A different kind of adventure

Saturday, January 28, 2012

CAGAYAN de Oro City, the gateway of Northern Mindanao, is dubbed as the “adventure capital” in the Philippines. After all, it is home to the most scenic and exhilarating whitewater rafting in the country.

The Kagay-anons are some of the friendliest folks around. In fact, the city is one of the more colorful ground zero for the many cultures in the Philippines where Christians, Catholics, Muslims, foreigners and various mestizos in equal concentrations.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

As for the peace and order situation in the city, one journalist commented: “Despite its close proximity to the more notoriously turbulent areas of the Philippines, Cagayan de Oro maintains a relatively tension-free environment where one can usually safely walk the streets, taho vendors sing in the streets and almost everybody closes up shop after ten or eleven in the evening, with a few exceptions.”

Recently, a group of journalists from Manila came to visit the city. On their second day, after doing the strenuous interviews here and there, they decided to make their rest and relaxation.

The whitewater rafting adventure was not on the list. But the group wanted to experience something thrilling. So off they went to Macahambus Gorge and Adventure Park in Barangay Lumbia, some 25 minutes from the hotel where they were staying.

“We designed this place as an alternative destination to extreme sports enthusiasts,” says Chisum Factura, the park’s operation manager. “We give our visitors a chance to test the limits of their nerves.”

The sky bridge alone is enough to give agoraphobic people panic attack. Its zipline – a hanging slide of more than a hundred feet of high-tension cables, strung up a hundred and fifty feet from the bottom of the Macahambus ravine – gives a guest an experience of a lifetime.

Multi-awarded Imelda Abano, who headed the group, almost wanted to return to where she started when she was at the middle of the sky bridge, a canopy walk which runs for 135 meters across a height of 150 feet. “I was terrified by the height,” she said.

Imagine immersing yourself in the full glory of nature, walking in the midst of gigantic century-old trees and swinging from the top of an enormous gorge, nothing between you and the ground except hundred of feet of air, giving you a different perspective of the majestic Macahambus gorge.

Those looking for more adventure, they can take a crack at rappelling down the gorge. It is about 180 steps going down.

“Experience the thrill of slowly making your way down into the forest floor and looking up to the canopy of trees from a totally new perspective,” the 39-year-old Factura says.

For that ultimate, heart-pounding, adrenaline-laced thrill, try the 120-meter zipline.

“The rush of hanging from a heavy-duty cable at a height of 150 feet is incomparable,” says Factura, “but sliding through the same cable across the two edges of a gorge is nothing short of exhilarating.”

To experience this different kind of adventure is not expensive. To take the sky bridge and zipline, the charge is only P300. If rappelling is included, all you have to do is add P200. But if only rappelling is your interest, you have to pay P500.

Just a few steps from the adventure park is the historical Macahambus Cave, the last stronghold of Filipino soldiers during their battle against the Americans in 1900. Despite the cave’s large opening, its interior is very dark so a flashlight is needed to navigate the numerous paths, one of which leads to a promontory with a view of the Cagayan de Oro River.

Both the Macahambus Cave and the Macahambus Gorge and Adventure Park are located at the Carmen Hill, a sprawling mini-mountain with impressive scenery and natural formations. It is about ten minutes from the Lumbia Airport, also known as Cagayan de Oro Airport.
Philippine Airlines runs daily flights from Manila to Cagayan de Oro. Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines has also the same route. Zest Airways offers budget rates.

There is an overnight trip by sea from Cebu to Cagayan de Oro. Boat trips from Manila to Cagayan de Oro take a travel time of about 28 to 30 hours.
By land, several bus companies ply their routes to Cagayan de Oro from all points in Mindanao: Rural Transit, Bachelor Express, Super 5 and LCI.