get a good shot by then I will be having my own DSLR hahahah
That's me overlooking that lil falls..catching that humble beauty...
It may look shallow but that's actually 8 ft. in depth
Saw this drawing on a big rock where I sat on hahahah! The person might not be really good in doing this but I salute him for being resourceful...=)
I guess that's all for the falls but I added here some pics I took when I went to Mari-it Conservation Park..
This one is a horn bill bred at Mari-it Conservation Park. The breeding site was actually considered First in the whole world to have a breeding site for hornbills.
The endangered Visayan Spotted dear. These creatures are endangered and should be really taken care of.
I am quite surprised to know that some of my fellow Lambunaonons don't know about Mari-it Conservation Park and the Montillano Falls. Our town has the potential to compete with other tourist destination if only there is better promotion. We should take into consideration that to be able to rise to become a tourist attraction, we should promote first our spot to our OWN PEOPLE. Yes! our own why not instead of having field trips to other towns why not bring the students to Mari-it Conservation Park? Have some tourist guide, let's say in the person of the students at WVSU-LC, to talk about the animals there to give information about the area. Put an area where we can display the different products of different barangays of Lambunao. This can be a good source of income for the local people.
We should instill to the minds of the kids of the new generation the importance of taking care of the environment. These things have been long forgotten. Reality is they don't even care....
Lambunao is a living beauty we should take a step ahead to compete with other town's tourism because, there is a BIG POTENTIAL ...we just have to MAKE IT HAPPEN...=)
---Ma. Ledi Ham B. Loot
