My travel to CDO isn't really intended to tour and sight see. It was more of business/ leisure mixed.
From Manila domestic airport to Cagayan De Oro took more or less 2 hours, it was May 5th and its mid summer. The first thing i noticed is this:
"The city of friendship"
I was thinking how friendly people in CDO (from 1-10, 10 being the highest).
We really don't have a travel itinerary.
1st day:
We wanted to go to Camiguin (that was around 9am) and we "manually" asked people around where and how can we go there (call us stupid but i guess we were too excited to go out that we didn't even read any travel blogs to guide us lol). One shop owner who is from Camiguin said we need to take a bus from CDO proper to Balingoan port.
We rode in a jeep and asked the driver how much would it cost if we hire his jeep to bring us to Balingoan and he said "5,000 PhP". We turned down the offer and just asked him to take us to a bus or van that goes there. so he brought us to Agora and said we can take a van (since we were 9 adults and 2 kids).
When we got to Agora, the van barker wanted us to pay all 14 seats. (3,600 php)we said yes coz its almost 10 am and we were informed that its a long drive.
Our driver is Kuya Jun
He is very honest. At first he wasn't talking much. But he was a great help to us "zero knowledge tourist".
When we got to Balingoan, we asked him to come with us in Camiguin (we paid for his roro fare of course, plus meal.
It took us around 2 hours, and kuya Jun is good enough to ask us if we want he can contact his friend who is also a van driver to hire (at a minimum).
*Tip: its always handy if you have someone who can speak the dialect of the place your gonna visit
We only got to visit the Katibawasan Falls since we really dont have anytime.
Katibawasan Falls
Going back to Balingoan we took the Ocean Jet which is way faster than the roro boat. It leaves on time, whether full or not. it took us around 45 mins or so.
2nd Day: (Departure time: 5am)
We decided to still hire kuya Jun since he is such a great help to us. We can negotiate with the price and he is our bag keeper, camera holder and camera man. :D
Before reaching Forest Park, your gonna pass by Del Monte pineapple plantation.
He brought us to Forest Park.
People here call it "the little Baguio" and i was indeed. I studied in Baguio my whole college years and the forest park looks more of Camp John Hay.
Its a very nice park, it has a play ground for kids (entrance fee: 50 php)
a 150 m, 320 m, and 840 m. zipline. I tried all three, and it was worth it. All three is 600 php (additional 100 php for picture)
I also tried the Zorbit, which is nice. I got off the gigantic ball full of tears from laughing :D
We packed out at around 1 pm.
Sea Food eating time :)
5pm: Before heading back to the hotel, we went to buy some pasalubong like pastel (a bun with yema/ or other special fillings)since its our last day.
It was still kuya jun who we hired to bring us to the airport.
**anyone who's visiting CDO here's kuya jun's number 09066713128. Honest, well recommended.
