Discovering Cateel: 2 falls in 1 day. (An unplanned plan to humble Mahan-ob falls and great Aliwagwag falls)

Date of Trip: Sunday, August 25, 2013. (Habang walang pasok kinabukasan.)

Person Who conducted the Trip: Secret walang clue. (Bahala na kayo mangalam kung sino2 sila.)

Place of Trip: Brgy. Mahan-Ob and Brgy. Aliwagwag, Cateel, Davao Oriental.  (At Diyan sa tabi2 kung saan kame napadpad pa.)

This trip was supposedly planned to be conducted after the road trip to Caraga since it was the original plan. Anyways this happened because First, We are so bored and we wanted to make our ass travel and discover, Second Hindi natuloy and Caraga Trip due to time constraint because it took us a lot of time to spend in Davao city due work reasons. And third, we have took advantage of the time since this is the only time and for the first time that we had much time to travel for leisure and personal time. Yeah! And so it happened.

Saturday, I have arrived late at night at house from long travel. It took me hours to wait until my workmates arrived; I was able to finished two movies while waiting. It was maybe 12:00Am when Karen told that we will continue with the trip. To be honest, I answered no since I was bit tired and wanted to sleep. So I went to my room and continued watching. While watching, I realized that we really need to continue with the travel. So I talk to Karen and Charm, and yes we will do the trip. So I burrowed Charm’s internet stick and conducted some research on the place. Here is the trip:

TRAVEL ITINERARY
Time	Description		Remarks
09:00Am	Travel to Cateel Poblacion,
10:30 – 11:00Am	Stop by at municipal park (picture2) Purchase food, negotiate for habal2.
11:00 – 11:30Am	Habal-habal to Sitio Mahan-Ob Trek to Mahan-Ob falls.		May take longer depending on the trekking time. (Bilisan maglakad. Bawal ang weak!)
11:30Am – 02:00Pm	Picture2, Swimming, enjoy falls… Pack up, get dress.
02:00Pm – 03:00Pm	Travel back to Poblacion, Cateel. Get to bus terminal going to Compostela Valley.		Mallen Express, Lyra Express, Floremel Express and Bachelor Express. (According to Ian, 3pm ung trip going to aliwagwag falls. May take 30-45mins travel.)
03:30Pm	Arrival at Aliwagwag falls. Swimming Again. Enjoy2. Explore the falls. Picture. And be safe.=)
05:00Pm	Travel back to Baganga. Rest Mode.
BUDGET
Amount		Description
Php. 100.00		Baganga to Cateel and Back
Php. 150.00		Food and water.
Php. 100.00		Other expenses.
Special Concers
1.       One day trip lang poi to. Kaya wag mabigat and dalhin ung sakto lang na damit. 2.       Bring lots of water pra makatipid. 3.       Bring clothing’s na pwede magprotect sa lamig at init. May trekking tayo. 4.       Magdala ng extra na damit pati undies xempre.

               Well of course, the trip did not happen on time. It took me until 3:00Am to finish some stuffs that why I woke up 9:00Am. Even though I told Karen and Charm that need to start by 9:00Am.

Anyways here is my review of the place:

Mahan-Ob Falls:

The Silent Mahan-ob Falls.

• ·         Easy to reach falls only 10minutes by Habal-habal from Poblacion Cateel to Brgy. Mainit. Please don’t be confused. Mahan-ob falls is located at Brgy. Mahan-Ob falls that’s why it’s called that way, but the drop-off point is at Brgy. Mainit.
• ·         From drop-off point only 10minutes trek, and does not require a guide. The trail is easy to follow just don’t be confuse and follow your senses.hehehe
• ·         Along trek, you can notice a lot of sticks with names hanged on it like a cross. According to the information, the area will be converted into relocation sites for shelter projects.
• ·         The falls itself is beautiful, clean, and silent. You can climb until its second floor.hehe and enjoy the cool and silent water.
• ·         Enjoy the falls and always be responsible to pick up trash that you have brought to the area.

This park is located at Poblacion, Cateel, Davao Oriental.

Aliwagwag Falls.

The great and beautiful Aliwagwag falls.

• ·            Located at Brgy. Aliwagwag, Cateel, Davao Oriental. Can be reach by Habal-habal and about 1 hour trip from Poblacion.
• ·            Along the way to the falls, you can already see small falls which equally beautiful as well.
• ·            This falls is so far the biggest, strongest and most beautiful falls that I have ever seen. Really stunning and will really make you feel that you wanted to dip into its water.
• ·            Warning: its water is really cold. As cold as melted ice in a pitcher. Water current  is really strong will take you if your weak.hehe
• ·            Sadly, there are irresponsible tourist who dumped their waste on the falls. Please if you see them KICK their ass.
• 
  
• How to get here:

Left: My travel buddies walk since the habal-habal could not get us all the way up to the hill. Right: Trek to Mahan-Ob falls. 

Left: the scene inside ceres bus en route to Cateel. Right: A rented habal-habal would bring you anywhere you wanted. 

From Davao City:

1.       Van are available at SM ECOLAND and VICTORIA PLAZA en route to Baganga. From Baganga, take Bus going to Cateel. (This is the fastest way.)

2.       Davao city terminal. You can take Ceres Bus. (Believe me, you will not like this trip. Will take you 10hours)

From Cateel:

1.       As soon as you arrived at Ceres Bus terminal or Poblacion. Find a Habal-habal and negotiate for the price. Php500.00 is enough per habal per 3 persons for the two falls. You might want to add tip for the their kindness as well. 

Special thanks to Charm and Karen for the travel. This has been so much fun. For Kuya Cris for making us safe during the travel. (kahit na malikot si Karen.LOL) and to God for the blessing of the beautiful masterpiece of him.

Photo taken at Aliwagwag Fall.

One night trip to Mati City, Davao Oriental.

I have always wanted to make my own travel blog may 2 years ago, I have been traveling a lot due to the nature of my work. (I really like it.) I have also read and envied well known bloggers such as lakwatsero/lakwatsera, pinoymounteneer, and many more not because of their travels but because of their diligence in writing their blogs.  I have also traveled a countless times but non of them was documented. Nevertheless, I have promise myself that I will now write blogs to keep memories of my travels alive. I will write not to impress anyone but to simply express myself of the experience, learning, and discoveries I found myself.

I have passed Mati City several times already. But I have never stayed there since I am always eyeing for Davao City to explore. In my mind, I know Mati has a lot of beautiful places to show. Before this travel, I have received a phone call from my workmate that I needed to join and lead the transport CGI sheets for our shelter project in Baganga. This would mean, literally I will need to join a truck that will need to travel 4-5 hours. Yeah! this means experience and adventure for me.

At 1pm, I have taken the Van from Baganga, Davao Oriental to Mati City. I have arrived at 3pm and directly went to the chapter office for meeting. Unfortunately or fortunately, the person I should be meeting was not around and will be arriving late at night. Yes!.. This means free time for me. So, I took this opportunity to explore the city. I initially look for a place to stay, I found Hotel ?????. A simple hotel with aircon and a cable tv, enough to give comfort for the night. After this, since I haven't taken lunch I immediately went to the streets and asked for good place to eat.

My foot brought me to this restaurant, which serves quite good food. Only that they serve food late...=(

After the food, I went for a walk and visited their city hall, rotonda, and Mati's Baywalk. I also saw, a similar scenario in Davao City where in Durian and other foods were sold on the street. "Durian Bay!" At Baywalk, there a lot of street food, from yummy tukneneng to isaw, palamig. Yeah! this is food, a refreshing food after walking on their beautiful & clean baywalk.

After the food trip, I went to hotel and took rest and finished some reporting in short "WORK"