[June 17-20, 2011]
photo credits: jm & noel
Mapawa Nature Park Trekking & Canyoneering
This is what we did on our 2nd day in Cagayan de Oro. [June 18, 2011]
Still overwhelmed from our white water rafting adventure the day before, it was a bit hard for us to wake up early to make it to our 7:00AM call time with Mapawa.
But then we thought of the activities that await us,
(trekking and canyoneering package)
5 waterfall challenges
water slides
11 ft. body rappel
8 ft. crawl
25 ft jump
65 ft waterfall rappel
Woah! We needed to get up, get dressed (in our trekking outfits) and bring with us a ginormous amount of energy and will-power.
Thank you so much te Jinggay for everything! These words will never be enough to express our gratitude for welcoming us in your home. Thank you!
We had some quick breakfast and off we go to Mapawa Adventure Park located in Malasag, CDO.
We needed to ride a motorcycle to reach the park. And yup there were 4 of us aboard the motorcycle.
"Bahala'g magkalisod-picture!"
It only took us a few minutes to reach the park. Aside from the Trekking and Canyoneering package we availed, they also offer the ff. activities: camping, obstacle course, zipline, road tennis, and so much more!
This is where we settled our payments, and secured our things. To the left, is where we had our short briefing.
Since, they are after all, a nature park, they had some animals too, like monkeys & birds.
Signing of waivers? But of course!
Our life-savers..
That's me--all geared up!
Oh but what is that? That huge truck will take us to our trekking staring point.
They have customized the back of the truck with wooden seats to accommodate passengers and wooden stairs so we can just climb our way to our fabulous ride.
Here we are..let's go!
Man! A 20-minute ride on this thing is definitely an adventure on its own.
We have entered the forest! Eek!
There was another group who joined us. The more the merrier!
From here on, we'll be on foot. Trekking it is!
and we found a horse!
If I remembered correctly, they said this is the biggest tree there is in Mindanao?
I mean it's got to be, look at the roots on this one.
Weee! You gotta love nature!
This is our first ever water slide and we were sooooo excited!!
The water was sooooo cold!
After we completed our water slide!
Little did we know that we'll have lots of water slides in store for us. Yey!
Here's another one.
Thank you mother nature!
This is us waiting for our turn for our 11 ft. body rappel.
We completed this by pair, and you had to coordinate your steps in going down the small falls.
Challenging!
A quick pose before proceeding..
Some of these rocks were really slippery so we had to be extra careful. That is why, most of the time, it was easier for us to slide down on our buttocks.
It was a totally different scenery for us.. we felt so close to nature. T'was great for all of us who are so used to living and working in the City--a change of environment such as this once in a while is good for the soul.
Fresh air, lush greens, clear waters...ah.....this is the life.
towing...hehe!
Would you look at that..it's beautiful!
This is the view of our 25ft jump.
That's us up there and we had to jump all the way to the bottom of the waterfalls. Quite scary if you have this view..how much more..
if you are looking at it from above. There's definitely a reason why they say: Don't look down.
It makes your knees shiver, makes your stomach turn upside down and somehow it makes you feel a bit light-headed too.
But we jumped anyway. I was the second one to jump and to release all my fears I screamed before I jumped. And they all laughed. Once you take that step and let yourself fall--it's like all your worries disappear. To date, it was the most liberating feeling I ever felt. Glad I did it!
[VIDEO]
Thrill-seekers, yes we are!
While we are moving away, the view of our 25ft. jump became smaller and smaller.
Victorious over our last obstacle, we tread on to our last activity.
This picture does not give justice to what lies beyond the edge of this cliff that we are sitting on.
Not scary when you view it this way, but when you look beneath and beyond..
YIKES! That's how our 65ft rappel looks like. Oh no!
The size of langga on that floating device only signifies how high/far we are from him.
zoomed in.
Where's langga?
While they were setting us up for our rappel...
Smiling all my fears away...this was actually my first rappel..EVER!
Imagine my difficulty..
Looks okay, but not really. After this, I thought, rappelling is not for me. I just couldn't seem to figure out how to do it. Haha! Thank you kuya/guide for all your patience.
It took me a long time to reach the bottom what with the falls in front of me! Waaaah! But I did it anyway.
Group picture!!!
It's over! We're done! We did it!
We looked like small ants. That's how far down it is from our rappelling start point.
zoomed in.
Trekking and Canyoneering off our bucket lists!
