Since we arrived late and exhausted from our roadtrip, we decided to give ourselves a late morning. The weather was gloomy and there was a slight drizzle. We were scheduled to go island hopping today, but we decided to move it to tomorrow, hoping for a sunnier climate. We had breakfast at 0800 at a carinderia in the terminal, after which we walked to the place where we originally intended to bunk for a night. It turned out that Terazza Viktoria was just a five minute walk from the terminal. It was an old house turned into inn so the walls and floors were all made of wood, and even the beds and cabinets in the rooms were antique. My travel buddy wanted to transfer here for reasons unknown, and I gave in since the place was clean and bright (even if the furniture and structure was old, it didn't feel like a haunted house) and nevermind the shared bathroom as it was as clean as can be. We checked out of The Point Inn and brought our stuff to Terazza, then walked back to the terminal to take a bus that would bring us to the very reason why the tickets to Butuan were purchased.
We took a bus to Mangagoy and at the terminal hired a habal-habal that could take us to our first wonder. Tinuy-an Falls can be reached by habal-habal traversing a distance of 15kms, half of the way paved and half, well, unpaved. This will take about an hour from the highway. The falls are marketed to be the "Niagra of the Philippines" because of the expanse of the largest falls comparing to a wall in Niagra. I say largest since Tinuy-an can be viewed as a 5-tier falls. We went inside the park (again, managed by the government) and saw locals enjoying the water. We took a moment to take in the magnificence before us. The sound of five cascades crashing to the pool under it, the mist that never seems to clear, and the glorious sunshine creating crystals on the surface. We didn't ask for guides since we were on a tight budget, but we found our way up the waterfalls. We explored, took photos, and had quite an interesting talk with one of the guides. Once we had our fill, we searched for our habal-habal and asked the driver to take us back to the highway.
 |
| Terraza Viktoria Rates and Driveway |
We took a bus to Mangagoy and at the terminal hired a habal-habal that could take us to our first wonder. Tinuy-an Falls can be reached by habal-habal traversing a distance of 15kms, half of the way paved and half, well, unpaved. This will take about an hour from the highway. The falls are marketed to be the "Niagra of the Philippines" because of the expanse of the largest falls comparing to a wall in Niagra. I say largest since Tinuy-an can be viewed as a 5-tier falls. We went inside the park (again, managed by the government) and saw locals enjoying the water. We took a moment to take in the magnificence before us. The sound of five cascades crashing to the pool under it, the mist that never seems to clear, and the glorious sunshine creating crystals on the surface. We didn't ask for guides since we were on a tight budget, but we found our way up the waterfalls. We explored, took photos, and had quite an interesting talk with one of the guides. Once we had our fill, we searched for our habal-habal and asked the driver to take us back to the highway.
We crossed the highway since we needed to take a bus or van to get to our next destination. Proving once again how friendly Filipinos are, some men at a baranggay outpost offered their chair inside their small shed to shield us from the sun, while they helped us flag down a passing bus. We rode a bus bound for Butuan and asked the conductor to drop us off at the Enchanted River Crossing. We arrived at the crossing at 1615 and saw on the sign that it was open from 6AM to 5PM. We approached a habal-habal and asked if we could make it before the area closed. He assured us that it will only take about 30 minutes, and that was good enough for us. Our driver zoomed through rolling terrain of unpaved road just to get us there in time. We arrived at the entrance at 1655 (by their clock, it was just 1645 on ours) and begged the lady to just let us take pictures since we were already there. Showing true Filipino generosity, they let us in (for free!) and gave us 15 minutes to explore.At first we were just taking pictures, but we couldn't help ourselves and eventually took a dip in the river. It is called the Enchanted River because of it's surreally blue hue and inexplicably clean and clear water. We waded until around 1730 and figuratively closed the place.
 |
| 15-km habal ride to Tinuy-an Falls |
 |
| Magnificent |
 |
| "I am just a speck of dust inside the giant's eye." |
 |
| The water was crazy blue. It was surreal! |
 |
| I was a bit terrified to swim because I had this visions that the fishies would eat me. Haha. |
It was already dark when we reached the highway and our habal-habal driver was kind enough to wait for us to board a van (bound for Butuan) before he left. We got off at the Borobo Central Terminal and had dinner. We then walked back to Terazza Viktoria to wash up and rest for island hopping the next day.
Day 3 Expenses:
Breakfast Php45.00 Transfer to Terazza Viktoria Php200.00 Room for 2 @ Php500, discounted to Php400 since room has no TV Bus to Mangagoy Php103.00 Habal to Tinuyan Falls Php100.00 Php200 for 2 pax Explore Tinuyan Php50.00 Habal to Hi-way Php75.00 Php150 for 2pax, discounted from Php200 since we only asked to be brought back to hi-way Bus to Hinatuan (Butuan) Php55.00 Habal to Enchanted River Php75.00 Explore Enchanted River Php0.00 Php25, we technically cannot swim beyond 5pm Habal to Hi-way Php75.00 Van to Barobo (Butuan) Php40.00 Dinner Php60.50 Total for Day 2.5 Php878.50 Total for the trip Php4,573.50
We had a lovely day, and the two sites we went to shows us further how beautiful our country, our world is. But it seems that we always rush ourselves. Haha.
<3, dee
PPS, photos taken by yours truly and my friend, unless otherwise specified
No comments:
Post a Comment