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Monday: 10:00-21:00
Tuesday: 10:00-21:00
Wednesday: 10:00-21:00
Thursday: 10:00-21:00
Friday: 10:00-21:00
Saturday: 10:00-21:00
Sunday: 16:00-21:00
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Tag Archives: Mindanao
Initao Midway Getaway
Yesterday, we went to Initao Midway White Beach Resort just to getaway from the bustling city pollution. It was basically Elai’s (good friend of ours and my fraternity brother) idea the other night and all three of us (me, Leia and Porsche or Porsha as I would like to spell it) empathically said yes. I mean why not? City life is just stressful and Iligan’s traffic and pollution on average despite being a super small city is almost like that of Manila. Porsha also invited Red to come along and brought with him his amazing well seasoned slab of pork meat.
So the day started first in the market to buy some ingredients for the food (for grilling!) then in the kitchen for preparation.
This is Kinilaw, a sliced raw fish meat (usually Tuna) with lots of spices and coconut vinegar. This is eaten raw but technically the fish meat is treated and “cooked” by the vinegar and spices combined.
Now, the beach… not exactly the same condition as what I last remembered (I went here twice last 2014) but the beach ambiance is what we all need for the day. Here’s my blogpost about my last year’s visit to Midway.
Crab fat! A good dose of bad cholesterol once in a while.
Veggie bbq, milkfish filled with spices wrapped in foil, pork meat, and chicken gizzard behind it.
That tower (suppose to be for zipline) is simply annoying. It’s been looking like a Mordor Tower from LOTR for years now. What an eyesore!
and here I am in case you’re wondering where I was in all this. From Leia’s camera:
Elai, and me in my ghillie suit, LOL.
Elai, me, Red and Porsh.
So yes, we had a good afternoon and our bellies we’re filled to the skin. We took a very brief dip in the water but be cautious for the sharp rocks though. Porsh got some cuts on both her feet because she was doing front flips in the shallow part of the beach (waist deep). They also have some banana ride pulled by a jetski for 500-1000 Pesos i think good for 15minutes. The cottage we had cost P600 and despite the green net draped around the cottage, it doesn’t really help with the flies pestering your food. At least it wasn’t a horde of flies though but yes, there were flies none the less. All in all, it was worth the 30-35 minute trip from Iligan City. Going back took us a little over an hour though due to heavy traffic from road repairs. Oh well…
That is all… Peace!
Filed under Beach, Iligan City, Mindanao
Descending Mt. Pagangon To Hindang Falls
While I’m writing this blog right at this moment, I’m being bombarded with ear-splitting karaoke fest. I won’t deny that some can sing while others still don’t know the destructive dissonance they have that’s rattling my thoughts into a pulp. Cranking up the volume and echo effect would only make things worst for my ears to bear but I have to try at least jot something and take this situation as a jump off point for this blog so I can start writing no matter how off-topic this may seem.
Well, Iligan is celebrating the Diyandi Festival and it is Leia’s mom’s birthday today too hence the karaoke party. Only Ann2x (Leia’s younger sister) can really sing well, the rest are good to okay to outright devastatingly off-tuned enough to wake the dead. Let me gather my disoriented brain cells together and pull this through. Writing a blog in the midst of sonic mayhem is quite challenging, but not as challenging as going down a steep mountain side while raining. Yeah, I know I’m trying to connect A with X but, so what. I have to write this fast because the next adventure will be coming in the next few days.
Okay, so I’ll start right after we started to climb out from Hindang Cave. For those who haven’t read about our Hindang Cave spelunking, here’s the blog.
Okay, the stuff I just wrote above was a little over 2 months ago (and my last edit was on the 29th of September to be precise). It’s already December 3 and I apologize for the delay. I’ve been quite busy again but we did had some more great adventures none the less after Hindang. I have come to realize that I might not be able to write long blog posts especially with a mountain of backlogs I’m still carrying with me from all the way back to 2012. Starting today or tonight, I’ll be writing short blog posts instead.
Anyway, about our descend… it was pretty darn hard. Yes, because it rained and made the narrow pathway slippery like clay mud. One of our companion was even praying and repenting as if it was the end of the world. At times, we had to go “5×5” meaning crawl on all fours including our butts in a sitting position.
Finally, we all made it down safely with minor bumps and scratches but no big deal. Good thing there were some lanzones and marang fruit waiting for us to replenish our famished state. The fruits were actually cheap here like more than 50% compared to the prices in the city.
Our next stop was Hindang falls. A beautiful 3 tiered waterfall which is easily accessible from the road probably like a 10-15 minute trek.
In reality, the base of the 2nd tier (top of the 1st tier) is the most accessible and the most logical place to take a dip. It has a much bigger pool while the 3rd tier is quite a challenge to get there (you’ll see it in the video).The 2nd tier by the way may look small (because of the perspective I guess) but it is probably about 30 feet tall from top to base. The 3rd tier of Hindang falls only has a small shallow pool but the falls is probably taller than the rest of the tiers and a great place to get a good shower.
Travel time between Hindang proper to Hindang falls is probably about 20 minutes or less. You’ll pass by Hindang Falls first before you get to enter Hindang proper or the village.
Again, here’s my blog for the Hindang Cave in Mt. Pagangon where you will know how far Hindang is from Iligan proper.
Please check out our Hindang video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDat2W1A8bk
Thanks!
Filed under Iligan City, Travel, trekking, waterfalls
Pugaan Waterfalling Adventure 2015
Team Katkat (climb) from left to right: Elijah, me, Jeffrey, Porsche, Leia, Boknoy, Mico and Tito Bobby our ultra guide.
Last September 4, 2015, a friend of ours, sir Bobby who is a veteran photo journalist, coffee geek, a known barefoot runner in our city and a bonfide mountain trekker asked my girlfriend Leia to organize a trekking party for Pugaan waterfalling. So Leia made a Facebook page for an open invitation and 5 others asked to join. So there were 8 of us all in all going for the Pugaan waterfalling adventure.
Pugaan is a barangay (a barangay is formerly called barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward – wiki) that is part of Iligan city which is a rural area mostly consists of mountains or hills, some lush vegetation and mostly forested area. It is rather a large barangay than most barangays found in the city and because it is still in touch with nature far from urban contamination, Pugaan surprisingly (at least for a city dweller like me) has lots of waterfalls of all sizes that some are probably still waiting to be discovered by city folks.
Pugaan proper (where the barangay hall, market and a simple covered basketball court is located) is only less than 25 minutes drive from the city proper. The main transportation within Pugaan is the “habal-habal” or a motorcycle and some very few jeepneys that goes to the city.
This is Pugaan and this was our route. We started our trek at the tiny blue arrow above center.
This was probably the hardest trekking I had in years and I slipped and slammed on my side 3 times along the water trail while stepping on slippery rocks. Thank God I didn’t hit my head but it was pretty close though. I also realized from this adventure that I’m not really used to my being overweight and I felt cumbersome and clumsy. I decided not to bring my dslr (good thing!) and opted for my digicam and gopro.
My digicam (Nikon S9100) already died not even halfway and just after our first waterfall encounter (but is now fine and dandy with an ample amount of air drying and silica gel packets) due to moisture from my wet hands. Thank God for the Gopro as I was able to continue to shoot some photos, film and occassional “documentary I was here not vanity” selfies.
In case you wanna check out our video here’s the link…
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pugaan+waterfalling
I would also like to add some of tito Bobby’s photos here (we shared each others photos for us 8 to use and post) as he took better photoshots than what I’m able to do. After all, he’s a veteran photographer and the mountains around Iligan are his playground.
Yup, this is the “habal-habal” as what most people here in Iligan would call it. Not the most comforting ride ever if there are 5 butts total trying to hold and balance along a rough jagged road. Expect an after workout like cramps after a 15 minute ride. We took the habal-habal last for Pugaan proper after almost 7-8 hours of trekking.
Filed under Iligan City, trekking, waterfalls
Midway White Beach Resort, Initao
An old man looking out for his kid.
There were two cable ziplines that I took out because it was ruining the beautiful backdrop.
Notice the two cable ziplines which I took out from my previous shot.
What a majestic view of the sea, clouds and sky.
Initao’s lovely gem of a beach.
My neighbor and best bud Giancarlo, his lovely wife Orlane and two of their handsome kids, Giullian (left center) and Gavin.
Another awesome view.
Lovely place to chill.
I just love the intermarriage of blue, whit and dark brown colors.
Lovely view from an empty pool.
On the way to the lone cottage sticking out at the beach
A great place to sip some cocktail.
The zipline tower looks like a soar thumb sticking out to ruin every serious beach shutterbug mood. The beach still looks beautiful though, but could have been perfect.
ReyJohn’s Mr. Olympic pose.
A view of Initao’s simple but beautiful beach.
Two of my best buddies and neighbors.
Is that you Tony Stark? Oh and that’s the bare skeletal zipline tower at the background.
Hollywood poster pose.
Reyjohn and his lovely wife Gina, and Piper the birthday celebrant.
Post nuptial shot? hehe
Reyjohn’s son Parker enjoying the beach.
Birthday cake for Piper’s 6th birthday!
Some fisherman looking for something?
Moonbay white beach, name of the resort I guess.
Banca
Kids trying to find some hermit crabs I guess.
Not exactly all sand and clear sunny weather. Storm is coming from that direction.
Two ladies under a cloudy late afternoon.
Walk on water.
Midway white beach resort hotel building.
From the left side of the small stony pier.
From the right side of the small stony pier
The lone cottage.
Cottages with mosquito nets.
Another mosquito netted cottages.
They fixing this wooden boat.
A view from the back.
I’m sorry but I have to take a GoPro selfie shot once in a while.
This was Reyjohn’s daughter Piper’s 6th birthday celebration last Saturday held at Midway White Beach resort. I also took the opportuniy to shoot with my recently aquired (Last May 2014) 2nd hand Canon 60D with a 24-70 L lens from a good friend of mine. I used to borrow a lot Leia’s humble but always handy Nikon D3000 but then I though of getting one myself for both video and photos so finaly I got my own gear to snap around with.
The beach is an amazing place to practice shooting with your camera especially in sunny weather. The dominating hues of blues of the sky and sea, the greens of leaves from the trees to the algae rich rocks and the brownish powdery white color of the sand is a great palette to train your eyes for color composition. In short I just love to hangout at the beach even way before I had my first camera.
Midway White Beach Resort is a 30 minute ride from either Iligan City or Cagayan de Oro City (depending how much you can floor your pedal). If you’re tired of seeing black coal colored sand beaches along Iligan Bay and Camiguin Island is just too far or Boracay is just too expensive at the moment, get a feel of white beach sensation under your toes at Midway White Beach Resort. You can also enjoy their jet-ski ride, banana boat ride, ziplining or karaakoe at the beach aside from dipping and swimming in it’s pristine blue sapphire colored sea water with the scenic majestic clouds as a backdrop.
Thanks to Giancarlo and Orlane for the ride and most of all to Reyjohn and Gina for inviting us.
P.S. Leia was invited too but decided to stay home to take care of some things.
Filed under Beach, Photography
