SUMMARY: Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon

Hello there! First of all, I want to greet you all a happy Sunday! I have always loved Saturdays more than Sundays but these past few weeks I've been really blessed and was able to enjoy a lot of family time during the 7th day of the week so I'm starting to love it a lot. Although I'm still a Saturday person! Possibly forever and always lol

Anyway!!! As promised I am back to share with you our itinerary and rough list of expenses for day 3 and day 4 as well of my Northern Mindanao adventure. To give you a heads up though, since we availed the package solely from Red Rafts I won't have it divided anymore. So sorry, I already forgot and pretty much didn't ask how much is everything if done independently from a package.

DAY 3: SAMPLE ITINERARY

• 07:00am to 08:00am - Pick up from hotel / travel time to drop-off point for river rafting / orientation or briefing
• 08:00am to 12:00nn - White water river rafting 
• 12:00nn to 12:45pm - Lunch / shower and dress up
• 12:45pm - Departure to Bukidnon
• 02:30pm - Expected time of arrival at Dahilayan Adventure Park
• 05:00pm - Departure to Cagayan de Oro
• 07:00pm - ETA at hotel
• 07:00pm to 08:00pm - Rest / wash up
• 08:00pm - Dinner / socials / beer night
• 10:00pm - ETA back at the hotel

DAY 3: ROUGH LIST OF EXPENSES

(Please note that this is individually quoted and based on the number of persons who traveled which is in our case 4)

• Breakfast in McDonald's - P100 (because I'm legit matakaw)
• Packaged tour from Red Rafts - P2,300 per pax (transportation to drop-off point for white water rafting, Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon, and back to hotel, white water rafting advance intermediate course, Dahilayan Adventure Park Zip Zones - longest dual, 150m, and 350m, lunch)
• Pictures during our white water rafting adventure - P50
• Snacks - P50
• Dinner - P200 (again because I'm legit matakaw)

TOTAL: 2,700/PERSON

DAY 4: SAMPLE ITINERARY

(This day was supposed to be for our Tinago Falls Day Tour but since we weren't able to come then I'll be writing only what we were able to do)

• 09:00am - Wake up / breakfast from hotel
• 10:00am - Leave for Vjandep Bakeshop
• 10:30am - Arrival at Vjandep
• 11:30am - Departure to Gaisano Mall for SLERS
• 12:00nn - Arrival at Gaisano
• 12:30pm - Lunch at Ayala Mall Cagayan de Oro
• 01:30pm - ETA back at hotel / rest / dress up
• 02:30pm - Departure from hotel to Laguindingan International Airport
• 04:00pm - ETA at Laguindingan Internation Airport

DAY 4: ROUGH LIST OF EXPENSES

(Please note that this is individually quoted and based on the number of persons who traveled which is in our case 4)

• Breakfast from hotel - P150
• Tricycle from hotel to terminal of jeepneys going to Vjandep - P10
• Jeep from terminal to Vjandep Bakeshop - P13
• Pasalubongs from Vjandep (we're all heavy pasalubong buyers we take it seriously, must warn you ahead of time haha) - P800 to P1,000
• Jeep from Vjandep Bakeshop to Gaisano Mall - P13
• Pasalubongs from SLERS - P300 to P500
• Lunch at Ayala Mall - P200
• Tricycle back to hotel - P10
• Cab from hotel to airport - P200
• Airport terminal fee - P200

TOTAL: 1,896 to 2,296/PERSON

I repeat these are rough estimates and solely based on how I budget my money when traveling which is not high maintenance but not strict either. You can still maximize or minimize this according to how you prefer.

PLACES OR ACTIVITIES YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

1. White Water Rafting
2. Dahilayan Adventure Park
3. Go to Iligan if you still have a lot of time and spend a day or two!

TIPS-slash-NOTES:

• Book your stay at the city center! A lot of places are cheap (250-300 per night kind of cheap) and you are not away from the commercialized part of CDO where everything is basically around you.
• Get Red Rafts for your white water rafting activity. The river guides are funny and friendly. No regrets! You can always avail the white water rafting separate from Dahilayan if you'd want it that way.
• During the white water rafting, wear a rash guard and strapped slippers or aqua shoes because this is nothing else other than an activity involving a lot of water so don't expect your rubber shoes to be dry if you're wearing them!
• It would help if you shower and eat fast so you can leave early for Bukidnon. Travel time takes almost two hours.
• Bring an estimate of P1,500-2,000 for all the activities in Dahilayan in case you won't be availing the packaged tour. If you will, then a good P1,000 for the other activities will be good!
• Make sure you don't forget your jacket for Dahilayan since it's located in the mountains. Pretty cold!
• If you want a hassle-free and private transportation to the airport, you can avail services from Kuya Along our very mabait and honest driver! +639174607499
• Don't forget to bring SLERS Chicharon and Vjandep Pastel for pasalubong!
• Get the latest flight back to Manila so you can still do a half day at Tinago Falls in Iligan.
• ALL-IN-ALL WE SPENT P9,013.50. All trips were packaged and private tours.

Have other tips? Share it on the comment box below and help other people who also plan on doing a Northern Mindanao tour!

Love,

Faye

Riding Rapids in Cagayan de Oro & Superhero Feels in Bukidnon

As we all know my trip to Northern Mindanao in Camiguin and CDO is one of my favorite travel experiences! It's the perfect mixture of fun, gorgeous and breathtaking places, and rich culture. No doubt I will always say yes to an opportunity of coming back ..after I finish all the local tourist destinations of course! I have already told you my first two days of the trip which mainly consists of Camiguin and it's just about the right time to talk about day three!

Since I am a no-backpacker type of person who basically just travels the place freelance type (apart from Cebu --it's an exception) and so are my friends (well most of them coz they, Eds and Mar, might not agree lol), we avail scheduled tours most of the time. First because a trip with a scheduled tour saves you from a lot of hassle and second you can customize it the way you want it 90% of the time! Plus this is the bomb, most of the scheduled tours that we get are private and cheap which means you don't have to worry about thinking of other people and your group still gets a hold of time in all ways possible.

Going back to my supposed narrative of day 3 ..we woke up at around 6, well not really, supposed to be 6 but we woke up at around 6:45 in the morning to prep and get dressed to be picked up at 7! Exactly 7 because we'd have to pick up other people who also availed the white water rafting package. We rode a *coughs* not to mention, a very cool red jeepney with all those red stuff since we availed the package from Red Rafts obviously haha if you want to avail a scheduled white water rafting package from them as well, you can visit their facebook page or contact Kuya Rex (+639178556983 / +639355998908). They have super funny tour guides and I seriously loved them for the hassle free and very maalaga way they treated us! Hello they have to carry you back to the raft whenever you go swimming in the river! Considering how thin I am... too much effort was put in. lol

Before you start, you would have about 10-15 minutes briefing. Really really short just to orient you of the do's and don't/s while riding the rapids and instructions on what you're going to do in case the boat capsizes. At first I was too nervous since being the imaginative person that I am I was expecting that the boat would capsize and I'll be the person who slides on the rocks etc etc but listening carefully will give you an advantage so make sure you remember every single word kuya says!

Then you start your 4-hour ride along the Cagayan de Oro river! I actually thought it's gonna be long but since the whole activity is too fun you won't even notice the time running by. You'll be going through 21 rapids, depending on the course you'll take. Since ours is advance intermediate, we had 21 rapids along the way. Halfway through, you'll also be permitted to swim in the river so make the most out of it! Plunge in and enjoy the cool green water!

The journey would be quite hot you would be developing life-vest-tan-lines lol so spread a bit of sunscreen and if your skin happens to be a little sensitive than usual, wearing a rash guard might help a lot too! PS Don't be hard on the paddle assigned to you, one of our group mates broke it and there weren't a lot of extras so one of us always had to have a sort of downtime to give everyone else a chance of paddling. Take it seriously but go easy, boy!

In case you're wondering how we got our *coughs* beautiful photos, on the way there our river guide asked us if we wanted to avail the CD with all the photos only for P200 so we grabbed the chance and got it! Nothing to regret anyway since all of it are gorgeous and we get to keep a lifetime (KESO) of our memories in the Cagayan de Oro river forever.

Lunch was also included in the scheduled tour that we availed from Red Rafts. Near our exit point was a mini-resort with a pool, eatery, and comfort room where you can eventually freshen up and change clothes. It's not the buffet kind of lunch but it was good nonetheless. We were too hungry to take pictures though but you can trust me when I say that the food is actually good both in terms of aesthetics and taste haha

Shortly after we hopped in our rented cab (still part of our Red Rafts scheduled tour) and made our way to Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon. The ride from the exit point to Dahilayan took almost two hours. It's a long ride so make sure you eat fast and get there quick since most of the park attractions close at 3.

We were able to avail the Asia's Longest Dual Zipline and 350m + 150m dual zipline also paid in advance aka included in our packaged tour! See? As promised, hassle free!

It can be pretty cold here as it is located in the mountains and judging from the pine trees everywhere obviously you'd survive better with a jacket. So tag along a comfy hoodie or a scarf or anything just to minimize the low temperature going on. They still have other attractions to see, unfortunately for us since it rained they opted to close some of it ahead of time. Definitely another reason to come back ..and maybe even stay in their Baguio-like hotel inside the adventure park as well!

Kuya Along, our very honest and mabait driver, waited for us 'til we finished and escorted us back to the hotel. He also assisted us in our pineapple field stopover and took gorgeous pictures! Tourist guides and locals are SLR oriented people, techie if I must say and can really take good photos!  If you want to hire a cab service in CDO you can also contact him at +639174607499.

Upon reaching the hotel, we all decided to rest for a bit. We originally planned to experience the CDO culture by meeting new people and having drinks for the night but since Eds had fever and Marianne took care of her, dinner outside was left for Jamie and I. We went to the resto-bar just across our hotel and pigged out from the grill stuff! lol were we hungry! Plus it was pretty cheap too! If I'm not mistaken we only spent P200 each considering we both ordered a lot haha

We planned on doing a Tinago-Falls-tour the next day so we decided to go back right after dinner to sleep and get our beauty rest! Unfortunately, upon realizing we might not make it for our flight at 6pm and we woke up late too, we were not able to carry out our plan for day 4! But we all agreed to do an Iligan Trip next time :D ohh don't worry I'll be posting a sample itinerary and expenses list on my next entry since this is too long already!

Any fun experiences while you were in CDO and Bukidnon? Feel free to share it on the comment  box below!

Happy travels!

Love,

Faye