We kept on listing down destinations to visit and try to contact people who could join us on some parts of our Bukidnon trip. But for weeks, we didn’t reach to a point of creating an itinerary. In fact, we arrived at Laguindingan Airport with nothing in mind where to go, and how we could reach Cagayan De Oro City.
An hour van ride that cost Php199 brought us to Agora Terminal where buses are bound to one of the landlocked provinces of Mindanao, Bukidnon. The province is known as the food basket of Mindanao because of its rice, corn, pineapple, banana, and sugarcane plantations.
Without a list of what to see and experience in Bukidnon, we consulted Google using my Huawei P9 smartphone while having late lunch at some random cafeteria in Agora Terminal. I found out that there are waterfalls in the province and in fact, three of them are just in a single compound. The trip started after paying a Php3 entrance fee in Agora Terminal and boarding a bus bound to Valencia City.
GETTING LOST AND WATERFALL HOPPING IN CEDAR
The very helpful bus crew forgot to notify us when we passed by the Center for Ecological Development and Recreation (CEDAR). It was already 2 kilometers away when she remembered that two of her passengers asked to be dropped by the destination. She even suggested that it was better for us to just walk to CEDAR from where we alighted.
CEDAR has three waterfalls: Gantungan, Natigbasan, and Dila Falls. The farthest waterfall is about 960 meters away from the jump off. The center collects Php10 for every guest that they use for maintenance. They’re not requiring visitors to get guides but it’s better to have one for easily navigating the forest. We were stubborn as we didn’t bother to look for a local who could guide us.
The first part of the trail was undemanding by traversing an established path that leads to a swimming pool. Crossing a bamboo bridge continues the trail to Gantungan Falls. Towering trees cover the trail making light not that intense. But this didn’t ruin our goal of taking pictures as the Huawei P9 camera has a PRO feature where you can control the ISO, shutter speed, and exposure value.
After the last rickety bamboo bridge, a fork trail confused us. Doi recalled the trail they’ve taken during her visit few years back. Taking the path on the left brought us to a path covered with fallen bamboo trees that required us to dock, crawl, and climb to continue the trek.
The second waterfall appeared from the shrub of plants covering the trail. Natigbasan Falls is higher compared to Gantungan and is a fan waterfall where the water spreads horizontally as it descends. I wasn’t able to take a shot as I was busy catching my breath from the acrobatics we had. There were tiny flowers along the way though and I got a chance to test Huawei P9’s aperture mode that goes as low as f/0.95, a main lead of Leica lenses.
The never-ending trail required us to descend an insanely steep slope that finally led us to a stream of water coming from the last waterfall in CEDAR, Dila Falls. Huawei P9 also has a light painting feature with silky waters, very right in shooting waterfalls, as a sub feature. The fun activity of hopping from one waterfall to another and finding the right path to take ended with a short walk under the drizzling rain.
SAMPLING WILD BOAR AND DEER MEAT IN BUDA
Bukidnon is a foot-and-mouth disease free province. And to protect their livestock, quarantine checkpoints are on entry points from other provinces. One of these checkpoints is in Lorega, Kitaotao. On an early Saturday morning, we braved an almost 2-hr van ride to ‘quarantine’ to experience the chilling weather in Buda, the border of Bukidnon and Davao City.
Passing by the souvenir shops in Lorega, we chanced a place named Wild Berry Gardens and Diner. The restaurant’s name intrigued us so we immediately ascended the short staircase. The owner welcomed us and without hesitation started stating herbs, spices, and fruits being grown on her backyard. She suggested taking a look at her garden at the back of the diner. Small pots with kinds of succulents also lined up near the main door. The backyard has several garden plots having different spices and herbs. Wild berry shrubs are also ubiquitous in the garden while passion fruits cover a larger area.
For lunch, we agreed to try wild boar and deer meat. Though they were both cooked the same way, adobo, you can still distinguish the meats by their texture and smell, especially for the deer. The meats were served with fresh cucumber and tomato salad with ingredients sourced from their backyard. Magic Three Herb Tea excited us so we ordered one in addition to the fresh passion fruit shake. The aroma from the rosemary, tarragon, and spearmint was really soothing.
Food photography needs a great lens to get close shots and capture details of the food. I was happy to satisfy my eagerness to get macro shots of the food we tried because of Huawei P9’s aperture mode that apart from an aperture of f/0.95, you can manually focus in just a single touch. I’ve never imagined food photography this simple, thanks to Leica’s dual-lens camera.
DETACHING FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD IN LAKE APO
On our last day in Bukidnon, Shugah, a Bukidnon-based blogger-friend, encouraged us to visit Lake Apo. Northern Mindanao recognized the lake as the cleanest inland body of water for consecutive years already. The determined weather blasted rains during our travel to Lake Apo. This led us not to experience a majestic sunset at the lake.
Visiting Lake Apo means detaching from the outside world as the area has no network coverage and only uses solar power. After sundown, the farmhouse uses lamps as light sources. We had an intimate dinner near the lake enjoying food prepared using wood cooking. It was also my first time to taste marang directly from the fruit.
A fine weather woke us up the following day and it was a great opportunity to marvel the serene beauty of the lake and its surrounding. The farmhouse owner offered free use of kayak and after few minutes, I found myself near the water lilies enjoying the depth mode of Huawei P9’s camera.
Lake Apo offers a sweeping view and I didn’t let the chance to capture its magnificence using the panoramic feature of the smart phone. Our short stay in the destination was really remarkable not only because of the scenic lake, but also to the simple and organic living.
It was lunch time when we finally reached the main highway of Bukidnon where we waited for buses/vans bound to Cagayan De Oro City. When we arrive in CDO, we immediately made our way to The Pacifico Boutique Hotel to check-in. The roof deck of the hotel offered a breathtakingly beautiful sunset.
What I like about the Huawei P9, apart from manually taking better photos without bringing my bulky and heavy DSLR camera, is its 12 megapixel dual-lens camera with 4:3 images measuring 3968×2976 pixels. The PRO mode enables users to set autofocus (AF-S, AF-C or MF), shutter speed (1/4000th sec to 30 sec), ISO (50 to 3200), exposure compensation, white balance, and even metering patterns. These features really make traveler’s life easy in terms of documenting their trips.
On this trip, we ditched the idea of having a fixed itinerary and spontaneously visit destinations and attractions that interest us. This kind of trip makes traveling less stressful and more enjoyable as constrained time is out of the picture. My first visit to Bukidnon was really memorable and letting Huawei P9 capture details of my travel moments makes it more unforgettable.
** All photos used in this post were taken using Huawei P9, co-engineered with Leica.
