Rafting in Cagayan de Oro

(You can read about my previous post for the background on this trip. Thing is, all the pics were taken using Ben’s camera, and I haven’t been able to get a copy yet, so the pics will have to follow.)

We left Manila really early on Saturday morning, July 30. Our flight was at 510am which would bring us to CDO by around 630. The flight was pretty much on time and we got to McDonald’s Divisoria at around 7am. We were supposed to meet up with the rafting group at around 830am so we had a bit of time to kill. After breakfast, Ben, who was out clubbing the entire night before and hadn’t gotten any sleep, decided to have a quick nap. The rafting folks were about 30 minutes late but that was okay since it meant Ben got to sleep a bit longer.

At 9am, we boarded a jeep that would take us to our adventure trip (I just realized we never got to take Ben's picture in the jeep). Inside were a family of Koreans with their Filipino yayas (apparently, the dad was a golf teacher in an exclusive golf club somewhere in the Phils) and a group of Pinoys from Manila. After a short drive, we picked up an international group consisting of two American guys (one of whom originally came from Trinidad), a Japanese girl, and a Cebuana. Turns out the Cebuana, Christine, is a very close friend of Irene and she said I looked familiar – we must’ve run into each other in one of my office parties where she had tagged along with Irene. Small world!

Our first stop was actually the canopy walk, which may be CDO’s second claim to fame (after the river rafting, of course). This part of the adventure (P300) involved walking on a set of rope-and-wooden-plank bridges that are set really high up on the treetops (there’s a safety line that is attached to each person to prevent any accidents). Once you get to the end of the set of bridges, you return to the starting point via a zipline. Pretty cool! Anyway, as you walk along the first bridge (there are three of them, one after another), it still feels pretty normal. Then somewhere along the second bridge, there’s a sheer drop (with a neat little waterfall close to the bottom) and all of a sudden you can hear people gasp as they see just how high up they are. I think I stopped looking down after a few seconds of trying to control my fear of heights. =) Finally, we got to the zip-line: it was about ten seconds of great fun! I would’ve loved to do it again since it wasn’t as long I wish it were (medyo bitin). But there was the main event beckoning, and I didn’t want to shell out another P300.

So we then headed to the river. After each of us put on our lifejackets and grabbed an oar, we got a short overview of what the trip would entail – the river was about 12km long, had 14 rapids I think, and it would take us about 3 hours to get to the end (including a break for lunch somewhere along the river). We then got grouped into different rafts – Ben and I ended up in the raft with the Pinoys from Manila. The people in our raft didn’t seem like they were the athletic type so I was a bit worried that our raft guide would bring us to the calmer parts of the rapids, which would have made the experience slightly disappointing. My concerns were short-lived, though. It seems our guide wanted us to get as much kick out of this experience as possible! In one instance he instructed all of us to paddle in such a way that made the raft spin clockwise while we were going through one set of rapids! And on three or four occasions, he told everyone on the raft to stand while paddling through rapids, including one of the strongest ones! Unbelievable! Would've been more interesting if someone fell off the raft, but no one did. =)

Somewhere close to the end of the trip we got off our our rafts and walked over some huge rocks to a small set of rapids. Not everyone got off the boats this time, it was only me, Ben, and the international group (and I think a couple of other people). It turns out there was another activity to do - we would all locks elbows and walk side by side across the rapids from one riverbank to the other! It wasn't very wide (maybe about 15-20 feet only) but the rapids were really strong and it made for a very interesting activity! In fact, people were worried that they might lose their sandals or flip-flops. And once we managed to get to the other side, we got into the river and let the current take us back to where the rafts were. Ah, so much fun in one day! =)

The adventure was over at around 3pm and we headed back to the city. After getting a room in Casa Crystalla (right smack in the Divisoria are) to clean up a bit and put our stuff down, we had a very late lunch in Max’s (we weren’t able to instruct the guides to prepare food for us in advance so we subsisted on Magic Flakes and ube bread while on the river). We had lumpiang ubod and crispy pata so Ben could try out some local food, and we also had sizzling barbecue chicken (first time I tried it in Max's and it was very good!). He also found out that in the Philippines, iced tea (which he doesn’t like) is lemon iced tea (which he likes).

Later that night, we walked around the city. It was good timing as well because there was some music festival going on in CDO in all Saturday nights from April to August, so the atmosphere in the streets was incredibly festive and alive. Aside from the live music, there was also a “mini-showdown” of break-dancing that was very entertaining and amusing to watch. Restaurant owners also set up food stalls, tables and chairs on the streets so that people could dine al fresco (hehe this is the first time I ever used al fresco in a sentence). I also ended up eating balut to show Ben what it was. He had some of the yolk part of it and agreed that if you could get past the chick bit, then it was actually quite good.

We had a choice of getting up early on Sunday morning and going to a beach about an hour from the city, but we decided against it as we wanted to sleep in and get a bit more rest after not having any sleep on Friday night. Turns out it was the right idea because it was absolutely pelting when we got up on Sunday.

All in all, it was a fantastic experience that I wouldn't mind doing again and bringing more friends to. The rafting itself costs about P1200 per person so it’s not too bad (+ the zipline makes it P1500). The only downside is that you have to fly to CDO from Manila, and the airfare is what eats up most of your budget. If anyone what the cheapest flights are that you can get to CDO, please let me know by leaving a comment. =)