Hiking Adventure: Kapatagan Digos City, Davao Del Sur

It's a very common thing here in the Philippines to go on a road trip during the holy week. Since it's the time when people don't have any work because it's considered a non work day. It is usually the time when families can spend more time together but we shouldn't forget the importance of this non work day for us Catholics. During the holy week I'm quite guilty that I always look forward of it because of the road trips and the quality time that I can spend with my family such as my mom, sister, aunt, uncle and my cousins. We don't really see much because as we know we are growing up and responsibilities keeps on occupying our time together so we treasure every adventure we have.

 Kapatagan is one of the rural areas in Davao del sur where you can get away from the noisy busy life in the city. I honestly feel very relaxed and I enjoyed the fresh cold air in the morning even though I'm freezing. The life there is very much simple. You don't feel the rush or the feeling of being pressured because the life there is not complicated. Just simple farming and their live stock. I have observed that they are also gaining popularity from their tourism. I swear, there were a lot of tourist everywhere. Well you can't blame them because this place is really chill.

Our travel time was approximately 4 hours but because the hills were quite high. Our van overheated making us stop for awhile but we decided we should just start hiking until the van starts running again. While we were hiking we took a lot of pictures and selfies.

The best part of it was we hitched a ride from a truck. It was so fun and we had to hold on tight because every turn they make is a chance of you falling from the truck. One thing that happened was it started raining while we were at the back of the truck. It just started pouring everywhere we were so wet and the truck started moving in a fast pace and we had to hold on to our deal life while laughing and getting slapped by the rain. It was just like a roller coaster ride.

Obligatory selfies with our overheated van

 After the truck dropped us off we took shelter from a "Carinderia" which is a local eatery. We stayed there until the van came so we could continue our way to Kapatagan. When we got there we stayed in one of the houses of the locals they even have their crops which gave me a reaction of "Wow" because this is my first time staying in a local house with their crops planted outside. Everywhere was a garden and they were really hospitable which I really loved. They also told us that a lot of people are happy that it's raining because it doesn't rain that much and it would really be a good help for the crops.

 I was freezing like literally it was so cold and the water is cold. Everything is just cold *laughs* So I thank my Uncle and the people who helped him cooked dinner because the soup was amazing and everything else that they made. I have to be honest that I had a hard time sleeping in not developed areas because as funny as it sounds I kinda believe in "Aswangs" which is a ghoul that eats people that usually lives in the countryside. I keep waking up around 12 am, 1 am and 3 am but eventually I fell asleep excited for our hike tomorrow morning.

We woke up around 5 am, drank our hot drinks and started preparing for the things that we needed. Around 7 am our hiking adventure started. There was a trouble with the van because the road was still muddy and unbalanced and it got stuck in the mud so the guys had to push the van.

Farmer watering his potatoes

Instead of hiking to the main road which they said was longer. We took a shortcut and since we have one of the locals as our guide to our destination which is the "Blue river falls" we got there safe and sound. The shortcut by the way was walking down a hill but don't go on saying "Really? that's easy!" because we only have a limited space to walk on to and we don't have anything to grab on while we're walking down. I was even scared to walk so one of my aunt's colleague took my hand while I was sliding down the hill. If you fall from that limited space then bye-bye scar free body and hello broken bleeding bones.

Our hiking *these pics are in order by the way *

The shortcut

Locals riding their horses posing for the picture

His reaction when he realized after hiking the second hill we have to go down on a steep slippery path

One of the things I enjoyed looking at when I arrived at the falls was the kids bathing their horses. They were clearly doing their chores but you can see that they are really having fun. Swimming around the falls being carefree just like what kids should normally do. This is the life without the sophisticated need that we see from social media. Not only the falls was breath taking but you can really see how the fall is natural and haven't been touched for improvements. You might be wondering why it's called "Blue river falls" but the color is not blue at all but green. The locals said that it used to blue but because of the moss and the plants that inhabited the river it turned green.






Inside the falls with the orange rocks if you climbed on it there is a hidden falls inside. The water is so clean and cold. I couldn't dive because I was scared of what might be lurking underneath. So I just stepped on the rocks and just splashed myself. Since the water was cold they even put their beers in the water to let them cool. My uncle even started cutting the onions and tomatoes near the river for our brunch.

I took this picture because a guy started to swim and since the current was too strong he kept swimming again and again but the current would still push him back

Brunch! After we had our brunch we started packing and hiked again back to the van to go to another destination. Which is "Kublai Art Garden" our plan was to go swimming at the swimming pool there but when we arrived there was a lot of people. Tourists everywhere *including us* I even met one of my friends Malka there who was with her family also. So we decided to just sit for awhile and relax. We're bone as tired from the hike, it was hot and it was really crowded so we really didn't feel like moving. We were there for like 45 mins till we decided to leave but before we left we had dirty ice cream Yay!

We were about to go home until they decided that we should go to a "Hot Spring". It was near the place we were staying. When we got there it was also crowded but luckily the local that was with us knew the one who manages the place so we got a Kubo! My sister, cousins and I we really didn't feel like bathing in the hot spring so we asked my uncle and my aunt if we could go home earlier than them and they said it was okay.
It was a long walk actually and there was a lot of horse poop everywhere and I stepped on one because I was busy on my phone and I didn't noticed it *cries* I forget to tell you guys that we haven't actually taken a proper bath so in the local houses area they have a watering hole for everyone to use and bathe and we did the same thing. Yes. We took a bath in public where people can pass by but we have our clothes on so no worries *nervous laughing* When we were done with everything we played Uno cards until the grown ups arrived. They cooked dinner and then everyone relaxed after that. At 3 in the morning we all woke up to hit the road to go back home to Davao.