First and foremost I admit, I am not a mountaineer nor an athletic kind of person. However, I live in a not so plain (patag) location - that is in Mary Hill, Tomas Cabili, Iligan City, and I am an adventurous one, which serves as my edge when being challenged. More importantly, I do love traveling and traveling serves as my medicine, when I feel so low and broken. If you are my avid reader, then my journey to the plains and the mountains of Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte would no longer be a surprise.
Eighty (80) kilometers going south from my city of origin - Iligan is the 2rd class municipality of Kapatagan, one of the twenty-two (22) municipalities in the province of Lanao del Norte of which Iligan City is it's former capital city, now Tubod. People in this side of the Philippines rely on farming and fishing as their source of income. Rice serves as their primary produce as the place is literally plain "patag" true from its name "Kapatagan" where rice paddy fields are ideally created to grow rice. In honor of their patron saint, they celebrate Kahumayan Festival in the months of December one of the features of their fiesta celebration which I am looking forward to witness next month.
The challenge was to climb the highest peak of Brgy. Malinas, Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte and explore the hidden treasures it keeps in hide for centuries- the Malinas Caves. Who would say that I will say "no" to this? To be honest, I doubted myself, if I can really survive the challenge, mainly because I just came home from a recent travel of which I will promise to blog about it soon. Another, because in my recent climb at the highest peak of Iligan -Mt. Agad-agad with Lisa Mirasol, I almost fell on the ground and fainted far halfway during our climbed. Lack of exercise and underestimating Mt. Agad-agad posed to be the main reason why it happened. Underestimate, because I climbed this mountain many times during college with my friends.
Despite the odds, I have this positive thought inside me that I can make it, so, I decided to take the challenge. Four o'clock in the afternoon of Nov. 2, 2012 my mother and younger sister arrived in my elder sister's house with a big (?) question mark in their faces. "Are you going to travel again?" that line echoed when I open the door while getting ready to embark into another journey. With a smile, I replied "yes" and i believe that smile helped me a lot, because a few chats and explanation I was escorted by them to the city where I bought things on the list given to me by my Daryl Tolero who invited me to take part in this exciting journey. At five o'clock I am already conveniently sitting in a Rural Transit bus bound to Kapatagan.
At around past seven, I arrived at their terminal, the newly built Kapatagan Town Center and I was ecstatic. Their new Town Center does not speak of how they are classified as 2rd class municipality. It has a gazebo in front, WiFi hot spot and its FREE, air conditioned checked in area with cable television at P4.00, most especially clean comfort rooms for P5.00. It was too far more better than a lot of bus terminals in Mindanao. My friend Daryl who works as the local tourism photographer and serves as one of the organizer of the climb met me there and we had dinner together at one of the "carenderia" and after that, he treated me for a cooler at Betty Beans just within Kapatagan Town Center, then later he toured me to their beautiful municipal hall where he got his stuff for the climb. A few chats and then we head to Tem's Digital Studio Daryl's family owned photography studio to spend a night there and wait a few friends from Iligan joining the climb in the next morning.