I have always wanted to go to Enchanted River and Tinuy-an Falls in Surigao. I'm envious of my mom who went there last year and of my dad, who I think went there, last month. Both of them have praises for these wonderful natural wonders. So when my cousin, Marie, who hails from Zamboanga City, came over for a visit, we immediately made plans to visit Surigao.
We traveled at around 4.30am on Saturday morning. We just changed the kids' diapers since we knew they would still be sleeping inside the car. Expected travel time is 4-5 hours. That's a bit far. First stop was Lolong. Remember Lolong? It's been adjudged as the longest crocodile, I think, by the Guinness Book of World Records. We arrived at around 8am. Stretched and had breakfast. (I realized that when traveling, boiled eggs, adobo and bread are staples. Lol!). I can't seem to find a pic of Lolong, sorry.
Next stop, checking in at the Bonsay River View Inn at around 10.30am. It's an Inn, so don't expect anything flashy. Just the barest of essentials. Bed with pillows and kumot with towels, bath room and toilet and a huge sink. We stayed in a dormitory type of room which had 10 beds (and we were only 7!) which means we had a very big room all to ourselves. The kids had fun jumping from one bed to another. Nothing like this at home. After depositing our things, we were off to Tinuy-an Falls.
Travel time to Tinuy-an Falls was a bit long. The shorter route cannot be used as the bridge was destroyed last week. So it took us more than an hour to reach Tinuy-an even if we just came from Bislig. The road was a bit rough and we were all almost hungry. We were all thinking that since it took us too much time to travel, Tinuy-an should be all worth it. There's an entrance fee. I forgot how much it was. Arriving at Tinuy-an Falls, one can immediately see that it was indeed worth it. Tinuy-an has three levels. My husband and I only managed to enjoy the 2nd level. The third level would take you 95 steps up and we couldn't find somebody to look after the twins. The rest of our companions managed to go up the 3rd level.
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| Taken from my Iphone. It's utterly breathtaking. Travel time was so worth it. This is the 2nd level. |
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| At Tinuy-an Falls (sorry for the blurry pics). Riding a raft towards the falls. |
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| This is our company. Family friends since birth. |
After having our lunch at Tinuy-an and swimming for quite some time, it was time to call it a day. Time to take a rest. We went back to the Inn, had an early dinner and slept.
Sunday. Enchanted River Day! This was the last stop of our trip. Enchanted River is located at Hinatuan. It's about 1.5 hours drive from the Inn we were staying. Travel time would be shorter if the roads were better. Entrance fee is Php30, free for children below 4 feet. Cottages are for rent (no overnight cottages here as the Enchanted River closes at 5pm). We rented ours for Php200 (it was not a cottage though, we had 3 tables under a tree). The River was not really enchanted looking when we arrived. There were tons of people. The water was kinda murky. The river was deep but the middle part had some shallow areas. Rent a life vest (Php15 per hour for each vest), it helps. The kids brought along their babida. We waited for 12nn since they said the fishes come out at 12nn, feeding time (fishes also come out at 3pm). And when the fishes came out at precisely 12, the not so enchanted looking river became magical!
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| Swimming while waiting for 12nn. |
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| 12nn. When the fishes came out. Enchanting! |
So this was our Surigao Weekend. A lot of travel time. Indeed, travel time was long but the wonders of nature we have seen made the trip so worth it. Our country really has tons of natural wonders. I wonder where we're going in August (tons of long weekends ahead!).
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