Our Departure (Apr 4): We're already in Manila Domestic Airport as early as 2am! Yup, our flight is at 4:55am and we thought that it would be easier and safer for us to leave that early than leave at home a little late. But we didn't wait too long, it seemed like time ran too fast then.
Cebu Pacific was 5 minutes early, that's why we arrived in CDO past half 6. Me and joal were just sleeping during the whole flight as we never got a good sleep since April 2. It was horribly tiring but not until we arrived at Cagayan domestic Airport. The morning air was so cool and fresh which instantly re-energized us and re-freshed our moods.
The fare from the airport to Divisoria was P200. (I was actually quite pissed off about the price because I felt like we were being taken advantaged of, but we were told by a friend earlier that fare costs around P150-P300.) We were to meet Mr. Rupert Domingo for our most-awaited adventure of the day, the whitewater rafting! We were able to get their promo package of P500 for a 12.32 km rafting with 14 rapids. We had our breakfast at McDOnald's while waiting for Rupert.
Macahambus Adventure Park.
The first stop after we met Rupert was at the Macahambus Adventure Park where you can do skybridge walking, ziplining and rapelling. If you want to do all three, the cost is P500. You can't do the zipline without through three skybridge walk (120 m each). Joal and I did the skybridge walk and zipline for P300 each. At first, I was kind of afraid to do the former because of the height (120 ft) and the bridge itself is only made of woods and ropes which shifted with a slight move. As we started the walk, the guide goes first, me at the middle and joal at my back. I calmed after I got through the first bridge, huh!
And so the zipline was next. This was what I'd actually been excited about. The zipline was about 120 meters long (14 seconds) and 36 meters height. I was a little nervous at first but after the guide pushed me through and zipped, I got the best time of my life! Kumar, the raft guide, thought I would scream, but I didn't.
As I waited for Joal's turn, I noticed that he was not holding his camera as he told me he would. Later did I find out that he ran out of battery - meaning, we wouldn't be able to take pictures during the whole whitewater rafting activity.
The Whitewater Rafting.
This was the activity joal had been anticipating. I didn't like this much as I was afraid to get hit by the rocks or get toppled upside down. Luckily, those fears spared me. We started after the orientation and some guidelines. There should be 6 persons in one raft so joal and i had to join other groups. Our raft consisted of me, joal, melvin, glen and the 2 guides. Melvin and Glen have been our instant friends in CDO, with the former's wife, Joy, who was not able to join us in the rafting because she's pregnant. Since we didn't have our camera anymore, Glen and Melvin offered their cameras for our picture-taking.
The water was cool and a little bit winding, soon the waves were fast and we had to go over the rocks down with the water. I was just quiet, concentrating with my heavy paddling when Melvin who was seated in front beside Joal fell off the raft.
Good thing he didn't hit the rock! The guide took him back and he said he's just fine. That was the first out of the 14 rapids we would be undertaking.
My favorite part was when the guides would allow us to go swimming with our vest on. The guides told us to just float with our legs in front, so when we approach a rock, we would just push it hard and avoid accident.
We also had a little stopover where in we would have to cross a river sideways facing the current of the water. I must say it was one of the hardest. The water was so strong that it could easily push me away. Melvin, Glen, Joal and me, holding each other's vest, draggingly stepped sideward to the left. At first, I thought the guide was just kidding us, but when he started to give us instructions, only then did I believe he's serious. We were able to cross the river for about 3-5 minutes.
The crossing-the-river-sideways almost drained my energy, but it should not be because the guide told me that we still had to go through 4 more rapids! It was already past 3pm then and we thought we had to hurry up so we wouldn't miss the last ferry ride to Camiguin.
The rafting ended almost at 4pm. We said that we had to get to Agora market and Balingoan as soon as possible so we wouldn't miss the ferry which is at 5pm. Bus ride to Balingoan would take about 2 hrs. Fortunately, our taxi driver offered us a ride straight to Balingoan for P1,500. We agreed on the deal as Melvin, Joy and Glen would also join us.
We arrived at Balingoan port at almost 7pm. We were so lucky that we were able to catch the last ferry to Camiguin. It was not usual to still get a ferry to Camiguin at 7pm, but since it was Holy Week, they knew there'd be a lot of people travelling late. We aboarded M/V Pepitas which costs P100 each.
Camiguin Arrival (April 4): The ferry left the port at 8pm. Joal fell asleep as soon as he got his seat while I was watching music video on TV. I was also able to sleep but not for long... I was not comfortable with my seat. The ride took us 2 hours to get to Benoni, Camiguin. There were no more more jeepneys that would take us to our resort but only habal-habal or motorcycles. But we didn't ride there because aside from the fact that they're expensive (P200/habal-habal), we don't think that they could still accommodate our things.
It was an advantage that Melvin took the phone number of Krisagani, a tour guide cum driver, from one of our mates in whitewater rafting. After 40 minutes, he arrived at Benoni port. He took us to our resorts for P400. Melvin, Joy and Glen stayed at Seascape which is quite adjacent from our resort, Morning Glory.
The owner of Morning Glory was a friend of Joal. He was not there though but his father accommodated us. The room has one double bedroom and a cr. I think very few resorts offer airconditioned room because it's quite cold in Camiguin, especially at night. The room is P300/night.
Camiguin Tour (April 5): Our day started at 6am, April 5. It was also our 17th month anniversary. Joal and I were so excited to go to White Island, which can be viewed from our resort. It would just take 10-15 minute boat ride to white island which costs P400. We stayed there for 2 hrs. Joal and I had roasted chicken, instant cup noodles and milo for breakfast. The price was affordable.
White Island was just a small island, as in literally small. There were no trees, or big rocks..only white sand, cottages (also restaurants), clear blue water and people. It has a good view of Mt. Vulcan and Mt. Hibok-Hibok. Since white island is a good time for snorkeling and swimming, joal and i took advantage of the 1 and a half hours remaining. Joal did enjoy his new speedo snorkeling gadgets. It is best to go in white island in the morning during low tide, as most of it disappears under the sea in the afternoon.
Kris informed us ahead of time that he wouldn't be able to tour us anymore but sent his cousin, Titing. The 8-hour day tour costs P1500. After white island, Titing brought us to ardent hot spring. I like it there though I didn't swim. Joal and I planned to go back there the next day as we only stayed there for 30 mins.
We then proceeded to Katibawasan falls. Its waterfalls measure about 250 feet high cascades to a rock pool surrounded by ground orchids, wild ferns, trees and boulders. We left after taking some pictures and headed to Catarman Church Ruins.
It's close to 12noon and we wanted to have lunch at J&A Fishpen, but Titing said it's out of the way so we just decided to have lunch at Manitigues Island (P500 boat ride). The island has 4 hectares of evergreen forest fringed with white sandy beach. It's good for swimming and snorkeling as it's also known as a fish sanctuary. Ka Roger (0920.230.0607) accommodated us. He's so nice and very friendly. He said we can actually stay there for a night for P800, but of course we can't. He served us good food for our lunch such as swordfish, seaweeds and soup which cost P800. The water in Mantigue Island is almost the same as in White Island - blue crystal in color and the sand is powdery white.
We didn't stay any longer at Mantigue Island as we had to go back to Camiguin Island where Titing is waiting for us. From there we headed to Mt. Vulcan. It was Maundy Thursday when we came so most Camiguenos were celebrating Panaad. Panaad is a religious activity, a Lenten 64-kilometer circumferential walk that climaxes at the "Walkway to the Cross" in Catarman town on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and "Tabo" on Easter Sunday in Mambajao, the capital town. Soon we proceeded to Sunken Cemetery.
We exceeded the 8-hour day tour of Titing so we paid him an additional fee of P200. Joal and I were so dead-tired and yet were so very happy about the trip. We ended the day with roasted chicken, chicharon and mangoes for supper.
Last Day in Camiguin (April 6): Joal really liked the White Island so we went back there on our last day in Camiguin. Our friends Would already be going back to Manila the next day so they just opted to stay in their resort. Joal wanted to stay in White Island until 1pm. Good thing we found a boatman just infront of our resort who offered us a P200 boatride to the island. Joal snorkeled almost the whole morning while I stayed in our tent sleeping. We were supposed to go boating because Joal brought his inflatable boat but we changed our minds because of the waves. Soon the sun disappeared and the rain fell. Joal went back to the tent and we both slept. We woke up when it's already 12:30 and the boatman returned to fetch us. It rained harder when we left the island and couldn't even see it from our resort.
After we had our lunch at the resort, Joal set up the hammock he bought from Mt. Vulcan. It was so relaxing to lay there reading magazine.
Back in CDO (April 7): Since we had nothing left to do in Camiguin, we decided to go back in Cagayan and do the zipline again. We didn't know where to stay in CDO but we asked the information center in Agora market where we could stay that's near in Limketkai Center.
She recommended us the Pearlmont Inn which is P1150/night. It's already 4pm so we immediately went to Limketkai Center to have lunch. There were not much stores opened because of the observance of Holy Week. We were actually looking for a cdo restaurant but there's none. As a last resort, we ate at Shakeys.
After that, we went back to Divisoria for the Night Market. We were told that there's no night market because it's a Good Friday . I suddenly felt sick so we went home after we took more pictures of the plaza. I went home first while Joal headed to Greenwhich to buy Pizza for our dinner.
Our Last Day in CDO (April 8): It's our last day in CDO and our itinerary is all set. We'd planned to go to San Agustin Cathedral, Gardens of Malasag Eco-Tourism Park and Lendol Gold Spring. We were not able to go to Lendol anymore as it's really too far from the Pearlmont.
After checking out, we went to Gardens of Malasag which is about 15-20 minute jeepney ride from our hotel, and another 5-10 minute ride of habal-habal. We left our luggages in the hotel and would just pick them up when we returned.
The gardens of malasag was very serene. It reminded me of the Pink Sister's retreat house in Tagaytay but larger. It is located within the 200 hectare reforested area of Malasag Hill, the 6 hectare village showcase replicas of different tribal houses of the region, flora and fauna. There is a swimming pool for children and adults and accomodations for overnight stay. We ate at its restaurant overlooking the Macajalar Bay.
The food served to us were fresh and very delicous. We only paid P305.
The saleslady from the souvenir shop told us that we also had to go to Mapawa Nature Park which is just five minutes away from the gardens of Malasag. We asked our habal-habal tour guide, Arnel (920.470.7663), to bring us there. The Mapawa Nature Park was awesomely breathtaking. It's so sad that we found out about that park too late. They offered a day tour for P950 which includes, horse-back riding, jumping from 25 ft waterfall, rapelling, ziplining, water slide and food. For a P950 I think it's all worth it. Since we can't do those activities because we're catching a plane back to Manila in almost 2 hours, we just did the zipline for P100 each. This time, Joal was able to take our pictures and videos!
Arnel offered to take us to Cagayan Domestic Airport by his Multicab for P450. We immediately agreed because we're really in a hurry. After getting his multicab from his house and our things from Pearlmont, we hurriedly go to the airport. We arrived in less than 30 minutes, thanks to Arnel, heheh!
I bought more pasalubong at the airport including Malong worth P250. I think it's cheaper to buy pasalubong in cdo market than any other places.
We arrived in Manila a little past 7pm, tired yet very very happy. We knew we had a very exciting holiday. I usually don't wanna go back to places I've already visited. But this time, I'd make an exemption. When I return to CDO in the future, I'd definitely take the Mapawa one-day package, go to Bukidnon, Iligan and Lanao. I think I fell in love with CDO... it would really break my heart if it would just be destroyed in the future. It's the place i find hard to leave and impossible to forget.
