Much like the hike up, going down proved to be as muddy as ever. The only difference this time was that gravity was on our side making the descent a whole lot easier. It was still challenging mind you as our legs barely had the chance to recover from the climb. Halfway through, the turbo-strap on my Crocs gave way but we still made great time and were back to the town proper in just a little over an hour. At 5pm on the dot we were cruising towards our final destination for the day.
The highway conveniently led us right to Laguna de Bay's edge which was populated by mini-rice fields. We parked by a deserted house/warehouse by the roadside and quickly looked for an access to the fields for an unobstructed view of the country's largest lake. Fortunately for us, the owners of the first house we approached were more than happy to give us access to the rice paddies located behind the property. Talk about prime sunset real estate!
Time check, 5.45pm. Sunset was scheduled for 6.02pm which meant we just had enough time to look for our respective POV's and setup our tripods and cameras. I struggled a bit to find a good foreground as they were either too far or too plain for my taste.
True enough and as if on cue, the sky suddenly turned from a boring bluish grey to dark blue mixed with red, pinks, yellows and orange. The show had begun and we were right damn smack in the middle of it!
Since we were standing on this little piece of cement walkway, we basically had just one POV to shoot it and yet that did not matter at all because from where we were and with all of that magnificent color, any angle would be just as beautiful.