SUMMER 2015: TOURING WESTERN MINDANAO DAY 1

Lucky me I have a 10-day mandatory leave every year. And every year, my 10 days were never wasted. Since 2008, I've been to different  places, islands, beaches and regions because of that benefit. This year, I've decided to spend it in western mindanao. My husband was born and raised in Molave, Zamboanga del Sur but spent most of his days in Dipolog. So,our itinerary includes visiting Ozamis, Oroquieta, Dapitan, Dipolog, Molave and Aurora. I know it's quite a road trip but I never get tired when I'm road trippin', especially when travelling with my family. 

First of, we borrowed the car we're gonna use in our road trip, from my mom. It's a teeny tiny 4-wheel drive car that can fit only 4 people. We brought along our nanny, my husband's driving, I sit in the front seat,my son's sitting in my lap and were gonna meet my mother in law half way along the way to Dipolog. I've planned for the whole trip extensively. I've researched thoroughly from where were gonna stay, where were gonna eat,how much food costs in that resto, and the places where going to visit. 

So, here goes our itinerary.

4:00 AM - Malaybalay City to Cagayan de Oro

6:00 AM - arrived CDO/stright to Iigan City

8:00 AM- arrived at Iligan city/ to MUKAS

10:00 AM - arrived MUKAS

*** Were stuck in MUKAS for 2 hours for the reason I didn't really know. Paid 230 pesos for the car and 25 pesos for each passenger. It was more or less a 15-minute trip in the barge.

12:00 noon - Ozamis arrival

*** Dropped by Ozamis for about an hour for some sight seeing and picked up his mom there. Were suppose to go to Misamis Occidental Aquamarine Park (MOAP) for some side trip but time didn't permit us to ,so we went straight ahead to Oroquieta City.

2:00 PM - Oroquieta arrival

*** We had our lunch in Oroquieta City plaza Sea Wall. A lot of people were there. Seems like their having some basketball competition. We had some prepared lunch with us, so we looked for some shady place to eat. 

                                  With our packed lunch. Photo bombing our teeny tiny car. SUZUKI JIMNY.

I find Oroquieta City a very, very clean place. You cannot see a single trash anywhere. And I just found out that it won the cleanest and greenest city in the philippines several times already. No wonder the place is spotless.

                                                        Took some pictures along their sea wall.

       

At 2:30 pm, were off to Dipolog. I was really amazed with the road from Ozamis to Dipolog. Huge trees are overlaying the road with its leaves and branches that makes the road a little shady which is great for travelers to see.

                                                           Road to Dipolog. Notice the trees?

We arrived at our hotel in Dipolog City at 4:00 PM. Kinda lost our way in finding the hotel because it's a little far from the city proper, but found it anyways. We stayed at Sea breeze Lodge and Cafe.  I chose the hotel because of its higher rating (and it's very cheap) compared to other hotels in Dipolog, and it's near the beach too. Booked the hotel in AGODA that costs me 1400 pesos for 2 rooms. Their rooms were really unique. Standard rooms have their own parking space for motorcyles and deluxe and executive rooms have parking areas for a 4-wheel vehicle under their room. Quite unique,huh? They also have their cafe which you can just order from your room. But we didn't  eat there.We went downtown Dipolog to have our dinner.

                                                                Capturing the sunset just before our dinner.


 We had our dinner at the "mkdu" just along the boulevard.. I never thought the boulevard would be that busy.

                                                 Dinner the "mkdu" way (mag duko duko).

For the five of us, including my son, I only paid 300 pesos for our dinner. All foods here are grilled to perfection. You have the option to choose from chicken thighs to chicken wings to chicken's internal parts, pork bbq to pork chop, even hotdogs and longanisa.

After dinner, we walked around the boulevard to see other things. There were ukay ukay stalls in one corner , Ms. Gay competition on the other, sing along bars and restaurants on one lane, joggers running along the boulevard, and kids just running and playing. It's chaotic but its fun. This is by far the busiest, yet the fondest boulevard I've been to.

                                    Stopping for some quick ukay-ukay. Didn't find any. It's quite pricey.

After the boulevard, we visited hubby's relatives. Unfortunately, there was a blackout in the City so we waited for the current to come back before we went to his aunt. The current came back around 8pm and we went there immediately. It's been 10 years since his last visit here and I can see from his face that he was very excited to see everybody, especially his aunt. When we arrived at his aunt's house, his nieces and nephews were outside. They were very surprised when they saw him because he didn't tell anybody his coming. His aunt was already sleeping but they woke her up. They hugged and kissed when they saw each other.They talked for about an hour and a half and me and my baby were just napping in the sala. By 9:30 pm, we went back to the hotel.It was a quick visit but everybody was just glad to see each other. Day 1 has gone. Can't wait for tomorrow's another adventure.