Our trip to Cagayan De Oro

Hi! So around the first week of June, my family went to Cagayan De Oro to celebrate my dad’s aunt’s birthday she is turning 80 years old and they wanted us to go celebrate it there. I haven’t seen them in a long time like the last time I saw them was 5 years ago so I was quite excited to see them again. We were going to stay on the main island for 2 days and then on another island, we will stay there for 3 days so altogether we will stay in Cagayan for 5 days.

Now we were bringing my grandma for this trip since she hasn’t seen her in-laws for a very long time and it would be nice for her to interact with people who were her age. We got on a plane and were on our way there, the trip was 1 and a half hours long and then the car ride was at least 30 min long or more. Now in Cagayan, there were a few tall buildings and the sky is clearer there, it was a wonderful feeling in the open air and the beautiful sky looming over us, we got into our hotel and after we checked in we went to see the relatives and had dinner with them they were very kind and welcoming, they even let us play with the puppies. And turns out they would let us keep one of the puppies we named her Mochi and she will soon be with us around the first or second week of August.

Ahem now back to the vacation the next day we would get to see the puppies again before we went to the restaurant where the party would be held. It was a small party where we just ate and talked to one another it was like a party for adults and the kids just sat around the table and eat, but it was nice chatting with the Lolos and Lolas, they even gave us red pockets which had a lot of money inside. Now for dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant where my Tita gave me a new wallet, it was very pretty! We had to say our goodbyes but thankfully we will get to see them again on the last day before our flight back to Manila.

The next day we had to leave for a smaller land called Camigin, we took a boat this time but the boat ride felt forever and it felt very claustrophobic to me just thinking about it makes me dizzy, luckily I survived by listening to music and closing my eyes. Once we got there we had a personal driver for us to bring us anywhere during our stay, we had lunch at a restaurant over the lake and the seafood was from the lake, you can even feed some of your leftover shrimp to the bigger fishes. When we reached our hotel it was super big and fancy because our Tita offered to pay for the hotel fees, she is super nice and kind we are thankful to her.

The next day we went to go sightseeing, we saw the Bonbon old church ruins, this church is over 400 years old, it was built in the 19th century during the Spanish colonial period, there is also an area where the nuns used to sleep now it is just old wall of bricks with no roof or doors. Near this church is a tree and that tree that we took a picture with is around 150 years old, it’s amazing isn’t it, how human creation can stay on earth for soo many years while also changing at the same time? After that church we went to see the sunken graveyard and as the name suggests the graveyard got sunken and under the sea, people use small boats to mourn or look around there. In the evening we went back to the hotel and swam there, while swimming alone with just my family with me, I found a men’s underwear I thought it was John’s but it turned out to be a stranger’s eww.

Now we had to wake up very early for this day, it was an all-swimming day! there is a small land at the beach of Camigin and you only need a fishing boat to get there, that mini beach was very relaxing the sand was super white and soft, and the water very clear that you could almost see some fishes. We borrowed some goggles and a swimming vest to look at the fishes you had to go a bit more deeper but it is very worth it, you could see many schools of fish swimming around and while I was looking at some fish I saw a purple paper on the sand I went to pick it up and it was a 100 peso bill! I was super lucky and John got a tad jealous when I was showing it to him.

After the mini beach we went to the cold springs and let me say it was true to its word was very cold. There were even fishes in the pool which was very cool, the reason why the water is soo cold is because it came from the mountain top and went all down to this man-made pool.

The water is super clear and since it’s super cold and the pool is very deep only a few people swam and went to the kids’ area which was smaller but still felt cold. Then after the cold pool we went to the Soda water springs, they said that the water there tastes like soda, when we got there a lot of people were hanging around, the water was warm and also you shouldn’t drink the pool water since they already had a free area where you can taste the so-called soda water. When I tasted the water from the sink it had a hint of soda but overall just tasted like slightly flavored water, while hanging around there Jillianne made a friend and it was very cute also while swimming I found a marble, what is going on with me and finding things while I’m swimming? Lastly on our swimming list was the hot springs, now this was my least favorite swimming area because the area is deep, there are a bunch of mosquitoes and the water wasn’t really hot just very warm water, kind of disappointing if you ask me.

On the last and final day, we hang around in the play area since we only had around 2 hours to spare, it was an area where you can play board games or sports for free as long as you are a guest at the hotel. There was air hockey and chess and a kids’ area for the little ones, me and my mom played ping pong, while John and my dad played air hockey, and Jillianne was in the kids’ area with my grandma. Soon our parents got competitive and played ping pong while me and John played chess, John and I tried to play volleyball but the morning sun was too hot so we just gave up and played chess.

Sadly our time was up and we had to go, w had to take the exhausting boat ride again to get back to Cagayan. We met up with our relatives one last time we said goodbye to the Lolos and Lolas while one of the Tita went with us to the airport, we went to the airport with another relative, my dad’s cousin, she and her twosonss came from Cebu and our flights were departing around the same time. We chanted with one another then our gate was starting to open, we said our goodbyes and got on the plane back to Manila.