Philippines Travel Blog » Hinatuan 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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Swimming In Blue

pinoytraveller — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:18:33 +0000

Looking at the enchanted river for the first time simply took my breath away. Yes the picture wasn’t deceiving at all. The water is blue and you can see down to its bottomless pit. Seeing the river in front of my eyes, I didn’t know what to do first. Should I jump in first? Should I take pictures first? I decided to do half-half. Take quick pictures first and then plunge in.
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The river’s water is blue! And it looks like a huge V! lol. When I jumped into the water, I was expecting some difficulty swimming– it being a river and all, there’s bound to be less buoyancy compared to deep sea swimming so you’ll have to paddle more to stay afloat. But that wasn’t the case here. I had no trouble keeping afloat at all. Maybe it’s all because of my baby fat (harhar) I don’t know. It’s just a joy to swim in that river.

The water was cold but not cold enough to make you shiver. It’s a refreshing kind of cold. I tried opening my eyes under water and when I came up, there was no sting at all. Maybe it’s the mixture of the fresh and seawater that toned down the water down. Of course, I have to taste the water as well (not swallow it though) there are traces of salt in it but it’s still freshwater.

Tale #1 It is said that the enchanted river’s bottom has never been reached. True on any given day, one can see the bottom from the banks of the river. However those who have ventured down say that there’s still a crevice that is enough for one man to go down into. To this date a few brave souls have already tried only to come back and say that they can’t reach the bottom. It is a bottomless pit.

Sitting by the river bank, looking at the bottomless river, it’s like staring at an abyss. And you know how it is with the abyss. You stare at it long enough, it starts to stare back at you as well. In no time I was expecting monoliths to come up from down there and swallow me whole. Instead I saw lots of Nemo’s friends playing near the rocks and some colored fishes as well that are big enough (some bigger) to be grilled.

…to be continued
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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.

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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