Off We Go to CDO

[June 17-20, 2011]

photo credits: jm & noel

What originally was a trip only for my boyfriend and I became one the most memorable trips with my closest friends since high school.  

Boyfie and best pals in the City of Golden Friendship-- I couldn't ask for more!

Here we are at Lumbia Airport

Our flight was 20 minutes early! Imagine that!

Thanks to the not-so-promo fare ticket that we got months before.

Beaming after his first touch-down in Mindanao. Your shirt langga is quite in-tune with the airline's theme. hehe!

Lumbia Airport is quite small but it was clean.

And just like what I said in my previous blog, whenever we go to a  new place, we always make it a point to go to the nearest Church/Chapel we could find to pray for guidance for our entire trip. So right after our McDonald's breakfast, we went to say our prayers at the beautiful, San Augustine Church.

Since we arrived early in the morning, we found ourselves the only ones visiting the Church during that time.

San Augustine Church was well-ventilated what with open walls and high ceiling. Because of this design you feel a sense of peace and solemnity while praying.

Behind me is the statue of St. Augustine together with other Saints.

At the back of the Church you will find a garden...

And when you walk towards the fence, you will see CDO's well-kept gem, the Great Cagayan river. This is actually the best spot overlooking the rest of Cagayan de Oro. The scenery was breathtaking. I'll talk more about our experience with the Cagayan River in a separate post.

Since two of our friends were on a later flight, we made a quick stop at Traveller's Pod to  leave our stuff-- so we don't have to go around carrying our bags while waiting for them

For more information, visit http://www.travelerspod.com/    

We then went to Limketkai Mall to while away our time. Again, we were too early, it was still closed when we got there so we waited outside and chatted away the minutes.

Picture-taking infront of a famous food chain fronting Limketkai Mall.

And just a few minutes later, we received a message that our friends had just landed in Lumbia Airport and that they are just waiting for my friend's sister to pick them up (who, by the way, also, is our host for this trip). Not to long, they arrived in Limketkai to fetch us and off we went together to ate J's place to settle in.

What a lucky bunch we are! When we arrived at ate J's house, lunch was already served. Wow! We had to fill our tummies and changed clothes hurriedly to prepare ourselves for a whole afternoon of rafting! Yey!

Fastforward, here we are aboard ate J's Van on our way to the Divisoria where we will meet up with our ride and guide for our White Water Rafting Adventure.

Excited!!!

For our baOn, we made a quick stop at a burger junction. 5 Huge burgers please! All for take out!

And yes..we were already in our rash guards and board shorts. Beat that. Haha!

Ooops! Did I mention the owner/order-taker was cute?! One Souvenir picture then! Click!

That right there is our fancy ride. With our rafts fastened above, we are definitely ready to go!

Oh but before anything else, we need to sign our waivers first. Yah know, safety first before the buwis-buhay adventure.

En route to the rafting start point, we passed by Macahambus Adventure Park where you can avail of rides such as zipline, canopy walk, among many others.

Since we were joined by 3 other guests of Kagay, we had to make a stopover at this place because the other guests wanted to try the rides.

So we also looked around...

Behind me is the view of their Canopy Walk.

This is their souvenir shop. Very affordable accessories, I must say!

Until then, Macahambus Park!

This only means one thing, we're almost there!!!

And this is the view of the Cagayan River near our jump off area. Waaaaaah! Look at those giant ripples!
Kindly refer to separate post to know more about our White Water Rafting- Advance Course- Experience.