Deadliest Journeys - Philippines : When The Mountain Rumbles

[Music] [Music] [Music] I always start the trip but a plan to go [Music] one of my friends fell with his boss into the ravine there were nine deaths accidents are inevitable and so dangerous a road belong to the mountain mountain there among 10 people so pull up the Monday [Music] mind our props [Music] I took care of the dead and brought them back to life well win the jackpot will find kilos of gold [Music] the headhunters rode Kalinga in filipino is aptly named even if the region's heads haven't been rolling for a long time it said the spirits of the mountains still have a taste for them when it comes to cutting the road the machines already there Christopher and his men face the same struggle against the mountain every day their job is to remove the thousands of cubic meters of rocks blocking the road in record time [Applause] right for the passenger to pacify after this maybe 2 o clock 3 o clock jeepney from Montebello right this [Applause] [Music] further down the valley lies the town of bontoc it is neither Airport nor railway station so the road is vital for its 15,000 inhabitants if the calendar is blocked the entire region is paralyzed and even the bone snake charms are powerless the only means a transport in town of these peculiar customized tricycles re the longer distances a four-wheel drive or a bus is needed [Music] the passengers it's a challenging journey bust five three two with 20 years of service is about to leave for one of the most dangerous roads in the Philippines the Kalinga on the island of Luzon it relays bontoc to the regional capital of Tabuk to the north through the Cordillera mountains [Music] a tough road under construction for nearly a century but which still resembles a track it takes almost a day if all goes well to travel it's 90 kilometers [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Fernando the drivers assistant gives the signal to start with his hand tapping the fuselage it sets the pace the manoeuvre [Music] the buses are usually owned by the drivers themselves so to maximize their return they have no qualms about putting passengers on the roof it's half price since they'll be risking their lives on the journey the passengers on the roof must remain alert to avoid being thrown off or electrocuted careful [Music] [Music] every time he takes on the mountain Edie the driver turns for protection to his creator I always start the trip with a prayer to God he watches over us this road is very difficult but I started doing this job when I was small so I'm not afraid [Music] terrible accidents have made this road infamous mudslides of sweat buses into ravines killing dozens the rainy season has just begun hardly reassuring the passengers I'm afraid especially when the stones fall I'm very worried this is my first trip on this road it's very scary but the travelers have a guardian angel to watch over them Fernando the assistant drivers scrutinizes the mountain and at the first sign of movement he stops the bus I'm the conductor I take care of the passengers baggage and I watch the road for large stones and remove them not to lose time a passenger lends him a hand on the Kalinga Fernando has plenty to do the roads other dangers are the many ruts that cause the bus to shake non-stop and that could lead to the bottom of the precipice careful this part is tricky it's moving this way [Applause] this time bare hands are no longer enough being the guardian angel of the Kalinga roots means working virtually like a slave and being paid a pittance by chance that day some workers come to their rescue it's mainly men who do this stuff I'm just watching the Kalinga is ruthless with machines and men and sometimes the mountain rumbles and demands it's terrible toll a year ago one of my friends a driver who went into the ravine with his bus yeah there were nine deaths and fifty people were injured what accidents are inevitable on a road that's so dangerous [Music] in 2006 the Philippine government undertook massive construction works to make the road safe but each day nature reasserts itself Rock Falls and Earth permanently cover the concrete road [Music] with the government of President Arroyo there have been changes before the road was narrow so now it's been enlarged and it's even been properly surfaced in some places [Applause] a battle between machines and the mountain that has gone on for almost a century despite their best efforts Christopher and his team failed to clear the road in time the bus will remain stuck for hours at the moment it rains almost 6 hours a day water weakens the mountains slows down the workers the slightest mistake can lead to an accident few if you don't know how to absorb that mountain maybe your you will be and yes that's very dangerous he's trying to give with mountains so that the eroding will already finish to go down the sign is if the small rocks will fall in down that's the sign of eroding the big very noisy one of my colleagues was buried on the Savannah inside he died [Music] [Applause] mine rocks belong to the mountain we're from a mountain we are mountain people so pull up the mountain to take but sometime we include this were improvement will sacrifice the part of the mountain [Music] [Applause] here man tries to live in harmony with the mountain with mutual respect even in death some tribes will not even dig into its bowels to bury their dead so they attach them to the side of the mountain as high as possible that is close to paradise as they can reach before the eternal rest the tired Souls can take a break on these chairs oh it's the drivers signal to leave finish road for the passengers ok now we can continue the city of ting Lyon is in sight it marks the halfway stage of the journey before people stayed in their own villages since the road was widened traveled to major cities has been made easier but the bus does not go everywhere villagers remain inaccessible but some had the bright idea of creating a motorcycle taxi business it had to have been pierced by a nail and if the hole is too big we'll replace the tyre if it's more we'll fix the inner tube what diary is the head of the official team unity quick quick change the tyre lookouts report the bus is on its way okay put it down there [Music] okay okay it's repaired muscle be here soon after 45 miles and 5 hours the bus finally arrives at Dingle I am [Music] some of the passengers are preparing for a new ordeal their village is another 12 kilometers away up in the mountains to get there their only choice is to take a motorcycle taxi at their own risk of course [Music] even more so since the bikes are fastly overloaded [Music] road bikes on dirt tracks equals three-quarters of an hour of anxiety for the passengers [Music] stones cracks ruts at any moments there could be an accident [Music] turn your teeth [Music] and yet without the motorbikes it would be a four hour steep climb to their village we help our fellow citizens and our families the bike provides a good job and we can support our families before I worked in the fields and it was much more painful to begin with we took bags of cement or rice cartons of goods and then over time we began to carry passengers as the number of motorcycles increased we decided to organize an association works like this if there are 10 people to be transported to tinglin and there are 10 bikes available it's one person per bike not two we're all equal least for girls it works drivers are good lovers [Music] these extreme bikers earn 8,000 pesos per month about 200 euros or more than twice the average wage in the Philippines [Music] Christopher the foreman from the worksite along the road lives in this village once a week he goes home to see his wife and three children he's brought along some scrap metal for his house [Music] the fare is 400 pesos about 10 euros including the cost of transporting the goods it's just okay because if you if you get that good stool down from the highway very difficult Christopher returns home with things to eat unobtainable in his remote village such as pasta spices and coffee the community produces most other things such as meat and vegetables two of his children have come to help but Christopher has a little problem my wife she's in the farm harvesting harvesting the rice Nepali so you have no keys I have no case I have to eat first small village large city when you're locked out there's always one solution go knock at the neighbours here for a stop because my wife is not [Music] she's not get 850 people live in bot bot most residents grow rice like many villages in the Cordillera the lack of roads means many locals remain isolated [Music] Christopher is one of the few to have found a job down in the plains he dreams one day there will be a good road so his kids can go to school and eventually university improving this road from the highway going to our barangay is the beginning of our progress for our children to make their life successful [Applause] Oh she's my wife the window windows already open so in a corner of the main room there's a treasure is early 2002 for the first time I have my motor buck-buck name no as you can see almost everything is is broken here like this mirror the tire is you see I was a bit careless at the time I didn't used to brake enough I was always scared of falling over and in danger so I used to just jump off fell over onto the rocks all the time Christopher's motorbike only survived a couple of weeks without being damaged not everyone is cut out to be a daredevil biker here the only flat area is the village square it serves as the training ground for the new motorcycle taxi recruits Geoffrey who used to be a farmer has been trying to master a motorcycle wearing flip-flops but no helmet Watari the trainer doesn't seem worried I've trained a lot of people here when someone buys a motorcycle he comes to us and we train them in the Philippines you don't need a license for a motorcycle so everyone does pretty much as they please [Music] yes yes what do I think about Geoffrey's driving hmm I think now he can finally make the trip so long as he doesn't take passengers [Music] [Music] Atari the instructor believes balance can be learned only one way on the mountain roads okay so we'll try this climb but be careful mind it's one of the most dangerous go in first gear but lights on the pedal not too much gas okay try mind my bike it's fragile look carefully in front of you will you lock the wheel Geoffrey smile is a little uptight so knows that the descent will be much riskier this path is particularly difficult from dangerous because the descent is really steep and it's a very bumpy road plenty of holes here so I've told Geoffrey to find the balance between first gear and using the brake but he has to be careful without his helmet it's very dangerous [Music] that's are you ready I'm ready but just for one passenger so pretty of them Oh better watch out anyway has a band Hey [Music] in the valley the bus continues its route they've been on the road for more than six hours and are still a long way from Tabuk their final destination [Music] and the driver is very disappointed the bus is now half empty they won't be making much money this time no everything's fine apart from not enough passengers he doesn't make a profit he won't be able to pay either himself or Fernando his assistant [Music] some people don't give us the right amount yeah which is fine they'll make up the difference the next time when they make the return journey they say they'll pay the next trip so sometimes we don't have enough money to pay for gas because there aren't enough people [Music] sweat instead of salary each trip is the same anguish there there they are the mountains of Tabuk Tobruk is right there behind those mountains [Music] after eight instead of six hours the bus finally is back on an asphalt road [Music] it's the end of a long eventful journey for head the driver and Fernando it's now the moment of truth but mine's a good job but sometimes there's very little money in it and it's hard to be very motivated anyway this is a good season for us right now September to December is when we work well but this time well yeah we didn't earn much just enough to pay for the gas [Music] in fact it's a bad day having lost 600 pesos or 15 euros they'll leave again tomorrow in the hope of having more passengers [Music] Tabuk is crowded today ed the driver suggests going to the town's exit if we want to see a strange character as a healer in Taba many people come from Manila just to see him he touches the affected part of the body with a little water and then the person is cured under a makeshift tent hundreds of people listen religiously to this man he's revered as the saint his name is Santino in this deeply Catholic country people come from far and wide for his powers to heal that's always the same ritual before receiving the miraculous treatment men and women are separated the men must take off their shirts assistance then hand out free cups filled with water from an astonishing spring this is the first step the purification of the inner body the number of people varies the averages 5,000 per day but the most people I have blessed in a single day is 32,000 the second step is the mystical shower santino sprinkles generous amounts of his holy water on each of the faithful to alleviate their pain he says he's had the gift since he was a child to my mother when I was a kid I used to get sick all the time I even became blind yes totally blind and totally deaf too and then after that I started to heal myself I don't know how I came by this gift from God there are many journalists who come to fill me without asking my permission but they can't take pictures of me because their tapes weren't record with a miraculous spring water some tea know that demigod says he can help even the most desperate cases under the main tent entire families awaiting the helo is their last hope [Music] as proof of his power before our cameras he takes a hopeless case the woman has been unable to walk without crutches for a long time virtually confined to her wheelchair a phony or miracle worker nothing seems to stop Santino I've even helped the dead they brought me someone who had been dead for six hours no a twelve hours and I brought him back to life the secret of life is just behind him the miraculous water comes in fact straight from the city's pipes the voices told me once to stop the distribution of water because people tend to misunderstand such things they began to believe that the water had cured them and not their faith in God I have therefore suspended blessings for two months [Music] get up and walk with the simple phrase in some well-placed miracles Santino's business is making great strides [Music] all of which infuriates Rolando the local priest [Music] most people who come to see him and not cured maybe out of every hundred people they might sometimes be one person who he's healthy the majority never get better I even know of two people who after they saw Santino Ashley got worse and died the pastor is heading to the banal goldmine to get there it needs a jeep me and a four-wheel-drive bus it's a three-hour journey in cramped conditions that could be very tiring and you sooner have sore legs or kidneys because the jeepneys constant motion up and down up and down side by side and with lots of passengers it's packed it's really tight in there [Music] the jeepney is manufactured in the Philippines it's tough and can go almost anywhere but even the cheap mail has its limits during one climb there's an ominous cloud of black smoke billowing out of the exhaust pipe [Music] [Music] [Music] some mechanics trust the penis strike but apparently it's nothing serious but they are stuck at the rear of the vehicle they have the tools for a big breakdowns but not for this one fortunately for them there's a house a few hundred meters away oddly the driver is convinced he'll find what he needs there which it appears was simply a rusty nail now [Music] after four hours the jeepney finally arrives at the entrance to the gold mine [Music] they call this place the Golden Gate it's the obligatory passage for anyone who dreams of riches in this Filipino Wild West the rules are strict no one can set foot in the mine without the approval of the marshals and before that all luggage is thoroughly searched I checked baggage to make sure there's no alcohol or weapons these are the items that are prohibited in the mines weapons drugs alcohol our main objective is to ensure the safety of the miners under the influence of certain things people might forget about their own safety the trail enters into the forest and to reach the Eldorado we'll take another four hours on foot [Music] the property belongs to different tribes who together manage several veins of gold a total of 30 shafts which are more or less profitable there may be up to 1,500 men at work Hamas owns one of the most profitable mines and for a few grams of gold he's ready to gamble with his life we stake the biggest mistake even they were dynamite drop it into the fire this is one can see now why the guards confiscated bottles of alcohol at the entrance to the mine would be carts no helmets a flashlight and most safety rules according to the miners there are a few accidents it takes more than 10 minutes to reach the bottom of a mine this drill is as close to modern and as anything you'll find here [Applause] live where it's a desert and apportion them Thomas intrepidly cuts each stick of dynamite to multiplied strength [Music] once the fuse is lit they have only 30 seconds to find somewhere to shelter [Music] [Music] even hunkered down in this corner everyone feels the force of the shockwaves the miners had planned to see whether they'd struck it rich straight away but they hadn't planned on so much dust they need to exit quickly or make a tunnel because of the smoke of the dynamite it's very dangerous if you inhale it so I we wait for hours so that the smoke will come out [Music] a little further down workers at a nearby mine rinsed the rock with clean water [Music] in fact the water isn't that clean since the miners use mercury to extract the gold dust from the rocks it possesses the ability to attach itself to gold but it's a highly dangerous pollutant [Applause] it's been here for 20 years already I'll be good than ginger little gum pregnant woman nevermind us we will just die Royce has worked here for 15 years and there's no old-timer environmental issues here take a back seat gold he says provides a form of stability to the region this urgency problem because the problem was forget money 20 marijuana was presented the original problem was on so there is fishing out there a small wooden house provides the source of good or bad news as this is where the miners come to sell their gold my money's only 3135 60 euros for three grams of gold is the average earning for most miners back in Hamas is mine there is still smoke even after four hours the miners are out of luck the dynamite didn't blow up all the rock it means more digging but there's a mysterious force that helps them we have a secret power our secret power is if we got tired do we have a certain power you use our kilakila power you know well you know Kelly Kelly power no Kirikiri power is the reserve of our body it's very strong it's why if you have no Kelly Kelly power you cannot break this using this one after an hour of hard work the verdict [Music] nice this is our guide Kassadin stone make it this is what they call quartz quartz and pyrites there's little pyrites this is our guide and respect that after one meter maybe become either say a little gold be after my mom we win the jackpot and get the kilos of gold gold and go to the Central Valley cancel it and buy some our needs especially whiskey at the mind men tell of the gold fever that can make some people crazy [Music] in the Filipino Farwest one has to be patient in order to get rich royce the eldest miner is 62 and remains optimistic he has his own mind right next to his house thinking that I were finally going opportunity what we have everybody want to get rich the common thinking of the people and with doctor I'm a patron never mind [Music] did you want to hit them we make another dinner for him for my children for my niece [Applause] [Music] preserving a mountain and its treasures is Royce's mission and that of all the elders of the region but for the next generations to be able to enjoy its vast resources long into the future the arrival of foreign investors eyeing the treasures buried in the Kalinga smelt ins needs to be discouraged [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Best Documentary

Views: 1,713,367

Rating: 4.6061592 out of 5

Keywords: road, travel, travel documentary, National Geographic, Philippines, roads, waterways, free documentary, Deadliest Journeys, documentary, Deadliest Journey

Id: r9rdaHifgcU

Length: 51min 57sec (3117 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019