It sounds like a little boy's dream adventure. Riding an inner tube down a 17km river with 21 fast rapids in Cagayan De Oro did truly make me reconnect with that inner child.
Cagayan is renowned in Asia for its rafting and my cousins Karen and Isis were nice enough to organize a "Pinoy Style" rafting experience on Tuesday, Nov. 16, for Andrew and I - along with their friend - to experience it.
We began our day by taking a jeepney to the river starting point (above). Andrew's always wanted to ride a jeepney. As for me, it was as fun as I remembered it from 21 years ago.
Pinoy-style rafting is simple: four inner tubes are tied together. We were divided into two groups: Andrew, Isis and me in one, Karen and Anna in the other. Floating down the river was so much more fun than regular rafting, because we just lied there and didn't paddle. I'm on vacation, you know. With the currents rushing under our butts - and all over - it was like nature's bidet.
Our group flipped over two times and so did the other group. The tour guide joked that it was a competition. At one point, we were approaching a mountain he nicknamed "Kiss the Wall." Then he grinned and we saw a chipped tooth.
And when the tour guide says butts up, make sure you lift your butt up. I wasn't paying attention and ended up landing on a hard rock.
Mind you, the entire journey wasn't turbulent. There were moments of calm waters, when we just floated slowly down the river and enjoyed the beautiful mountains and scenery around us. Our tour guide told us that Cagayan used to be submerged under water 15 million years ago - and proof of this are the coral formations on the rocky walls on either ends of the river.
We ended the amazing journey by jumping off a 30-foot bridge (below is my cousin Karen's jump) and then enjoying a delicious bbq lunch.
1 comment:
wow. so brave. last time we went rafting, karen also jumped from this rock. it was quite high. looks like you all had lots of fun! =)
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