Adventures in Northern Mindanao

It had been almost 20 years since the last time I went to Mindanao, the southern region of the Philippines. A few years back, my whole family (excluding me and my older sister, Jessica), had a vacation in Cagayan de Oro and Camiguin in Northern Mindanao. So, when the opportunity arose (i.e., Jessica and I were available at the same time for a three-day getaway), we grabbed a flight to Cagayan de Oro.

We arrived at Laguindingan Airport at around 10 in the morning. We hopped into one of the fixed-rate car shuttles from the airport to take us to the hotel. Since there were only two of us and the car was good for 4 people, we had to wait for about 30 minutes in the airport before another passenger arrived and the car finally left. The bigger vans left earlier and are probably the best option. I think our shuttle was the last to leave the airport but on the brighter side, the car brought us directly to our hotel, Pearlmont Inn.

White water rafting

We chose Kagay because it was the same operator that my family used and they were said to have the safest white water rafting in CDO, with state of the art equipment and well-trained guides. Plus, they were the only operator who had available seats in the afternoon, at that time.

We quickly checked in at our hotel and had lunch at DV-soria, our meet-up point for the white water rafting.  We later learned that we could’ve simply requested to have the operator pick us up at the hotel.  On our jeepney transfer from the city center to Cagayan River, we made friends with two girls from South Cotabato. Since there was just the two of us, we paired up with them in one raft.

White Water Rafting

When we arrived at the starting point, we were given safety gears and a safety briefing. The guide taught us how to hold the paddle, what to do if we fall, and the paddling commands we needed to know for the beginner’s course. The first few rafts were quite exhilarating. One of the things that made the experience enjoyable was our guide. He was informative and entertaining. During the calm portions of the ride, he would give stories about white water rafting and Cagayan de Oro. He also did pranks on us, like pushing us off the rafts.

Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!

One of the good things about white water rafting in Cagayan River was the remarkable view. Since I decided that I’d be relying on the photos taken by the Kagay photographer, I didn’t bring my camera with me. Sitting on the rafts and admiring the green scenery conjoining the river, I regretted not bringing my camera.

Cagayan River

Jessica and I are both in poor shape. We don’t exercise and hardly do any strenuous activity. So, the white water rafting experience was quite a work out for us, but nothing we couldn’t handle. This was in both our bucket list, so we were very pleased.

Dahilayan Adventure Park, Bukidnon

We had a hard time deciding between Camiguin and Bukidnon. Since we wanted to go on an easy pace, we decided on spending our second day in Dahilayan Adventure Park, Bukidnon.

Bukidnon: Pineapple Country

We started our second day at Coffeeworks, DV-soria, the meet-up point of the ZipZone shuttle to Dahilayan Adventure Park. We made our reservations the night before, at Ayala Centrio Mall. The ZipZone shuttle passed by Camp Phillips and through the Del Monte pineapple plantation.

Camp Phillips

The only ride I was interested in at Dahilayan Adventure Park, was the Dropzone, a 120-foot free fall drop. Despite being afraid of heights, I’ve always wanted to try bungee jumping but I’ve never had the opportunity to do so. This was, for me, an acceptable substitute. Of course, I didn’t have the guts to pull the string that would trigger the drop, so I made my sister do it. My sister also rode the 840-meter zipline, the longest zipline in Asia.

Dropzone: a 120-foot drop

Dahilayan is a nice place with a cool climate but there’s not much to do.  Since, the shuttle was scheduled to leave 4PM (and we were already done with our rides before lunch), we spent the rest of our time, eating, relaxing and strolling around the park. I was starting to have a cold at that time so I was glad we went to Dahilayan, instead of Camiguin.

Dahilayan

Expenses

Category	PHP
Transportation	6,354.74
Airfare (Cebu Pacific)	5,397.24
Local Transportation (tricycle, taxi, jeep)	207.50
Shuttle (Airport-Hotel and v.v. )	400.00
Shuttle (DV-Soria to Dahilayan	350.00
Accommodation	1,400.00
Food	693.00
Attractions	1,075.00
Personal Expenses	373.00
Souvenir	238.00
Gifts	135.00
Medicine	52.00
Others	210.00
Total	10,157.74

Detailed expenses