LOST IN THE SUNRISE PROVINCE

THE ACCIDENTAL LOST IN ORIENTAL

📌 Baganga, Davao Oriental, Mindanao

PROLOGUE: The story of how I accidentally went into the easternmost seaboard of the Philippines outside the planned itinerary. God sent a good samaritan to the rescue.

Davao Oriental, the easternmost province of the Philippines 

BACKPACKING-type of travel is not easy. You need to plan your itinerary by yourself from commuting to selecting your hotels and destinations. While there are numerous cheap travel agencies to arrange your tours to make yourself worry less of the mess and complexity of traveling, I always prefer the DIY (Do It Yourself) Version since time immemorial to exercise my freedom without the pressure of time constraint that is usually a problem if you opt to join an organized tour. Besides, traveling by ourselves develops our courage, resourcefulness and adaptability, in as much as we always learn something more challenging and new. There is a major disadvantage of DIY tour however: the commuting problem; and there my unforgettable story of courage, decision-making and wit went on... 

Mount Apo as seen from Samal Island, Davao Del Norte 

My supposed Plan A destination on Day 1 was conquering Mount Apo in Davao Del Sur, the country's loftiest peak at nearly 3 kilometers above sea level. It would take 3 days to reach the summit and that would consume half of my time in Davao since I only have a week to spend in the so called "land of promise". I resorted into plan B which was to investigate the natural richness of Mount Hamiguitan, a mountain range that is prolific in biodiversity declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site due to its extensive wildlife not found anywhere else on the planet. It is located on the southernmost tip of eastern Mindanao in the peninsular Davao Oriental about 6 hours bus travel from Davao City occupying the administrative boundaries of Mati City, San Isidro and Gov. Generoso.

There I encountered the first challenge: you cannot climb Mount Hamiguitan alone even with a hired guide. There should be at least 20 hikers or above based from my impromptu research. Moreover, if you have to reach its peak, you are required to stay on its base camps for atleast 2 days to maximize the mountain's grandeur. These failures have taught me a lesson that no mountains can ever be tamed easily. You must study it, respect its majesty, nevertheless you are not negotiating an ordinary mountain. They are Mindanao's crowning glories and I have underestimated their prowess.

Aliwagwag Falls, the Philippines highest and longest waterfalls

As a result, I resorted instead into reaching Aliwagwag Falls, the Philippines' longest and highest waterfalls made up of numerous, powerful cascades, producing an eternal mist of droplets in the air. There was only one direct trip from Davao City to Aliwagwag, Davao Oriental - 2:00AM in the morning. That was impractical for me, waking up that too early after the previous day's productive helter-skelters. I preferred to rest though, and decided to take a cutting trip 7:00AM by the morning. I risked my chance. I rode a dilapidated bus from Davao City Ecoland Terminal going to Compostela Valley, Davao De Oro Province. The travel time was so terrible that took seven enduring hours.

At 2:00PM, I alighted with haggard looks at Compostela, the capital town of Davao De Oro. Again, there were no regular public transports plying the Compostela -Aliwagwag route so I was forced to hire a habal-habal, the counterpart of a traysikel in Luzon. I commissioned the driver to bring me to Aliwagwag Falls Park and Resort. It took me a staggering 800 pesos for one way! I felt I was tricked but I couldn't do anything with his condition of "take it or leave it". It rained so it poured.

The beauty of Mindanao Island

Along the way, my only consolation was the beauty of the panoramic Mindanao valleys and uplands, cloud-drenched mountains and verdant tropical rainforests embedded with numerous waterfalls just found along the zigzagging road. I reached Aliwagwag Falls after that 3-hour back-aching ride. The falls was immensely powerful, a sort of a kind I haven't seen before. It was named after the remote rural village in the municipality of Cateel (pronounced as ka-TE'-el), Davao Oriental where Aliwagwag Falls, the country's highest waterfall, is located.

The massive force of the Aliwagwag Falls

Aliwagwag is situated in the Eastern Mindanao Biodiversity Corridor which contains one of the largest remaining blocks of tropical lowland rainforest in the Philippines. It is a declared protected landscape in the country that occupies an important bird and biodiversity area in the Upper Cateel River Basin of the Agtuuganon–Pasian mountains. Its forest is home to the Philippine eagle as well as several other threatened and endemic bird species. It is also home to the tallest trees in the Philippines, the Philippine rosewood, known locally as "toog". There in my way, tons of logs and lumber could be found.

I was supposed to spend the night at the Aliwagwag; the inns found in the national park but due to lack of research, only then that I have realized and known that the park was closed for renovation and no swimmming was allowed ever since the start of 2020 pandemic. There was no cellphone signal. No data. No jeepneys or buses except for rare private vehicles that passed by occasionally. I felt disappointed as I carried with me my heavy hiking paraphernalias and necessities that deemed useless that time. Sightseeing and photoshoots however were allowed.

It was 5:00PM and darkness was approaching. With a light drizzle, I decided to go in a small coffeshop near the falls while waiting for any public transports going into the town proper of Cateel where I could spend the rest of the night. There was none! Even just one, after waiting for an hour. I asked a vendor and told me there were no regular vehicles plying the area and I was like in desperate "what the hell" reaction. If by hook or by crook happens, I have to sleep in a waiting shed because there aren't any houses that can be found near the place. Should I honestly tell the vendor to sleep in her home for the night? That's awkward. Then I silently prayed for divine help.

Not long, a meat delivery truck from Compostela has stopped by the coffeshop. Two men alighted and ordered some durian coffee and a baguette to rest for a while; probably to fight off drowsiness and cold. They were heading to the coastal town of Baganga to deliver their produce. After their brief coffee, I humbly asked if I could hitch a ride with them going to Cateel town so I could look for some hotel and spend the night there before returning to Davao City the following day.

"Yes sure", answered the younger man named RJ Lumpas. Together with his father, I rode their truck heading to Cateel. But along the way, RJ, whose driving the truck told me that they could only bring me to the crossing going to Cateel proper since they were heading towards Baganga heading south. Cateel is directed north. From the crossing, it was not sure whether there would be another habal-habal or tricycles entering Cateel since it was already late afternoon. The town was sparsely populated.

Pilot's View Beach in the town of Baganga

"Why not just go with us in Baganga?", RJ offered. "There are hotels there where you can stay, besides, there are alot more places to visit at Baganga than there are in Cateel", he added. I analyzed the situation very well and as we conversed many things along the way, I put my trust to God and agreed to go with them at Baganga. I learned a lot from him about the life in Mindanao and to their place. He admitted that he has never been in Manila or Luzon ever upon knowing that I was from northern Luzon. I saw the great smile in his face when I told him that he saved my life somehow. Without he and his father, I couldn't have come to look somewhere to sleep. He, being a christian, told me that it's not a big deal helping people in distress. He knew I was a stranger and maybe lost and that already warrants help rather than take advantage to people you don't know. 

To maximize my time, RJ then pulled over the truck and stopped at a point called Ban-ao Beach (Banao), the second easternmost point of land in the Philippines. We were facing the vastness of the Pacific Ocean that time and in front of us was a beautiful islet, so serene that could take your breath away.

Ban-Ao Beach, facing the tide line of the Pacific Ocean 

After nearly 2 hours of winding road trip from Aliwagwag to Baganga, it was already dark when we stopped to our destination at RJ and Jane Meat Shop where they would deliver their products. I later found out that he was the owner of such business. Before we parted ways, RJ contacted his friend named Nonoy Hapitan to guide me the following day in some tourist destinations in their town.

Nonoy, with his extraordinary tricycle came and brought me at Habibi Pension House, about 5 minutes from the town center of Baganga. I slept early because the next day, I would be going back to Davao City; there was only 1 trip at 2:00PM. I should catch it. That means for half day, I have to explore Baganga and maximize my time there.

Lake Carolina surrounded by mangrove forest

By 7:00 AM, morning, Nonoy, my guide led me first in a local restaurant to have a breakfast of balbacua, a cattle's skin soup. The taste was chewy fantastic. There, a kilo of durian costs just 80 pesos. I voraciously ate two kilos in one sitting since durian is rare and expensive back in Luzon.

At Lake Carolina, I was amazed by the lush greeneries and mangroves surrounding the area. The lake is elongated and brackish; during clear weather, you can actually see the bottom of the crystal clear lake with limestone beds and coralloid growths.

Being a thalassophile myself, I requested my guide to go beach bumming. We landed at Pilots View Beach, so tranquil there were hardly people. The sand was immaculate white under the sun and the waters are turquoise blue green crystal. Staring afar, I was actually seeing the vastness of the Pacific Ocean infront of me; not far was the Philippine Deep, a trench in the ocean that is among the deepest in the world at 11 kilometers below. The next major landmass you could touch eastward would be the State of California in the mainland US. That's how vast the Pacific you could imagine.

The long stretch of uninterrupted white beach in Baganga

Davao Oriental is the eastern most province of the Philippines and a part of Baganga is the 2nd place in the Philippines where sunlight hits first, next to the town of Caraga at Pusan Point, the geographic easternmost point in the Philippines. Since the eastern Mindanao faces the massive Philippine trench, a product of herculean geological forces that constantly happening within the Earth, it is no wonder that the area has numerous hotsprings and vents serving as outlets from the heat within the Earth. The Balete Hotsprings at Kinablangan, in the municipality of Baganga offers such hot bath and pampering using the healing property of nature.

The pampering of natural hot springs 

Along the way, we stopped at San Victor Island, a small elongated island sandbar resort just few meters from the road. It is one of the 7,146 islands in the Philippines and one of the major tourist spots in Baganga. From the map, San Victor Island is actually the second easternmost island beach resort in the country next to the bigger Poo Sand Bar and Mermaid Atoll. The Sunrise Boulevard lives up to its name as it is literally the very first boulevard in the entire country to hit by the sunlight. It is comparable to Manila's Roxas Boulevard but is quieter, cleaner and more natural without the bustling crowds. Its shores are white sand and mangrove-fringed providing a spectacular dramatic scene in the morning. An enormous typhoon has destroyed some of the mangrove forests along its shores and are still into recuperating. The view with the remnants of the dead trees on the beach still standing was so cataclysmic as if the Earth has been into Armageddon.

Sunrise Boulevard at Brgy. Kinablangan

It was 2:00PM; a UV Express van's schedule going back to Davao City. I shouldn't miss it because it's the only way I could go back to the city, or else my schedules would be ruined again. I would have stayed for long there in Baganga if it were not my schedule in Samal Island, back in Davao del Norte the following day. I haven't saturated the beauty of Baganga yet. But I was thankful for that accidental lost in that province. I couldn't have reached that place; especially the fact that it is there where the first sunlight is occuring daily. That was just so awesome, not everyone else could experience. I might have been lost but I gained, not to elaborate the experiences.

Inside the van going back to Davao City, I realized that the world we are in is very small and the life we have is very short. Make your life happen and make other's life happen too. Stop the selfishness, stop the hate and always spread your helping hands. We do not know when we're in the situation of distress. So always choose to be kind which doesn't cost any penny. 

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If it happened that you intentionally go, or by chance you would reach Baganga, Davao Oriental, you may contact in FB Mr. Rex Guhayon (real name RJ Lumpas) owner of RJ and Jane Meat Shop, and or Mr. Nonoy Hapitan, a local that turned into a guide by the time I was lost. They will be friendly enough to help you. Generosity is just your deal.

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