Day Trip to Bukidnon

If you're in Cagayan De Oro and have a day to spare, you may want to go on a day tour to Bukidnon.

To get to Bukidnon, you can rent a van from Cagayan De Oro (if you’re traveling in a big group), or you can easily commute by riding a colorum van  going to Camp Phillips at the Agora Terminal in Cagayan de Oro.   The colorum vans are near the Save More store at the Agora Terminal.  It’s easy to spot them because there’s a big signage where they are parked.

The fare is Php60 per pax and the van ride going to Camp Phillips is about 2 hours.  You know you’re in Camp Phillips when you reach the Del Monte Plant.

Camp Phillips is similar to Camp John Hay where the houses look very similar – this is where the employees and managers of Del Monte live.  The cool climate is also similar to Baguio’s.

Camp Phillips is a community on its own – it has its own school, post office and other facilities like tennis courts and a soccer field.

They say that there’s a steak place in Camp Phillips where you can enjoy sweet-tasting steak because the cows are fed with pineapples but too bad, we didn’t have time to explore the area because a group of travelers offered to hitch us going to the Dahilayan Adventure Park.  We readily accepted the offer because the only way to get to Dahilayan, Manolo Fortrich is via the habal-habal (motorcycle ride).  It's a 30-minute ride under the heat of the sun and through a rough and dusty road.  We figured out the steak can wait another time.  Haha…

Here’s the road going to Dahilayan, Manolo Fortrich passing through the pineapple plantation.  It was a beautiful day.  

From what I gathered, the Del Monte plantation is one of the biggest in the world!  It exports canned pineapples to the US, Japan, Europe and Middle East. 

Once we reached Dahilayan, Manolo Fortrich the climate was even cooler and the place reminded me of Tagaytay and Baguio.  Check out these flowers and pine trees.

We had lunch first at the Dahilayan Forest Park before exploring the place. The entrance fee was Php100/head (weekend rate) but on weekdays, it goes down to Php50. 

We ordered Sizzling Roast beef thinking it was closest to the steak we missed! Haha…

For dessert, we had their popular Mango Square. So good!  Unfortunately, they didn’t have any fresh pineapples.  I would have wanted to taste Bukidnon’s pineapples – said to be the sweetest.  But  while in Bukidnon, I didn’t see even one fresh pineapple.  Maybe they’re not in season.  Not really sure.

At the Dahilayan Forest Park, there are so many places to have photo-ops and activities to do for both kids and kids at heart.  

A few meters away from the Dahilayan Forest Park is the Dahilayan Adventure Park which boasts of having Asia’s longest zipline.   

There are actually 3 ziplines.  The first 2 are 150m and 340m respectively, and the longest is 840 meters long and you’re positioned face-down like Superman like in the photo below. Haha...  

We couldn’t make up our minds which one to try until we bumped into a kid we met in Camiguin who said the longest one was not scary.  So we decided to go for Asia’s longest zipline and survived!  Whew…

BTW, while in Bukidnon, I spotted these Super Lolo Crackers inspired by Super Lolo firecrackers.  Haha…  But mind you, they are  crispy and delicious.

If you plan to stay overnight in Bukidnon, Dahilayan Adventure and Forest Park also offers accommodation.  

Going back to CDO was easy for us because the same travelers who offered us a ride to Dahilayan Park also offered to hitch us all the way to CDO. :)