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Friday, January 13, 2006
Unique tours await ATF guests in Samal
A DIFFERENT kind of experience awaits tourists in the Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos) where five loops of tour packages are put in place.
Cleto Gales Jr., city administrator of Igacos said their objective is to let their visitors go through five things namely, how to go there, what to experience, what to eat, where to stay and what to bring home.
He said each loop is designed in order for the tourist to complete it within a five-hour visit that is being carried out by the locals themselves.
He said the city government has organized the community into an association that could undertake eco-tourism activities within their respective area.
The first loop that is towards the Haguimit Falls which package they named as "Kaligoanan sa Lasang" (bathing in wilderness) will allow tourist to experience a "habal-habal" ride for one kilometer then to a cart driven by carabao and finally a walk under big trees towards the naturally designed pools.
Gales said one can taste the delicacies found in the community like "sinabaw nga bisayang manok" or the native chicken soup.
He said they had accredited about 50 "habal-habal" or single motorcycle drivers where they are issued IDs and a uniform blazer.
The second loop is the Caniban Fish Sanctuary at Aundanao. It will be a different experience because tourists will be toured in the 10 hectares fish sanctuary through a "bigiw" or small banca on a one-on-one boat ride with a fisherman.
The tourists will then proceed to the Caniban Cove where the long shoreline is laced with white pebbles where they could walk on foot. There they will be met by the locals with buko, coffee or chocolate and will be ushered to a hut where a pure lumad retired principal of the Sama tribe Maestro Leonardo Papacoy will briefed them of the history of the place and others. The tourists can also view the seaweeds farm that the community had been farming.
It is also important to know that the Caniban Cove is where the Hawksbill Turtle lay their eggs and the latest was in September 2005.
Another exciting loop is the "Mangroovetum" at Barangay San Isidro and this can be reached by land transportation. It is in the area where 29 species of mangrove are raised as well as 30 other related mangrove species. The area is about 20 hectares where mangrove planting is ongoing. From the mangrove site they will proceed to the bat caves then towards the crash site at Caliclic where they could view the tree memorial in honor of the 131 passengers who died in the Air Philippines plane crash.
Gales said the crash site became a natural com-on to those visiting the island and they had included as part of the must visit place in Samal.
At the Moncado Village the tourists will experience both culinary and cultural. For the culinary he said one could taste their popular rolled cake made of flour, coconut meat and juice with sugar and dried under the sun. The community agreed to open their place to visitors for them to see and learn their practices and beliefs.
The Mariculture Park is the fifth loop that one can choose where it became a traditional visiting area of people. It is a park situated in a 224 hectares where fish are raised in cages of different high value fishes for commercial purposes. Inside the park is also a processing plant for export fish products to US, Japan, China and Korea.
Gales said they had organized these packages just to be ready for interested tourists who would want to see the island.
Gales said as host to the government ministerial meeting of the Asean Tourism Forum where several international guests are coming they expect about one third of them to sneak to the island.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (January 13, 2006 issue)
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