It’s known as the City of Golden Friendship. So upon landing in the Cagayan De Oro airport, I was expecting a warm welcome fro m the Kagay-anons maybe with some flower g arlands and fresh buko juice involved. Instead my companions and I came face to face with the most unaccommodating Department of Touri sm representative in the face of the earth! I am not exaggerating. Her tightlipped and irritab le answer to all our queries was, “Tingnan niyo na lang sa brochure”.
Slightly fazed by the frigid welcome of a DOT personnel of all people, we hired a cab that drove us to downtown CDO where we hoped to find a decent hotel. During the drive, I asked the cab driver why CDO was considered the City of Golden Friendship. His answer was something about a golden fish that can only be found in CDO and that’s why the city was called “golden friendship.” At first I thought he was playing with our heads, but he looked dead serious when he was explaining this. (I searched about this in the net to see if it was true, but nothing came up.) So anyway, we found a nice hotel near the famous Divisoria area. It’s called Hot el Ramon and I recommend it to anyone who’s looking for the 3C’s when it comes to accommodations--clean, comfortable, and cheap!
Downtown CDO
The best way to tour CDO’s Downtown area is onboard the motor ela. It ’s a motorcycle fitted with a cabin compartment that seats up to 6 to 8 passengers. Thailand has the tuktuk, CDO has the motorela. So our first stop is lunch at the famous Bigby’s restaurant. It has good food, good ambience, a bit pricey. If you are looking for something that’s distinctly Kagay-anon, you won’t find it here. Bigby’s reminds me of Friday’s or Chilli’s. I do have to say that their baby back ribs dish is superb.
Mapawa Nature Park
For a go at the zip lines and some rappelling action, we went to Mapawa Nature Park. From the city proper, it’s a 30-minute jeepney ride. Then another 10 to 15 minute ride via habal-habal or motorcycle. The park closes at 5 p.m. or even earlier if there are n o visito rs. We got there at 4:55 p.m. and they wouldn’t let us in anymore. But because of our irresistible charms (hehe) or maybe out of pity for us, they kindly let us in to take some pictures and try the zip lines.
White Water Rafting
The ultimate reason for going to Cagayan De Oro is to try white water rafting. Our tour guide from Kagay Voyages picked us up from the hotel at 7 a.m. We reached our jump-off point by 8:30 and after a short lesson on paddling and rafting safety we were ready for our ride down the mighty Cagayan River.
All in all there were 14 rapids plus a few minor ones. On the left river bank we passed the fields and mountains of CDO, on the right was Bukidnon. Cold water kept splashing on our faces and bodies. The ride was mostly bumpy, and thank God we had helmets on because we kept bumping into each other and paddles kept flying around. After two and a half hours, we reached the end of our first ever white water rafting experience. High five!
Macahambus Adventure Park
We passed by Machambus Park on our way back Downtown. Here we tried the Skybridge, a rickety, wooden bridge suspended from treetops hundreds of feet from the ground. When you reach the end of the bridge you attach yourself to a rope and go for a zip past the forest canopy while screaming “Aaaoooaaa” (just like Tarzan). Other thrilling adventures offered are rapelling (under renovation when we visited) and spelunking.
