As mentioned in my previous post, 2012 would be a year full of exploration for me and my travel mates. You might be wondering why I haven’t really posted anything yet for 2012 when it’s past three months since the year have started. There’s really no particular reason for making my post so late. Just got busy of few things lately and I wasn’t really in the mood to write. Now that my travel mates and I are planning a trip to Baguio this coming September, I decided to finish this blog post regarding our Cagayand de Oro-Bukidnon trip adventure that happened earlier this year.
Yes, you’ve heard it right. We did start this year by going to Cagayan de Oro. Some of you may wonder why we choose to be in Cagayan knowing that Sendong did quite a lot of damages on the area before 2012 even started. Honestly, the trip has long been planned and no one really expected that disaster to come. Since Cagayan is located in Northern Mindanao, who would have thought that such a typhoon would hit a typhoon-free area? So off we went to Cagayan on January 14-17, 2012 after knowing that the place’s great river has been restored for its famous Whitewater Rafting Adventure.
Before I tell you more about our rafting adventure, let me share the exhausting travel experience we had to get ourselves to Cagayan de Oro City. We were all first timers on that trip, which means none of us have been to Cagayan before; and if you were to go to Cagayan I suggest that you really go there by air. It was around November of 2011 when we booked a flight from CDO to Cebu. We’re from Dumaguete and since there’s no direct flight from CDO to Dumaguete we grabbed the promo seat sale from Cebu Pacific for CDO to Cebu trip as that’s the easiest way we can get back home. Downside there was we weren’t able to get a promo flight from Cebu to CDO, thus we decided to go to Cagayan by sea. Everything was definitely set including the ship scheduled for CDO, which travels only once a week from Dumaguete Port, only to find out a day before we set sail to CDO that the trip was cancelled because of typhoon Sendong. Our only option was to travel from Dumaguete to Dapitan by sea and then Dapitan to CDO by land. As mentioned, we were all first timers so we never really thought about the travel hours. Our minds were set to the excitement of going to a new place. We left Dumaguete early morning of January 14,2012. Travel hours from Dumaguete to Dapitan was approximately four hours. When we reached Dapitan around lunch time, we were informed that the only way we can go to CDO at that time was to get ourselves to Dipolog since the road in Dapitan leading to CDO was greatly affected by the storm and the government was still in process of restoring the road. Since Dipolog is just 15 minutes away from Dapitan, we decided to just drop by the place and grab our lunch before heading to the bus terminal. To our surprise, the land trip from Dipolog to Cagayan de Oro City is roughly around 10hours. Imagine how exhausting that would be! From Dipolog the bus would take you to Ozamiz wharf, where a barge is waiting to take the bus to Iligan City. It took us almost 6hours to reach Ozamiz. We were all energy-drained and droopy from lack of sleep since we got off from work early Saturday morning. Once in Ozamiz wharf, the barge would take 30 minutes to cross to Iligan wharf. It was dinner time when we got on board the barge to Iligan. Tired, drained and hungry…I wonder how we looked at that time? From Iligan wharf to CDO City was another tiring 4-5hour drive. It was almost 11pm when we arrived in CDOC bus terminal. To our dismay, the driver that we have contacted to take us to the hotel (which we still have to book for) is no longer available for the day thus we had to take a cab to the downtown area. Good thing about it is that the place speaks vernacular so it was easy to negotiate and the people are definitely friendly and approachable. I would have to say that that was definitely the longest travel I had in my entire life and will never want to experience again. The stress was too much to bear! hahaha….
So much about the travel drama, Cagayan de Oro is known for its Whitewater Rafting adventure. For this activity we booked with Kagay, one of the rafting groups in Cagayan which offers different rafting packages. You can visit their site here: http://www.cdorafting-map.com/. We took the advance course which will take a three-hour run for 17 kilometers on the vast CDO river with 21 rapids and a side-trip to Macahambus Adventure Park. Early morning of January 15,2012, Kagay team assigned to our group together with the other tourists who booked for the advance rafting course fetched us up from our hotel. We stopped by Macahambus Adventure Park first before heading to the rafting area. In Macahambus, we get to pass by their hanging bridge, also known as the Canopy walk. The Canopy walk is literally hanging more than 100meters above the ground. That definitely set the mood for adventure! After reaching the end of the Canopy walk, you would have to get on a zip line and zip your way back to the other side of the Park. I’ve never done zip lines before so I was a bit excited to try it. Mind you, they’ll have to drop you few feet from the ledge you’re standing on first before you can rocket yourself to the other side of Park. Good thing about it, I didn’t get scared! Hahaha…. After setting everyone’s mood for adventure we headed to Cagayan de Oro-Bukidnon boundary where the Advance white water rafting adventure will start. 
All geared up and ready to row, we got some important safety instructions from our Kagay rafting team experts. Then we finally set sail to meet those 21 rapids awaiting for us in the vast Cagayan de Oro river. Below are just few of f the captured moments.
Exhausted from the half day rafting activity, Kagay team dropped us off the city proper so we can have our lunch. Lunch was supposed to be part of our tour package but since Sendong washed off the restaurant Kagay usually take their guests to, we had to take care of our lunch. Still wet from rafting, we dropped off a Mexican restaurant to grabbed some bite since we didn’t get to have breakfast before heading to rafting. You shouldn’t really have to worry about where to eat or dine in CDOC because there are lots of food establishments in the downtown area. After eating we headed back to our hotel to take a bath and grab some rest for the night out. CDOC downtown area is known for its night market every weekend and this is something that you shouldn’t miss. This follows the concept of “Banchetto” every Friday in Ortigas, Pasig. A certain length of the road will be closed and food stalls are put up where you can buy variety of grilled food. The night market is just one of the things we look forward to experiencing. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience it because the downtown area temporarily stopped the night market after Sendong. We decided to drop by CDO-SM instead to grab some coffee and doughnuts to while away time while waiting for our dinner hitch in my elementary classmate’s place whose based in CDOC for work. We were also able to grab some souvenirs since we won’t have any chance the following day. After a bountiful dinner (thanks to Rainheart!) we headed back to our hotel for the next day’s activity—BUKIDNON: Forest Park and Dahilayan Zip Zone Adventure!
Located in the mountainous area of Monolo Fortich Bukidnon, Barangay Dahilayan not only holds a magnificent nature’s view but also offers extreme adventure for it’s famous Dahilayan Forest Park and Zip Zone. The travel time from CDOC to Manolo Fortich is approximately an hour and a half to two hours depending on the weather condition. Mind you, the weather condition in Monolo Fortich is very erratic. The place gets drizzles to heavy rain showers from time to time but rain is mostly noted around lunch time. It would be best if you travel early in the morning. There are a lot of van/car rental services in CDOC that you can get from the internet for contact information. 
As for us, we got a good deal from the hotel that we stayed in so we got the vehicle service with them. At 6:30 in the morning we were already set for our BUKIDNON trip. We just passed by a Jollibee drive thru to grab some burgers for our breakfast. We're not really into heavy meals that time since we would be travelling for two to two and a half hours. As for me, I had an upset stomach before midnight so I'm not really thinking about eating as well. Once in Forest Park, we decided to start with their Zip Zone. We decided to get their package for Php750.00 where you could get to zip their 350meters, 150meters and their longest zip line of almost one kilometer. The place has photographers and you have the option to purchase your picture(s) after the activity. However, you can ask a friend to take picutres of you if you want. They're not strict when it comes to picture taking. |
| Eva and me on the First Longest Zip line in Asia
The Zip Zone experience was great. So if you're one of those adrenaline rush addicts then this experience is a must try. After the nerve-wracking zip zone experience we headed to their Forest Park Adventures to try out other activities like the strap on zorb-it, aqua zorb-it, tree top adventure and a lot more!!!!
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For the Zorb ball activity, we tried the strap on zorb-it where your bound inside an inflatable ball and then you're rolled on the field for almost a minute. The place also offers an Aqua Zorb-it where they pour few buckets of water inside the ball and all you have to do is slide along as the ball rolls down the field. Good thing about the aqua zorb-it is that you're not strapped on the ball but the bad side about it is you have to bear with the freezing water temperature. I'm sure you'll feel the temperature penetrates your muscle after the ball stops rolling...harhar!!!
It was around lunch time when we finished our intended activities in BUKIDNON. Instead of heading back to CDOC immediately so we can enjoy the rest of the afternoon malling before we head back home the next day, we unexpectedly got stuck in Forest Park because of the heavy down pour. As I've mentioned earlier, the weather in the area is erratic. Since we can't drive through the heavy rain in the mountain, we decided to just take our lunch in the area. Though we were not able to tour the malls in Cagayan de Oro city on that trip, the adventure is definitely worht the experience.
