Tamaraw Falls

That's what it is called - Tamaraw Falls - a few kilometers from the Puerto Galera poblacion, accessible by jeepneys through relatively well-paved roads. A concrete bridge has been built as part of the main highway and it serves as a convenient view-deck.

Concrete stairwells have been built which lead to a series of pools below where one can spend a whole lazy afternoon soaking and diving in fresh mountain water. The more adventurous go "upstream" where the water literally falls and enjoy the endless "pounding", not unlike a siatsu massage.

One need not waste time trying to seek an explanation on the origin of the name of this waterfall. Even to those who may not know, it is obvious that it was named after the rare species of water buffalo found only in Oriental Mindoro.

My mischievous cousin will always retort that he found one lying around at the Manila Zoo!

The tamaraw is considered an endangered species, simply because people have been hunting them for their meat. I really don't know whether there is anything special with the taste of tamaraw meat, but I suspect that it is simply "special" because the animal is rarely seen, especially nowadays.

If the tamaraw was as commonplace as its cousin, the carabao, then, perhaps, its meat will probably be nothing extraordinary. The carabao, on the other hand, is so common that even a type of English is named after it.

Carabao English, anyone?

Dirty Ice Cream

The last time I had some of it was during my last visit to a public park. I don't really know why it's called dirty ice cream since it is, I believe, not dirty, in the first place, but it is absolutely ice cream.

In fact, I was somehow surprised when I gave the Mamang Sorbetero my P5 coin because he looked at me as if I just descended from another planet. "Sampu na ho ngayon" he barked, as if admonishing me for thinking that he peddled a "cheap" product.

So it was ten pesos, alright, for a small cone and a few scoops of two-colored, two-flavored dirty ice cream.

I always enjoy the last leg of our visits to the "eat-all-you-can" joints, because it is often a choice between halo-halo and dirty ice cream. For me it is not actually a choice at all because I always end up having halo-halo with ice cream, like most people do, anyway.

Of course, these days ice cream, dirty or not, is seldom on our menu, unless it is the sugar-free type. The reasons become obvious as one piles up the years and blood sugar levels become the object of one's watchful eyes instead of other more interesting curves.

It's good to have a cone of dirty ice cream once in a while. It make me feel one with the world.

Stoned

Either they had nothing much to do or they were really curious beings who cannot fight the itch "to find out". They are NASA scientists whose experiments have been included in "Useless Knowledge". Such "knowledge" may not really have any use at all, but these are certainly quite interesting - that even spiders do get stoned when they ingest "speed", "grass", "crack" and whatever else the pushers and users call them. So these NASA guys wanted to test the effects of some drugs on the ability of a spider to spin a web. The results, although possibly of no value at all, are rather amusing. A spider on marijuana could make only half of its web and gave up. Some spiders were given Benzedrine, called "speed" in the streets. They spun their webs very quickly but they produced them with odd patterns and large holes. So the drug is not called "speed" for nothing. Take note of this - some spiders were administered caffeine - not from Starbucks, I suppose - and they only spun some random threads. Others were given some sleeping pills and, guess what, they did not spin any web at all. Zzzzzzz! Many years ago, peer pressure made me try some of these streetwares but all it did to me was put me to sleep. So I never bothered to try again. The NASA scientists did a swell job demonstrating what havoc these things really do. If a stoned spider cannot spin its web properly, it will not survive. You can ask Spiderman!