Unique find for SteemGeography 🌏 // 4th Week //by @hae-ra// Exploring The Extraordinary Balete Tree//

Greetings @olga.maslievich. I am here again to share my unique find for steemgeography. Let me introduce to you this Balete Tree, the Century Tree Dalakit located at Brgy Lumapao, Dakbayan sa Canlaon, 6223 Lalawigan ng Negros Oriental.

This is the uniqe and extravagant gigantic tree that I have found way back 2017 when I went to my friend's hometown province at Canlaon, Negros Oriental. I was so amazed by it the moment we arrived at the area. At first, I just thought that it's just like ordinary trees in the forest. But when I came nearer to it, I did not expect how big and tall it is. The people there really told me, that it can't be hugged for 20 people for it's size.

Location: C6MM+7Q San Carlos City, Negros Occidental

When you look it closely, the tree is so alive and well, that you could not imagine how old is that.

As you can see this wide space here, you could not imagine that you could able to build a house here. Yes, you heard it right. Actually the moment I came near it, it really felt strange, like there's something creepy behind it's story. But as a traveler that want to explore something different and extraordinary like that, so I did try to explore the whole wide tree. But I was really talking to the tree as if I was asking permission to roam around it's body. My friend just kept on laughing me, since they're used to go there eversince when they were kids because they were just residents near that place, while me, I really talked to that tree, ahahahahaha.

While I was enjoying it, it was also a bit scary to imagine that while I was inside the tree, maybe I could not able to go out. Like I was imagining things, that I was like in a fictional movies ahahahaha. It just felt strange that when you're on the outside of the tree, it was just like nothing, but if you're inside of it's body, it also felt like you're suffocating. It's not that because I was inside of it, that I felt that way, but because I also heard stories of that balete tree with my friend while we were on the trunk, she also kept on babbling like that, which made it more horrifying.

The balete tree became one of the most destinations in Negros for tourists since then. It is said that it is one of the living proof that the city of Canlaon has many things to offer in barangay Lumabao which has become the city’s main tourist attraction.

At over 1,328 years old as estimated by botanists at the Silliman University, Canlaon’s balete is the oldest recorded tree in the whole island, with hundreds of fireflies lighting it up at nights all year round.
It stands in the middle of rice and coffee plantations at the OISCA farm and would take 42 grown men to encircle its trunk with their hands outstretched.
The tree serves as an ecosystem in itself for bats, lizards and insects.
Philippine folklore often tag balete trees as mysterious and enchanted by spirit dwellers, and this one is no exception.

For more references, please visit here:
http://touristangpobre.blogspot.com/2015/11/canlaons-century-tree.html?m=1 Source

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I also used to live and grew in a very mountainous area which is surrounded by forests, but I have never seen and experienced something ghastly like this, where in fact that I really had an explosive reaction out of it.

If you want to dare and experience the horrifying story of this creepy tree, just refer the map below.
https://goo.gl/maps/zkDm5ZoWhHmWwX6NA Mapsource
But before you can reach to that area, you have to ride habal-habal or a motorcycle taxis going there. I hope you enjoy my unique discovery here.

I would like to invite @fruityapple00, @mariarosa27 to make yours now.

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Always,
@hae-ra