Nature's Work of Art

NATURAL wonders waiting to be explored -- that's what Michael H. Chan and James Michael Montaño (photographers from General Santos City), Jose Ray Subaldo (of Digilution), and myself discovered when we embarked a trip recently to Compostela Valley (more popularly known as Comval).
The travel entailed a journey from islands to highlands. As the tourism information puts it: "(Compostela Valley) is a land of waterfalls, caves, lakes, rivers, towering mountain ranges and forests, gold and silver deposits, sulfuric hot and cold springs, and inland and beach resorts."

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The newest province of Davao Region, Comval lies in the mid-eastern section of Mindanao and has a total land area of 4,666.93 square kilometers. It is bounded by Agusan del Sur in the north, Davao Oriental in the east and south, Davao Gulf in the southwest, and Davao del Norte in the west and northwest.

"We believe in marketing tourism responsibly," Comval tourism officer Christine T. Dompor said. "We want our visitors and guests to explore and revel on nature's finest without destroying the environment."

The shoreline of Comval forms the northern beach strand of Davao Gulf and stretches for some 50 kilometers from the boundary of Tagum City in the coastal towns of Maco, Mabini, and Pantukan.

As Mabini is at the center among the three towns, it hosts the most number of beach resorts, including Beach View, Manaklay Beach Park, Centro Beach Resort, and Berioso Beach Resorts I and II. In Pantukan, the two most noted resorts are Wellborn's and Magnaga Waters.

Each resort has its own way of attracting guests and visitors. Bern Berioso, for instance, is not only swimming but also has a function hall that looks like a ship.

At the Welborn's Beach Resort, the sea bed is flat and there are no stones or coral that makes bare walking dangerous.

Beach View Resort has the most modern cosmopolitan bar among the beach resorts and offer exotic food and beverages. It is the nearest access to the wonderful 95-hectare Kopiat Island, which is about 300 meters away from the resort.

Kopiat Island has clear and calm waters, which are ideal for a range of water sports activities. It has wide sections of shorelines blanketed with fine white sand.

In addition, it has unspoiled reef areas with rare beds that serve as a sanctuary for exotic tropical fish and other aquatic resources like endangered marine turtles.

Not far from Kopiat Island is the Lunod Island (also known as Saint Anthony Island), whose 17-hectare area is covered with lush mangrove forests. Motorized banca ride is about 15 minutes from Mabini coast. The island is an ideal marine life sanctuary and eco-tourism park; it is a haven for scientific researches.

"At night, the place turns into a magical wonder as the whole area is lighted with fireflies," Dompor said.

From the two islands, we traveled to the town of Mawab up in Barangay Mainit, whose steaming waterfall is a sight to behold. There is a cottage that offers rest to visitors who want to take a dip into the therapeutic steaming warm water fed by tiny rivulets oozing out from the earth?s crust high above rocky ledges. This place is not known outside of the province as it has not been promoted so well.

Our next stopover was the town of Maco. In the highland barangay of New Leyte is Lake Leonard, a caldera of Mount Leonard Kniasseff, one of the 22 active volcanoes in the country who last eruption was reported in the second century AD.

The 200-hectare lake was used before as a dumping ground for mining wastes fro the Amakan copper extraction of the North Davao Mining Company from the 80's until it ceased operation in the early 90's.

After taking some photos and talking with barangay officials, we proceeded to Maragusan, the summer capital of Davao region. It is home to 30 majestic waterfalls and 300 cold springs and two hot springs. Its total land area of 39,427 hectares is typhoon-free as it is surrounded by mountain ranges, home to the world's largest individual flower, Rafflesia magnifica.

We stayed for the night at the cottages of the Aguakan Cold Spring Resort. But before retiring to bed, we went to Kanlawig Hot Springs Resort and enjoyed swimming at the steaming hot water. Both resorts are owned by Zosilee J. Yanong.

The following day, we woke up early and went to Haven?s Peak, a resort nestled on Tarago Hills facing the Maragusan. Both Michael and James wanted to take photos of beautiful sunrise but the weather wasn't cooperating. Both were dismayed but they were amazed as the fog started to move and completely covered the whole town.

As there were several waterfalls in the town, we visited only two: Marangig and Tagbibinta. The latter has a series of seven falls, the first one measuring approximately 70 feet in height.

"The falls was named as such because the place used to be the business center," said Dennis B. Radin, the town's tourism officer.

From Maragusan, we traveled for several hours before reaching Nabunturan, the home of the Bibingka Country. Located along the national highway in barangay New Sibonga, it is a thriving rice-cake based industry that started as a family business in the 1970s. Today, it is now a major industry and the place has become a major roadside food station for travelers plying the Agusan-Davao highway.

While still in Nabunturan, don't fail to visit the popular Toyozu Inland Resort. Here, you can relax in small Japanese-style pools filled with hot spring water. You can adjust the temperature by moving stones over the water passages. For sauna, you can't get as natural as sitting inside the tunnels with steaming water in the middle.

Since it was only two-day visit in Comval, there were other areas that we never had a chance of going to. For instance, we failed to visit the caves in the town of Laak, due to its almost isolated location.

According to some reports, more than 100 caves can be found in the municipality. Recently, the speleological society of Davao City visited some of the caves, thus putting Laak as a potential caving destination for tourists.

Other areas good for spelunking are the Mahayahay cave (in Mawab), the San Vicente cave (in Nabunturan), and the Kumbilan-Casoon cave (in Monkayo).

How to get there? Comval is accessible by air, land, and sea transportation. Davao City, 979 kilometers from Manila, is the gateway to the province. On arriving at the airport, take a taxi or a bus ride to Davao City Overland Transport Terminal at Ecoland to board a bus to Nabunturan, the capital town, 90 kilometers away and a two-hour ride. In Nabunturan, you visitor can transfer to any public utility vehicles for another ride to any destination in the province.

Single motorcycles and/or habal-habal, locally-known as skylab, are available in any major point of the province. Here's what you need to know about this special means of transportation: "A skylab is a single motorcycle with added contraptions not unlike the wings of an airplane. It has a roof above to protect the passenger from the rain or the sun and can carry up to 10 passengers. It is also not unlike a flying seesaw where passengers are treated to an exhilarating ride as the motorcycle careens up and down rocky roads and climbs slopes, allowing you to view the chasm below and the vista beyond."