PHILIPPINES – MINDANAO SOUTH, CENTRAL (Davao, Koronadal)
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Flights. 41 hours flying and layovers.
Wed Dec 17. Lion Air, AMQ to Makassar (UPG) @13:55-14:15. 4’35’ layover.
UPG to Bali @ 18:50-20:10. 24′ layover
Thur Dec 18. Scoot Air. Bali to Singapore (SIN) @20:10-22:40 3′ layover. On check-in at the Scoot counter, I was required to have an exit ticket from the Philippines. This was not required on the Philippines travel registration card, but was asked for at immigration in the Philippines. I bought a fake ticket on Onward Tickets.com for US$16.
Fri Dec 19. Scoot Air. SIN to Davao, Philippines (DVO) @01:40-05:30
Getting Around. The common people-movers in Mindanao are: jeepneys (long, low jeeps with bench seats), motorcycle/bicycle taxis with side cars, tuk-tuks, and motorcycles. There are no buses, so this makes for hectic driving. Passing is also hindered by all these vehicles that seem to think they should be in the fast lane.
One is never in nature unless in a national park – there is always a house. Poverty seems extreme.
There are no expressways, and most secondary roads are four-lane. No one pays attention to being in the proper lane, so it is populated by big trucks and moto-taxis. Add a lot of road construction, and it can be very slow. Speed limits in towns are 40 km/hour and on highways up to 80 km/hour. Maintaining a speed of 80 is difficult with all the traffic taking up the fast lanes. Average speeds are still slow, but north of Tagum, I hit 120. It took almost 2 hours to drive 60 km between Davao and Digos. Between Digos and Cortabato, I was often able to go 80 as the traffic thinned out. North and east Mindanao had much better roads and less traffic. One must drive aggressively, paying attention to the proper lanes.
Day 1 Fri Dec 19
I went on a walkabout to see some of the NM sites in Davao.
DAVAO
St Pedro Cathedral of Davao. Built of precast concrete, the unusual roofline is like a deep saucer. The inside is a semicircle around a gilt altar. The stained glass windows and windows are peaked arches.
D’Bone Collector Museum. Collected by an Idaho marine biologist, this is an astonishing collection of skeletons: fossils, reconstructed dinosaurs, fish, snakes, shark’s jaws, dogs (many species), cats, a horse, sheep, monkeys. It was much more interesting than I expected. 250P, 200 reduced.
Museo Dabawenyo. The municipal museum, it has the history of Davao, ethnography. Free
Roxas Night Market. A night market that opens at 5 pm, first are many food stalls with mostly barbecue and drinks. I had several breaded squid and a charcoal ice cream. The place was very crowded. Oddly, the exit is at the end. past the massage guys, the electronics section and the clothes.
Davao Museum of History and Ethnography. Permanently closed.
ON Hotel Galleria. A reasonable hotel with AC. Has an incredibly busy buffet lunch and dinner with huge crowds. I arrived early, waited for a while and then went to see the NM sites.
Day 2 Sat Dec 20
I rented a car to drive around Mindanao for 4 days from Hertz. As Hertz was closed on Dec 24 and 25th with no way to return the car, my drive around Mindanao was reduced to four days. Hertz closed at 5 pm on the 23rd.
Davao Crocodile Park and Zoo. Mostly a place for kids. 450P, 400 reduced
My route went through DIGOS CITY and KIDAPAWAN, neither with anything to see. General Santos was a long way out of the way, and the museum was closed permanently.
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PHILIPPINES – MINDANAO – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
COTABATO
ON Cozy Suites. CA$51. Expensive for me, but not much else was available. It was very nice with Netflix (which I didn’t quite figure out).
Day 3 Sunday Dec 22
Grand Mosque of Cotabato, Datu Saudi-Ampatuan. Four minarets and about nine gold domes. Inside the minbar is a wooden chair inside the mirab. Long pants were necessary so I was asked to leave. About 10 km SW of Cotabato.
Today was another huge drive (not many kms but lots of sinuous roads), and passing through Marawi was a nightmare of snarled traffic.
Lake Dapao NP. A short detour off the road. A big lake.
Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Arts, Marawi. This was hard to find in a building on the campus with no signs. Supposedly, the biggest Filipino Muslim collection in the Philippines. It has folk art of the Moro and Lumad people. See weapons used during the Moro wars against the Spanish and Americans, such as the lantaka, kris, and kampilan. Miniaturized pagoda-type mosques, replicas or portions of the torogan, musical instruments, and farm implements. Free
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PHILIPPINES – MINDANAO NORTH and WEST (Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan)
CAGAYAN DE ORO
La Castilla. Exhibits items from the collection of the founders of Liceo de Cagayan University, the Pelaez family, who were elite landowners: furniture, chandeliers, Chinese ceramics, the family tree and some history of Cagayan de Oro. Originally a guest house, the family moved here after the 1976 earthquake until 1980. 400P House and Biographical Museums:
St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral, Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro. Painted dark grey with white accents, it has a single bell tower and three naves. The roof is wood beams with a tent-like roof. There was mass happening with a full house and standing room only.
Museum of Three Cultures. 2 rooms in a univiersity building that is hard to find. Local artists and artifacts of the three dominant cultures of Northern Mindanao, the lowland migrants, the Indigenous peoples, and the Muslim Maranao. Free
Cagayan de Oro Museum.
Limketkai Center. A huge shopping mall with over 400 stores. I ate at the Ribshack in the mall.
ON Sogo Hotel. A budget hotel with an adequate room. I asked for hot water and was brought a carafe that lasted until the morning. Oddly no blanket or top sheet so I used my sleeping bag. CA$28.
Day 4 Mon Dec 22
This should be my biggest drive day, so I had a very early start. After getting through the mess of Cagayan de Oro, the road to Betuan was lovely, mostly new four-lane blacktop. I made great time and saved 30 minutes on Google Maps estimation.
Cebu Pacific Flight 387 Memorial Shrine, Gingoog. This was a domestic flight from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila to Lumbia Airfield (formerly Lumbia Airport) in Cagayan de Oro. On February 2, 1998, the 30-year-old McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 crashed on the slopes of Mount Sumagaya in Claveria. All 104 people on board died in the crash. It is the second deadliest air disaster in the Philippines after Air Philippines Flight 541, which occurred two years later.
The crash site is now a memorial, inaugurated on February 2, 2021. The two-lobed structure is 20 metres (66 ft) tall and covered with tiles. All the names in the crash are listed, and all appear to be Filipino. There are lovely gardens around the site, a trail at the back and several buildings.
There were five crew members and 94 Filipino passengers, including five children. One passenger each came from Australia, Austria, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and the United States, totalling 104 passengers.
The last contact was 15 minutes before the plane was due to land, with the airport’s ATC. In that transmission, the pilot said he was 68 kilometres from the airport and was starting to descend. There was no indication that the plane was in trouble. The plane crashed 45 kilometres away from the airport.
The cause of the crash is still a source of controversy in the Philippines. The pilots were flying visually, not instrumentally. The Air Transportation Office maps used by the listed pilots incorrectly listed the elevation of Mt. Sumagaya as 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above sea level, whereas the mountain’s actual elevation is 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above sea level. This error might have misled the pilots into believing that they were clear of terrain, when in fact they were flying dangerously low.
BUTUAN
Butuan Archeological Sites Tentative WHS (16/05/2006). (Belanguay Shrine)A small exhibit area has a salvaged canoe and four complete coffins (wood boxes) and several skulls, all with deformities. They date from the 15th and 16th centuries, whereas the midden site is 12th century. Free
Eastern-Northern Mindanao Regional Museum. A well-curated museum with two exhibit rooms. One is about Lamad (an indigenous non-Muslim group) textiles made from abaca fibres obtained from the abaca tree, which can be used to make everything from rope to clothes. Natural dyes are used in at least 100 designs. An elderly practitioner of the art form is portrayed. The second describes the geology and climate. Betuan is built on the floodplain of the Agusan River. It rains all year long, but it is not in the typhoon zone. Free
Betuan was a traffic disaster with long delays at every light. The road past Betuan was concrete, and it looked like they had run out of money. Half was unfinished, and the going was slow. But after Agusan, things improved, and I made great time.
Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary Tentative WHS. A visit must be coordinated with the Protected Area Management Office (PAMO) of the Agusan Marsh Office, as it takes preparation. They assign a tour guide, pick you up in the PAMO office, and take a pump boat to go to the entrance of the marsh. Here, locals pick you up and take another boat to the Panilabuhan Floating Village. See swamp hens and yellow bittern.
Food includes fried tilapia, dalag daing, and their kangkong, which can be a salad, and it was awesome: fresh, crunchy, and sweet. Boat at sunset and sunrise, and bird watch. There is no electricity or WiFi. Stay overnight in the floating house with a mosquito net. It can get very hot at night. Bring a powerbank. water and insect repellent.
I didn’t go here as I didn’t have the time;
ON The Golden Palace Hotel, Tagum. Nice with a good restaurant. CA$23
Day 5 Tue Dec 23
I decided to go to the WHS, 3+hours south of Tagum. I left early to get back to return the rental car to Hertz at 5 pm.
Largest Rosary in the World, Tagum. Behind the castle-like Christ the King Cathedral is considered the largest rosary in the world. The 280-foot (85.5 meters) long rosary is made of linked beads that each weigh around 77 pounds (35 kilograms).
The beads were cut and sculpted from Magcono trees that are native to the mountains around this region. The rosary is laid out in the park with a giant sculpture of Jesus. The giant rosary was originally intended to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the local archdiocese in 2005.
MOUNT HAMIGUITAN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY WHS
The Mount Hamiguitan Nature Heritage Museum. Around the museum area, see the endemic pitcher plants, orchids, lots of ferns, some pygmy trees and plants, butterflies, as well as lots of critters (orb weavers, giant ants, beetles, etc.). Reach the core zone by an uphill hike that takes less than an hour from the lodge,
The Mount Hamiguitan Longhouse Lodge at 408 metres is the starting point for permit holders to begin one of the 3 trails to the summit of Mount Hamiguitan. Climbing Mount Hamiguitan requires a permit (individual or join others on a tour). There are 3 trails to the summit, which take roughly 11 hours of uphill hiking over 2 nights and 3 days: The 1,628 m high top of the mountain is frequently covered in clouds of mist and fog.
La Union – San Isidro trail is the shortest but hardest, with steep ravine climbing and the La Union river crossing, passing by Lantawan, where large colonies of pitcher plants in varying sizes are observed.
Magum – Mati trail is easy to average with many picturesque spots (Magum Lookout, Camp Jabar, Hidden Garden, Tinagong Dagat, Mossy Forest and Lantawan Magum) Domagooc – Governor Generoso trail is the longest and follows the Domagooc river, passing by Domagooc Falls and Twin Falls before reaching Camp 3 at the Pygmy Forest.
Learn about the five vegetation types: brushland, dipterocarp forest, montane forest, mossy pygmy forest, and mossy forests.
The Bonsai Forest or Pygmy Forest is at the top. The stunted growth of trees (at an average height of 1.4 metres) could be attributed to the high concentration of cobalt, iron, nickel and magnesium in the soil.
There are 400 pairs of critically endangered Philippine eagles left in the wild (takes only one mate for life and lays only one egg every two years!). It requires 4,000 acres of territory and feeds on civets, monkeys, birds, lizards and snakes. Its wingspan is 1.9 m and can weigh up to 8.1 kg. Other birds include the rufous-lored kingfishers, Mindanao bleeding heart, some cockatoos (also endangered), Jerdon’s baza, Philippine coucals, Philippine bulbuls, Mindanao hornbill, coletos, flowerpeckers, and a yellow-bellied whistler.
Mount Hamiguitan has a whopping 957 recorded species of flora (ex. orchids, ferns, lichens, mosses, epiphytes, bryophytes, pygmy trees, pitcher plants) and 423 recorded species of fauna (ex. monkeys (long-tailed macaques and tarsiers), Philippine warty pig, monitor lizards, frogs, beetles, spiders, rodents (such as the endemic hairy-tailed rat), venomous snakes, stick insects, butterflies, fireflies (easy to spot at night from the lodge), colonies of other critters (giant ants, bees, termites, etc.), birds (kingfishers, babblers, bulbuls, the Mindanao bleeding-heart dove, the Philippine cockatoo, the majestic Philippine eagles, hawk-eagles, eagle owls, etc). 6 flora (3 pitcher plants (such as the famous Nepenthes hamiguitanensis), 1 orchid, 1 hoya plant) and 6 fauna (4 butterflies, 1 rodent and 1 roundworm) species are now considered endemic to Mount Hamiguitan.
My Experience. It was about a two plus hour drive (111 km) from Tagum along the ocean. There was little traffic. It was a steep 5-km drive off the main highway.
The museum has a good overview of the plants, fauna and flora of the park with many videos of tarsiers, eagles, flying lemurs, and pitcher plants. Meet Thor, a Philippine Eagle that was shot, held in captivity for 3 years and rescued by the Eagle Centre. He lived for 46 years. Stuffed specimens of Asian Palm civets, the P eagle owl and a crested goshawk. 50P
The lodge costs 800P per person/night, including breakfast. There is a choice of four tents (2 large beds) or rooms. Below are three lovely swimming pools connected by a stream.
Immediately behind the museum is the trail. I was about an hour return to reach the core zone, necessary to count the visit for Nomad Mania. It was hot, humid, and I didn’t see anything new that wasn’t down below. I saw no animals and a few birds.
Water. One panel in the museum had some interesting stats on water: 71% of the Earth is covered in water / 96% of that is in the oceans / 70% of the freshwater is ice and glaciers / 30% of the freshwater is in the ground / <1% of freshwater is available / 6 countries: Brazil, Russia, Canada, Indonesia, China and Columbia have 50% of the freshwater / 1/3 of the world is water stressed / moderate to high stressed countries use 20% more water than is available to them.
MOUNT HAMIGUITAN RANGE WILDLIFE SANCTUARY (Extension) – Pujada Bay Tentative WHS. Pujada Bay is an arm of the Philippine Sea formed by the Guanguan Peninsula. Mati is the province’s capital and largest city situated at its head. The bay has been declared a marine protected area and is the proposed WHS extension. Pujada Bay is renowned for its diverse coral reef system and pristine white-sand beaches. The bay is home to 25 genera of hard and soft corals and 850 hectares of mangroves, mostly secondary growth and nine of the sixteen species of seagrasses found in the Philippines. It extends the WHS from below sea level to the mountain’s summit.
Halo Halo is a popular cold dessert in the Philippines made with crushed ice, evaporated milk or coconut milk, and flavoring such as ube jam, sweetened kidney beans or garbanzo beans, coconut strips, sago, gulaman (agar), pinipig, boiled taro or soft yams in cubes, flan, slices or portions of fruit preserves, and other root crop preserves. The dessert is topped with a scoop of ube ice cream. It is usually prepared in a tall, clear glass and served with a long spoon. Haluhalo is considered to be the unofficial national dessert of the Philippines.
