Northern Mindanao: DAY 4 & 5 (CDO & Bukidnon)
Great White Water tour texted that they'll pick us up around
6 in the morning, we woke up few minutes past-5. We were supposed to eat
breakfast before raging the rafting river,
unfortunately, McDonald's and Jollibee was still closed
during those wee hours. We just bought snacks from the convenience store across
Vine's Pension House.
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| Vines Pension House Photo credit: www.golets.com |
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| though our room has the oldschool CRT-TV and matrimonial bed 580Php per night Photo credit: www.letsbookhotel.com |
After waiting at the lobby, kuya from Great White Water
greeted us then off we went! We had a
stopover at their main office, around 20mins away from our hotel. We left our valuables in a safe bag and we were
introduced to the GWW team. There was 9 of us in the group, me,
Jok, 3 from Pasig and 4 from Manila. We were accompanied by 6 tour guides (1
photographer, 4 professional rafters, and 1 van driver) and they were all very cheerful and full of sense of humor.
Ideally, each raft can accommodate 8pax (6 tourists and 2 tour guides). Since
we are 9pax, we were divided into 2 groups. Jok and I, together with the other
3 from Pasig plus 2 GWW tour guides were on
the 1st raft boat.
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| Great White Water Tours Main Office |
FB Account: https://www.facebook.com/riverraftingCDO
Website: http://www.riverraftingcdo.com/
Contact #s: (088) 3105415 / (0917) 7060677
We picked the Advance Raft which includes 21 rapids.
Before
we jumped off the boat, we had a Safety and
What-to-do lecture. While were preparing our
helmets, safety vest and paddles, a jeepney arrived from the jump offpoint, and
there we saw Senator Sonny Angara. We were not able to take a picture of him
since we were already on the boat. Sayang!
Gwapo pa naman ni Senator!
If ever you visit CDO and have plans on rafting, I recommend
you to get GWW. Their tour guides are very pleasant and puno ng kwento at
korning jokes. Matatawa ka nalang sa sobrang ka-kornihan. They did a great job
protecting us and making sure that we enjoyed the whole course. They even thought us tricks and exhibitions for the course to be more exciting.
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| Paddlers |
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| Flip the boat |
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| Twerking! |
In the middle of the
stretch, we had merienda stopover for few minutes, they gave us pastel bread
and bottled water. After a quick break we were back for more adrenaline rush.
Before reaching the finish line, kinwentuhan kami ni kuya
about the recent accident that happened few
months ago where 1 tourist died on the 2nd to the last rapid. YUP!!!!
2nd TO THE LAST RAPID!!! Konting kembot nalang sana and makakauwi na
sila ng matiwasay. They were 4pax (consists of 2 couples) in the group and 1
tour guide on the boat (I forgot the name of the tour agency). The rapids were huge during that time and the boat
accidentally hit a big rock formation. All of them got out of the boat and
since they only had 1 tour guide, he wasn't able to save the girl from
drowning. The CDO rescue team found the dead body 3
days after the incident. I had goosebumps when we approached the said
rapid. I just can't imagine myself drowning and hitting my head and body from
big waves and rock formations.
After raging the 21 rapids we headed back to the main office
and had our lunch and had our clothes changed. We stayed there for almost an
hour and a half before Dahilayan Park van arrived to pick us up.
It took almost 2 hours
before getting to Dahilayan Adventure Park. It was drizzling when we arrived,
the weather was very cold and fog was thicker than Baguio City. It was where KC Concepcion and Sam Milby shot their movie, Forever and a Day.
Our Dahilayan
package included 3 ziplines, a snack and a
lunch/dinner meal.
All in all, our GWW+Dahilayan Adventure cost us 1600Php per
head only! (The price depends on how many pax are in the group). That includes all transpo transfers (from hotel-river
rafting-Dahilayan Park - hotel), 2 merienda (1 during the rafting and 1 in
Dahilayan), 1 buffet lunch after rafting and a dinner at Dahilayan Park.
Sobrang sulit!!!
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| Picture is 50Php per copy / 150Php if there's a certificate |
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| Here's the pricelist if you will not be purchasing the package from Great White Water Tour. |
We reached Vine's past 7pm, packed our bags and transferred
to Rosario's Place Business Hotel. We moved to Rosario's since it's right in the heart
of the city town proper and the rooms are cleaner
and cozier than Vine's. After settling our things and few minutes rest, we strolled
along the streets of the town proper. It was Saturday night, and all bars were jampacked, the streets were full of people drinking and partying. We
bought burger and potato balls at Backyard Burger and got ourselves our
favorite empi lights from the store near our hotel. Instead of partying with
the locals, we choose to stay in our room to be more relaxed while drinking and
of course watching our favorite reality singing show, The Voice of the
Philippines! :)
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| I dont have a picture of our room, but it has AC, LCD cabled-TV and 2 single beds. 600Php per night. Photo credit: www.cdodev.com |
We woke up at 6am the
following day to get ourselves cleaned, pack
our things and leave the hotel around 7am. We went back to Agora Terminal
station since it’s the nearest place where we can ride a van going to the
airport. It took almost an hour drive to the airport, just in time for our 9am
flight going back to Manila.
Here's a summarized video of our 5day Northern Mindanao Backpacking Trip:
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