Philippines Travel Blog » Enchanted River

pinoytraveller — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:10:35 +0000

Enchanted Conclusion | Hinatuan River

pinoytraveller — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:26:29 +0000

After some idle time, I decided to cut short my account on Hinatuan’s Enchanted River. Perhaps its just boredom or maybe its the lure of another spot waiting for me to set foot on. Right now I’m salivating on the thought of going to Tinuy-an Falls somewhere in Bislig, Surigao Del Sur. I know, I’ve been focusing on this part of Mindanao but I don’t fault myself for it. Surigao has awesome spots that are just waiting to be discovered and broken in. Too bad that they’re not so accessible but who knows? Maybe in the future when things turn for the better, this part of the Philippines will be the next great destination. I just have to do my little share of opening it up so that others can see what they’ve long refused to see.
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#2 An old woman that we spoke to during our visit said that if you have a video camera, you will be able to capture ‘unearthly’ beings in the background. She said this matter of factly that I just had to try taking a video of some kids jumping from the riverside trees down to the river. Nothing out of the ordinary appeared.

#3 One tale that’s oft repeated is about a few guys who left fine meshed nets in the deeper part of the river for three days (the local fishing term is “namukot”). This is a fishing lure that almost always guarantees lots of catch. When the fisher folks returned after three days, their fishing nets were hanging on the trees by the river bank.

#4 It is said that no matter how hard you fish in the enchanted river, you won’t be able to catch one. There was the case of the famous spear fisher who spent an hour and a half underwater only to come up with nothing. He can clearly see the fishes but he can’t hit them with his spear gun. Another was told of some folks from Mangagoy who brought with them their fancy fishing rods with the reels and all. One man in particular spent half a day fishing and didn’t catch a thing.

#5 The old woman in #2 said that you can catch fish in the river. You only have to “ask” for it.

#6 Frustration seeping in, some folks allegedly resorted to dinamite fishing just to get to the very big fishes that you can clearly see from the top. At first they thought they caught a lot because lots of dead fishes were floating around when they detonated their dinamites (the morons). But when they hauled their catch, there were only five fishes. The rest of the dead floating fish disappeared, just like that.

#7 At the very head of the enchanted river is a cave that’s accessible when the tide is low. Some foreigners were able to gain access and came to the end where there’s no water and they actually walked. The end of the cave was a small low ceilinged room where there’s a table made of limestone and a few limestone chairs as well. Apparently they took a picture of it but it wasn’t with the river caretaker when he told us this story.

After swimming for a while. We had to do some dangerous stuff. Jumping off from the river cliff. It’s not that high mind you but when you think about where you’re going to be jumping, looking down at that blue, blue, bottomless water, it makes you think twice. But we jumped anyway. Heck, you only live once.

When it was my turn, I summoned all my courage, closed my eyes and took the leap. I thought my eardrums would pop. I felt a stinging sensation in the inside of my arms (maybe because I was flailing too much) but I felt deep satisfaction for having jumped.

I’m not so sure if I will be able to return to this river again. I’m just glad that for once in my life I was able to see it with my own eyes. Not many Filipinos can say they did.
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Nine Tales From The Enchanted River | #1

pinoytraveller — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:23:43 +0000

Finding The Enchanted River of Hinatuan, Surigao Del Sur

As with most of my trips, this one’s a spur of the moment thing. The significant other was supposed to meet me in Manila but since it’s a long weekend, I convinced her that I should be the one going home to the province instead. The roundtrip fare nearly cost me an arm and a leg, but that’s the consequence for unplanned trips ( I paid P7.5K, ouch!).
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They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions...

There’s no lack of companions when going to any part of the country as long as you shoulder everything (in this trip, I did). But since Hinatuan is a bit closer to home and I knew that there wasn’t bound to be any expensive destinations in that area, I happily treated my elves (two of them) for the entire trip.

To make good time, the elves and I decided to take the earliest bus (which was around 2:30 AM) out of Butuan City to Mangagoy. Since we clearly had no time for sleep, we decided to get drunk instead. It was an inspired decision as it made time fly really fast!

Elves are good companions too!

By 2:45 our bus was cruising out of the terminal. Upon advise from one of the passengers, we bought our breakfast in one of the terminal stalls. The goodhearted passenger said that there’s no accomodation around the river so it’s best that we bring along food and water. He also said that we can get off crossing Dugmanon (a barrio right before Hinatuan town) where there are habal-habal’s waiting for passengers going to the enchanted river.

The bus trip to Hinatuan was surprisingly quick and comfortable. There were a few rough roads, but it made of for only around 10% of the trip. We were standing on Dugmanon soil 3 hours after our bus left the station, wondering where the hell all those habal-habals were. Of course it was still before 6 in the morning so we were’nt really expecting any at that hour. We did hope though.

Good thing that we chanced upon some guy who was getting water from a nearby water pump. He said he has a habal-habal and volunteered to take us to the enchanted river and back for P250. The amount may be laughable for some folks but remember, this is the province and the cost of living is way, way low compared to the city. I thought it was a very good deal so I agreed.

This, is a habalhabal...

A little seque here. What is a habal-habal? Simply put it’s just your ordinary motorbike modified so it can fit an unbelievable number of people and bring them to their destination. Some habal-habals can fit up to six people in one go. There are habal-habals who have wings but that’s another story.

Anyway, our habal-habal turned out to be a modified scooter. Oh lord, I was already rubbing my knees just looking at it. Can you imagine three big-assed men fitting into that thing? Let alone four? But we were in a crazy mood so we got on it, bags, food, water, and all.

Trust me, this is as tame as they get.

The roads were terrible. Not much mud or potholes but rocks protruded everywhere! One slip on one of those rocks and we say goodbye to our knees. Our habal-habal driver also had to negotiate a few uphill climbs on those same roads. One of my companions was sitting in front of the driver so he had to crane his neck sideways just to see the road.

Seeing these habal-habals negotiate such roads is enough to make safety professionals scream bloody murder.

Anyway we arrived at the river in one piece and in less than 30 minutes time. And then I panicked.

…to be continued

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Long Weekend, Longer Trip

pinoytraveller — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:13:27 +0000

At last a long weekend that I’m not obligated to work. The girlfriend was supposed to come to Mohammed but THIS Mohammed decided to explore the mountains instead (hold that crazy thought). Since I’m so lacking in adventure in the past three weeks, I made a spur of the moment decision to go home to the province and finally conquer the ENCHANTED HINATUAN RIVER of Surigao Del Sur, the bluest river I’ve ever seen in my life, at least in photos. I’ll be bringing my two little elves with me and we’ll go and explore that part of Surigao Del Sur.

Darn, I can already feel the trip jarring my bones but man, I can’t contain my excitement!

If you can’t feel my excitement, you might want to read this article by Jojie Alcantara that awesome photographer from witerary.com ==>> Return to Hinatuan’s enchanted river

Photo shamelessly lifted from dokhey.blogspot.com.

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