Cagayan de Oro is very famous for its extreme water rafting adventure. I was born and raised in Mindanao but for my entire life, I never tried this activity. I never tried water rafting until this moment. I just tried it, finally with my friends who came all the way from Cebu.
According to our guide, water rafting adventure in CdO was discovered by foreign friends (actually I forgot their nationality). It was discovered by the time they tried to hike and follow the biggest river in Cagayan de Oro. After they hiked and camped in Riverside, they discovered that they can put up a white water rafting adventure because the river is great. That’s how it started.
Until now, water rafting adventure is still very famous and more tourists tried it in CdO.
It was one of a kind experience and this is the extreme adventure I had tried in my entire life (since I haven’t tried plunge in Bohol yet).
This plan was originally by my friends in Cebu. Since I do not want to lose this chance, I had decided to join with them. If I can’t join them, maybe it will take a later time to try this since most of my closest friends are afraid of this.
And so, our plan has come to reality.
It was Saturday morning when we started our day. We availedΒ Kagay’s package which includes Dahilayan Adventure Park tour (with 3 zipline adventure), Buffet lunch, Transportation and of course whitewater rafting adventure with unlimited photo and video documentation.
We started water rafting around 1 PM (after we went to Dahilayan and had our lunch at Jollibee since we lacked time already for the buffet lunch but we did not worry since they refunded us for the buffet lunch).
We started with the signing of waiver/registration and followed by a briefing of all the things that we need to do.
Once we are on the boat, each person has a role. It was also clearly explained to us that this is a team effort. Our boat will not go through if there are only a few people who will work.
Our role starts from two [strong] people in front and 2 [strong] people at the back to balance the boat. My role? I just hold the GoPro for our documentation π but later on, we exchanged with chen2 so that I can try paddling π
Next, our boatman will be on our back and has a whistle and other emergency gear that we can use in whatever emergency situation/s we go through. There is nothing to worry because you will go together with the other groups and there are other rescuers who will go with you. They will serve as our cameramen as well while we are enjoying.
It is our boatman (at the back who wears color blue) who will give the signal and we will just follow him especially when it comes to paddling, stop, rest and high-five π
Lastly, we celebrate every course/rapids we passed. In this case, our boatman will signal a high-five and we just held high our paddles and celebrate! π
We finished our rafting after we reached our 21-rapids package.
It was such a great day! There are some areas where we can swim, observe our nature while our boatman had some history-telling and other experiences that happened in the river like Typhon Sendong and recently someone died due to this activity.
By the time we had an opportunity to swim in the river, there was a time when I shouted but I was just laughing “help, help” and that was just a joke but our boatman took it seriously and they rescued me to another boat π so bad but still, it’s part of my experience π
If adventure is not in your heart, think twice in trying this activity because there are a lot of dangers. There is an area as well when we were told to take extra care and make sure that we will not be dropped from the boat because the area is really dangerous.
That area has lots of rocks and the water is running and shallow so it is very difficult to rescue plus you will hurt your body more if you will be accidentally dropped from the boat.
Praised God for the guidance and everything was okay. The weather was perfect, the adventure was so great and all of us enjoyed and appreciated our nature more.
Date of activity: June 16, 2018
Location: Cagayan de Oro River, Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, Philippines
Package: By Kagay
Travel Buddy: Gretchen, Venice, Reymart, Darwin, Ana, Thom and yours truly
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” – Romans 1:20
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