2012 Vacation

Mabuhay! Everyone,

After how many months of not updating my not-so-updated blog. I have something to share with you guys. My first vacation this year! yahoo!!

It's not a "planned" vacation though. It's a rush and luckily it ended up so great! I want to spoil you a little bit about our vacation escapade. It's about 334.69 km by land. We decided to do it on a land trip for a cheaper expenses.

DAY 1: APRIL 4

Here's a view on our way to Cagayan de Oro. It's overlooking a farm and sea. I can smell fresh air and though it's past noon the wind is cool.

My siblings, boyfie, and cousin

With my father

It somehow feels relaxing seeing this kind of scenery after a hard day from the city. It's stress-releasing feeling. Another thing, while on our way to CDO, I noticed this, it is somewhere in Lanao del Norte. The trisikad, padyak, or pedicab as known here in the philippines, cycle rickshaw as known in other countries. It is a bicycle attached to a side car. The peculiar thing about this pedicab, unlike in our city, the wheel of this pedicab is bigger than the normal and also the handle bar grip (if that's what they call it) is higher than an average type of pedicab. I find this thing unusual. Before I forget, not only the passenger has this "roof" covering thing-y as well as the driver has its umbrella. Filipinos are indeed "resourceful".

The pedicab driver with its passenger.

At first glance I thought he's selling sorbetes (ice cream) :)

 Here's the picture of our pedicab in the city.

After hours and hours of travel, we finally arrived at our first destination. El Salvador as what they call it. A brief information about El Salvador. El Salvador is a city in Misamis Oriental, in the island of Mindanao, southern part of the Philippines. The city serves as the pilgrimage of ground for the devotees of Divine Mercy. That is why it is called El Salvador or the "City of Saviour".

Lighting the candles before going up.

Important instructions before proceeding.

Long way to go..

The Sacred Divine Mercy, I am a devotee of it too. From the upper right, you can see people falling in line going to the heart of the Divine Mercy. It is a sacred place so better wear proper attire. :)

Us

From the divine mercy we are now heading to Cagayan de Oro, we arrived at around 7:00 P.M., had our dinner and hit the sack for tomorrow is a long way adventure waiting for us.

DAY 2: APRIL 5

Our next station is  Bukidnon, we really want to experience the thrill of riding the longest zip line in the Philippines. It is said to be about 840m long. Unfortunately, we don't have the privilege to experience the thrill because of too many tourists including us and the people living nearby are there spending their holy week too. We were also running after the time cause all of the hotels and cottages in Dahilayan are fully booked until the 8th of April. So we decided to purchase other rides and enjoy the remaining hours left before going back to CDO.

Overview of Cagayan de Oro

Going to Dahilayan Park, we passed through Del Monte Plantation

Del Monte Plantation

Hectares of Pineapple

Hello dust!

My cousin with his pineapple :D

Don't you love pineapples? :)

View from our parking lot

At last we arrived safely! Hello Adventure! :)

Upon arrival, we immediately inquire for any available rooms to stay, unfortunately all rooms are occupied and we don't have any choice but to return to CDO to spend for the night. Ate our lunch which cost us about 800+ php, and it cost too much for a 2 sticks of barbecue, a cup of rice and a soda in can.

While waiting for our food to be serve, picture - picture! :)

 FIRST RIDE:

This first ride is called Zorbit, may be they got this idea from zorbing which means "the activity of travelling downhill inside a large air-cushioned hollow ball." (reference from: dictionary.reference.com/browse/zorbing ).
All I can say is better try this so you won't miss the fun! This cost 250php per pax.

Off we go..

At last, we landed safely.

SECOND RIDE:

Horse back riding :) This cost 100php per passenger for 1 km ride.

LAST RIDE:
This  our last and final ride before we decided to leave. For sure boys love and is going to have fun on this. It cost 800php per buggy ride which means 400php per pax for 3.1 kms ride.

Picture first before we set our engine

Off we go..

What a dusty and bumpy road which makes the ride more exciting

And our 2nd day adventure ended so great. This was all my first time to ride in a Zorbit, horse and even buggy which makes my vacation extraordinary. We left Bukidnon around 4:30 P.M. and arrived at CDO around 6:00 P.M. What a tiring day! :)


DAY 3: APRIL 6

We decided to go to church to complete the 14 Station of the Cross, after which we took our lunch and decided to head back in our hotel. We had our siesta and at around 3:00 P.M. we decided to make the last few days of our vacation worth it. So, we went to Jatico Adventure which is 30 minutes away from our vicinity. On our way to Jatico, we passed by a cave. So out of curiosity, we decided to drop by and see what we can experience.

Entrance to Makahambus Cave

Far end place of the cave

You can see a river

Arrived at Jatico..

My cousin is making faces again..

Experienced zipline

Bungee trampoline

Ended up around 5:00 P.M. Another tiring day, we ate our dinner at McDonald's, hit the sack early.

DAY 4: APRIL 7

This is the last day of our vacation so we ended up shopping for pasalubongs. If you have read my previous entries you'll know what pasalubongs are. Anyway, we went to SM and Limketkai and ended up frustrated. We haven't bought any pasalubong except for my sister. She bought some imported chocolates for her friends. Due to our frustrations, we went to this factory of pastel and bought 4 boxes of pastel, choco polvoron and roasted peanut as an alternative pasalubong. We also met some of our fellow Zamboangueños who also bought pasalubongs for their friends and love ones.


DAY 5: APRIL 8

We left our hotel around 5:30 A.M. and decided to pass by Ma. Cristina Falls at Iligan City, which is remarkably the supplier of our electricity. Sadly, we arrived at 8A.M. and the gate opens at 9 A.M. so we ended up at Tinago Falls also in Iligan City, which I can say is I'll probably be going back here. It's such a paradise.

On our way to Tinago Falls with our tour guide in front

Tinago Falls

Paradise

So that ends my 5-days vacation/adventure in Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon and Iligan City. All I can say is that IT'S MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES! :)

Paalam! :)