Isarog Mountain is actually a volcano. It hasn’t erupted for a few hundred years. They say instead of fire, the volcano now gives water. The small towns aren’t too far away but when you’re there, you feel isolated.

I’ve only been there 2-3 times. I remember the stones being quite big. It’s a mountainous area. Quite green and lush. When you look up in the trees, I remember seeing small huts made of nipa. When the people are cooking on the inside, you can tell because there’s smoke coming out of the roof.

The water of Isarog River is so clear and so cold! Really cold – even in summer. The water tastes different too. I Can’t really describe it, but it tastes different. Maybe it’s the sulphur, I'm not really sure. They say the water is medicinal too. If you have a skin condition, you can go in the water and it can make you better. We took my niece there when she had a lot of mosquito bites. She had scratched them and the bites had opened into cuts. We took her there just once. We all went in – my mom, my sisters, brothers… On the way home, we looked at her cuts and we were happy to see they were drying.