FIRST TIME IN CAYAGAN DE ORO C.D.O.
CDO is quite a nice place here in Mindanao, its a large town (well city really), and like a lot of the Philippine cities, very spread out over a large area, with nice parts and very rough parts, with nothing much in-between.
I was staying at a resort called Cha Li Beach Resort, and it’s wonderful. It’s a place with the thatched chalets right on the beach front, nice restaurant and swimming pool at a a very competitive price.
I find CDO to be a very friendly place and it caters for foreigners but not at the expense of changing its brilliant own character.
Because it is so hot and tropical here, there are snakes and lizards and spiders everywhere. I never thought I would be able to say this, but I have been able to get to the point where I can tolerate sleeping in a room where there are a couple of lizards running around the wall and ceiling!!! God, am I getting brave or what??? Mind you, one evening, I opened my chalet door and there was a spider the size of my open hand hanging on the door post. Let’s just say, I did not like the wild life (no comments thank you) and screamed a bit!!! One of the young lads had to come and remove it for me, now shameful or what, ha ha.
But apart from the mutated insects and wildlife, it was truly wonderful in Cha Li beach resort. I woke up every morning to the sound of the sea breaking on the beach right outside my windows and of course beautiful sunshine. Looking out there are fishing boats galore, and locals in the water too with their nets, all too happy to wave and smile and shout out “How you doing Joe?”
One strange thing that every morning Crabs the size of my finger tip would come up through the toilet and the sink, now lets just say I was very very careful when using the CR.
We have done some nice things here in CDO. We did a lot of swimming, we went to a place called an Eco-garden, with beautiful plants and trees and flowers and eagles and displays of local history. We also decided to be fool-hardy and go on a rope bridge, which spanned across a deep ravine. Exactly what you get out of this is anyone’s guess really, but we paid our money to do it anyway. So there we were, swaying and wobbling and clinging on and shrieking like big babies to get across. I hate to think what we looked like, but it was all good fun, and no one plunged to their death, so all ended well.
After this we jumped on the back of motorbikes, no crash helmets and no safety, 3 or 4 people mashed on one bike at a time, and raced home down the hills. This living dangerously is becoming seriously addictive, ha ha.
Another day, we did a lovely cruise. We caught the boat; lovely buffet lunch laid on, and then relaxed as the boat cruised up and down a big river in CDO. Very pleasant experience indeed, and a little less risky to one’s health and safety too.
Then that night we had a wild night out (ooops another one).
We found this fabulous bar, with live groups singing (and god can these girls and guys sing), and many beers and cocktails later we were all up, throwing ourselves around the dance floor, at an attempt to look like we were good at all the latest dance moves !!!!!! It was great fun.
Needless to say, bit of a hangover the following morning, but that was cured fairly quickly by plunging myself into the swimming pool and splashing around for a while before a late breakfast.
Last 5 posts by John
- Reminiscing, 2008 - March 14th, 2010
- Reminiscing part one - March 7th, 2010
- Little Lamb - February 14th, 2010
- Off to Subic - January 31st, 2010
- Manila Ocean Park - January 24th, 2010
Welcome to CDO! Did you find your fellow countrymen at Philias Fogg Restaurant, owned by Tony King?
Hi John:
Try white water rafting and zipline. That’s the craze in CDO. Welcome!
Hi John – Make a side trip to Del Monte Golf Club in Manolo Fortich for a round of golf or horseback riding and finish off with the best steak ever at the clubhouse.
Nice to hear you had a great time in Cagayan. If you ever want to venture out of it Bukidnon is sooooo beautiful with its mountains, plateaus and vast, vast crops of pineapple and sugarcane, try visiting the Delmonte Golf Course, great cheeseburgers out of this world, Malaybalay is nice too. I live in the east coast of the US most of my life and whenever I miss the coolness and the pine trees of the states I go to Bukidnon…
Wow what an idyllic enviable life!!! I like your descriptions of the morning, waking up to the sounds of the lapping sea waves and the fishing boats with their nets… I can vividly imagine the scene.
The sunsets must be just as mesmerizing!
I would wish to experience a full moon over there, by the ocean. I’d probably sleep on the beach and let the sand be my bed, the heavens be my blanket and the gentle waves be my symphony.
Then I’ll watch the sunrise as it slowly breaks the sky into a cacophony of light yellow and orange and blue…
And life goes on in its sinewy move thru the day… seductive as ever, waiting to deliver sunset all over again…
Hi John,
Okay, I guess this trip wasn’t as scary as the trip to Polillo Island. Re lizards or geckos, they’re harmless. It’s good to have them around because they eat the mosquitoes and other bugs, so they are our friends…
Not sure about the big spider, though. 
Did you need a massage from the dancing? I can just imagine you “throwing ourselves around the dance floor, at an attempt to look like we were good at all the latest dance moves !!!!!! ” 
Now, Angie, are you a poet? You just have this ease with words, you must be a writer! Yes, you should go to Mindanao. It has the best beaches, sunrises, sunsets, mountains, all the bounties of nature. I’m sure you’ll love it there. But, you know what they say? Once you’ve been to Mindanao, you never want to leave…
Hi John – I am with Marilou, the Del Monte Clubhouse has the best steak in the Philippines! Don’t ever go to Cagayan de Oro without stopping in Manolo Fortich!
Tina,
I was going to ignore your question but that would not be polite; and I do respect you a lot.
Reason I was originally going to ignore it is because I try (most of the time) not to identify who I am with what I do for a living. I know, I’m one of those weirdos with some very complex principles
Truth be told: I’m in high tech. Primarily…
The rest of my copious spare time
is filled with varied interests. So does this make me a multiple-personality?? 
I’m a writer (not professionally though, ie, I did not train for it); a homeless advocate; an investor; an explorer (of life, metaphorically, and of actual places in reality); a struggling mystic (now this is a wonderful adventure in itself); a mentor (communications, public speaking but I don’t do much of it anymore); a volunteer for many other causes as time allows, ie, soup kitchens, fund raising…
And now a commentator (addictive) on Bob’s blog!
Wow, I’m a smorgasbord of many things and a master of none! Does this sum me up nicely?
Have a good day. Enjoy the diversity of NYC.
Hi Angie,
Oh my, I’m so sorry if I invaded your privacy!!!
I guess I was just thinking out or is it writing out loud? 
I didn’t expect you to answer my question, I was just basically guessing that you probably are a poet/writer in the way you effortlessly put words together beautifully as you did above. I understand perfectly what you’re saying and I feel so bad that I made you reveal more than you wanted to. We can ask Bob to delete your last comment. Really. I, myself, value my privacy so I would have understood perfectly if you just ignored my comment. I wouldn’t have thought much of it. Am I “westernized”? 
Seriously, if it will make you feel better, let’s ask Bob to delete the last comment. Again, my apologies!!! 
Hi Tina,
Don’t worry about it… It’s not an invasion of privacy. And please don’t feel bad. You are cool. I will explain later. I just need to take care of a conference all which I just got pulled into.
Later…
Nice rundown, John. CDO is certainly on my visit list. There is alarge expat community there and I’ve met a number of Filipino bussiness aquaintances from CDO as well.
One thing that has confused visitors many times is the sometimes confusion of “Cagayan”s Cagayan de Oro is down there in the sunny southland of Mindanao, the Cagayn Valley is a sizable region (5 provinces) in the northern island of Luzon. I’ve seen a lot of visitors get confused between the two “Cagayans”.
The Philippines is not noted for being all that imaginative with town and city names .. too many Sto. this and Sta. that … there’s even 4 different “Manila”s I believe, so it’s always important to keep the province/main island in mind.