Sunday, July 7, 2013

Enchanting Surigao

It's my mother's outing with her coworkers last Saturday. My mother dragged me in and my nephew to experience their pleasure trip and my heart was throbbing for a taste of it because I haven't been there yet. They planned a day tour itinerary, starting Friday night at around 11 PM from our village in Davao City to Surigao del Sur. It was a great opportunity for me because it was also my day off, so I took myself in to bond with my mother and my nephew, Sherwin, after all the busy schedules from my stressful work. A lot of us, the family members had joined this getaway. We were so crowded inside the van but we still managed to fit ourselves. It was a six to eight-hour drive to Tinuy-an Falls (that depends if you drive fast and already knew the way. In our case, we lost track at Hinatuan), our first destination.

Our feet had touched the ground at last, seeing the relaxing entrance of the Tinuy-an Falls at 6:00 that gloomy morning. There's  a fee of P50/adult, with open cottages along the river. We took our breakfast in one of the cottages near the falls, tested the waters then took a swim. There's a bamboo float attached to a big tie going through the waterfalls that you can use to reach the center or bottom of the falls. We rode on it and enjoyed ourselves getting wet but Sherwin got scared of its strong current and cried out loud.



I wanted to examine to whole place, thinking about climbing up alongside of the falls for a better view but there was a warning sign that stated closed. Thanks to one of my mother's friend who was also curious, she tried to ask if we can enter the trail and a local caretaker guide us through. The sign was put there because of the bad weather, however it was still accessible and the rain had stopped. We went up the waterfalls and it was really nice up there, you can sit and lie on the rocks with the water flowing over your head and body, a relaxing feeling like you are being massaged.

View at the top. More cascading falls..



The current was really strong =)



After Tinuy-an, we headed to Enchanted River at around 10 AM. I thought the gap between these two destinations was close, but we traveled it for almost 2 hours! There were too many tourists in Enchanted River I couldn't sneak a peek of the view. It looks like a crowded beach resort with a number of tables and cottages. We ate our lunch until there I finally manage to get a scene of the enchanted crystal clear river. They had a feeding time session for about an hour that they let all swimmers get out of the water for safety. You could see there are big fishes swimming underneath but they don't bother people, and you should not bother them too!


This jaw-dropping blue water really made me dig into it, but what surprised me too was the depth of a part of this river was really huge that made me realized those fishes were almost as big as me!

We also took a boat tour through the sea and stopped by an eatery (I forgot the name) where they pet catfishes and maybe piranhas, we even swim into it, and to a beach resort where you pass through their long catwalk and then meet another part of the sea on the way out like paradise. ☺