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Saturday, May 28, 2005
Caravan goes to Caraga: The Trip to Historic City
By Danilo V. Adorador III
HOURS of sitting in a moving vehicle can be so exacting, but the panoramic view arising on all sides as we enter the Caraga Region refuse to send the Caravan people to slumber.
"This is indeed a different kind of tourism--it unravel the limitless beauty of God's Creation!" exclaimed Lady Grace, sitting at my right side who couldn't hide her thrills.
Perhaps it's the excitement to extract gold nuggets when we arrive the Lepanto Mines, or the thought that we will be briefly staying at the historic Butuan, a city with over 1,677 years of recorded history!
We enter Agusan del Norte and a police security detail greets us with their sirens, quenching the placid surroundings as if we invaded an enchanted territory. Agusan Province was named for the Malay word Agusan, meaning "where water flows", probably because of the gargantuan river that traverses the whole area. Some historians claim that Magellan held the first mass in the Philippines in Masao at the mouth of the Agusan River, and not in Limasawa, Leyte, on Easter Sunday of 1521.
The province is a victim of hapless gerrymandering when it was divided in 1967 into two provinces--Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur.
Upon reaching Butuan, we go straight ahead to the famed Butuan Regional Museum where tourism officials greet us with sincere joviality.
The Butuan Regional Museum is the repository of historical and cultural materials and artifacts that proves Butuan's prehistoric existence and rich cultural heritage.
There are two exhibit galleries. The Ethnological Hall showcases exhibits of contemporary cultural materials the Butuanon or every Filipino for matter used for a living. The Archaeological Hall and Ethnological Hall Specimens of metal crafts, stone crafts, woodcrafts, potteries, goldsmithing, burial coffins, and other archaeological diggings are exhibited.
The museum curator proudly declared to the pack "long before the Philippines had been a country, Butuan had been a city!
Though this may have triggered the raising of eyebrows among the Caravan participants hailing from the Imperial Manila, nevertheless the statement is scientifically proven.
The most scientific proof that Butuan is the Philippine's ancient city is the discovery of 9 Balangays (Butuan Boats) and other archaeological finds in the vicinities of Butuan City, particularly in Ambangan, Libertad near the old El Rio de Butuan and Masao river. The carbon dating of the finds unearthed in these sites proves that the city's colorful history, culture, arts, and people date back to the 4th Century.
By the 11th century, Butuan had become the center of trade and commerce in the Philippines.
The Agusan River contributed to the rich history of Butuan. It is the river and its tributaries that provide the valley with rich soil from periodic floods. The river has provided the early Butuanons with an easy means of transportation for trade and commerce, and encouraged settlements along its banks.
The name Butuan is believed to have originated from the sour fruit "Batuan" and by others to have come from "Datu Buntuan," a chieftain who once ruled Butuan. Scholars believed it was derived from the word "But-an," which literally means a person who has a sound and discerning disposition.
We finish the city tour with the appetizing lunch hosted by the city's officials.
The Caravan then headed to Magellan's Marker in the nearby municipality of Magallanes, a coastal town renamed after the Spanish conquistador Fernando Magallanes, believed to have celebrated the First Mass in this place.
A monument evidences it with the Spanish inscription portraying the first Catholic Mass in the island of Mindanao.
Along the way, we pass by an awesome, colossal tree--the National Centennial Tree. Locally known as Bitaog, its circumference measures about 305.585 centimeters. Folk say that the tree is about 500 years old.
We proceed to the Cabadbaran Municipal hall where local beauties adorn us with colorful garlands. We have our tour passports stamped while local officials, with undying Filipino hospitality, hand us some local treats.
Before bringing the Caravan to the Surigao soil, we found our next ultimate adventure hiking for a mile one of the tunnels of the Lepanto Mines, off the mountainous portion of Cabadbaran. Our Innovas braved the rocky terrain uphill and even trekked a river strewn with boulders.
Our light-equipped hard hats lead us to a dark, perfectly arch-shaped tunnel infested with bats. The shallow stream inside the tunnel requires us to wear sandals or sports shoes. The passageway is un-illuminated but the camera crew from the Manila Bulletin, the Manila Times and the Living Asia Channel are not about to let the stalactites and the amazing sights un-captured.
Inside the tunnel, our guides show us the techniques of separating gold from the fine earth. The mine site had been abandoned years ago, and the small-scale miners set in to make a living for themselves with whatever little nugget of gold, if not hope they can extract from the place.
Our five guides, who are also miners, explained that they use the traditional way of extracting gold rather than risk using chemicals. I wonder what evils the mining site had done to this sacred mountain during the Lepanto days. Humans and Mother Nature most of the time make strange bedfellows.
We have seen enough, we have heard enough from the songs of the Mother Earth. But it is never enough--we are still to conquer the Surigao Islands, the next on the Caravan's itinerary list.
(Next: Part IV--Supreme Surigao!)
(May 28, 2005 issue)
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