This time, standby pahuway ’sa kadali si bike as this summer’s quite different yet exciting as I’m heading to Central Mindanao to join the Mindanao Food Appreciation Tour / the 1st SoCCSKSarGen Summer Safari.

Last May 29 at 3AM,  fellow CDO Bloggers Jovelyn, Rubelito, Edward, Venus, Eldie, Elva and Michael were already at C7 convenience store in Divisoria. I was a couple of minutes late from a college reunion but we managed to leave CDO at around 4 and enjoyed the whole morning in Bukidnon’s long and winding road.

Along the way, as we enjoyed the overlooking views, the left rear tire unfortunately caught on a shallow but rough hole in the road causing its edge to jagged a bit and got flat. Fortunately, the surroundings were cool enough for us to take pictures. Chiq and the rest excluding Mike, went on ahead and reached Seagull Resorts, some meters away from where we had a flat tire. In less than an hour, we managed to go back on the track as we descend from the cozy Bukidnon to the warm Davao.

We headed to RANCHERO GRILL for lunch and of course, meet Davao Bloggers.

The Davao leg of the Mindanao Food Appreciation Tour was highlighted by a meet-up between Davao and CDO Bloggers at Ranchero Grill. - brendelbalaga.com | Photo by Lyle Santos

We introduced ourselves as others already have known each other from the previous meet-ups and events like the recent Mindanao Bloggers Summit held in Cagayan de Oro. While having our conversation, we also enjoyed the delectable foods served at RANCHERO such as these restaurant’s bestsellers – Seafood Vegetables, Isda sa Miso (Tiyan ng Bangus), Karagatan, Pinapugon na Liempo, Ranchero Ribs, Garlic Chicken, Seafood Kare-Kare, Seafood Platter, and Pancit Canton.

When you visit Davao City, don’t miss to try out RANCHERO GRILL located at Tionko corner Arellano Street. Pwerteng lami-a gyud sa mga pagkaon!

After lunch, together with Davao bloggers, we took an aircon bus, then traveled 3 hours to the highly-urbanized General Santos City. One caught my attention as I gazed the wide beautiful plains is the majestic Mount Matutum as its imposing cone shape dominates the landscape of General Santos to Koronadal City.

Ice Castle Experience will open soon. Experience the luxury while staying in General Santos City.

When we arrived at GenSan, a van took us to the hotel, thanks to MAYOR JUN ACHARON.  We stayed at ICE CASTLE EXPERIENCE, the newest hotel in General Santos that will open SOON! We’re very grateful to the owner REY BILLENA for ICE CASTLE EXPERIENCE to be the official home of the participants of SOCCSKSARGEN BLOGGERS’ Soccksargen Summer Safari from Cagayan de Oro and Davao Cities.

Not far from the hotel, we headed to PACMAN SPORTS BAR. We had a great time playing billiards, looking at awesome pacman items and posters, sipping drinks, enjoying the mouthwatering cheese sticks, tasty garlic chicken, and the one I couldn’t stop eating – the succulent beef sizzling sisig!

It’s time for our dinner so we have to leave the sports bar to our next stop – LE JARDIN ARNEVEL. Yes, tinuod! Wala pa mi nanihapon ato. We’re surprised to see lots of luscious foods at their poolside such as chicken barbecue, sinugbang panga, crabs, guso, kinilaw na malasugue, and lechon baboy! Lupig pa man ang ga-piyesta!

photo by Lyle Santos

The feast continued as we went to Donna Mae Congson’s PIYESTA KTV and RESTO BAR to meet the SoCCSKSarGen bloggers. There were really a lot bloggers and foods (kaon na ’sab!) and the place was di mahulugang tuna! I tried Piyesta’s Jell-O Shots and Gayuma. I can’t describe the idea but it’s really creative and unique. It’s my first time to put a large syringe in my mouth with jelly alcohol in it. Not sure if it’s the right description but I will never forget my experience there at Piyesta. Naa na pud lechon from Mayor Jun Acharon! Next time, I’ll try Piyesta’s kurasticks, sizzling ubol-ubol, and tuna buntot!

photo by Lyle Santos

Aside from the kainan and injections, we all introduced ourselves – some are simple and short, while others went so on and so forth. There were  a lot of conversations not just between bloggers but also among tweeters and plurkers. Recharged, together with some  CDO and Davao bloggers, we went outside to explore the place. I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign. So the CDO Bloggers, with the participation of Jun, we performed our disappearing act to those people who made the event successful.

It’s already late and still a lot of excitements to happen on the next day. So we bid our good night to other bloggers and went to the hotel. But before that, we went to a convenience store beside Pacman Sports Bar and spotted The Destroyer Manny Pacman Pacquiao playing billiard. Lucky enough to get close as it’s my first time to see him in person. Though we didn’t bother to go inside, Rob manage to take some jabs.

Day 2 will follow shortly…

Please enjoy the video while waiting.

Seagull Mountain Resort

Cross-country mountain biking from Davao to CDO – a ride that most people think it’s crazy! Travel to Davao just to mount the rigs on the starting point instead of taking a break to some famous nature park in the city. Why am I doing this?

To think of something we believe impossible is easy. When actually looking at impossible thing from a different perspective could somehow give us an idea on achieving at least closer to it. It’s a challenge with uncertain results. A challenge that tests ourselves. Who knows we could actually make it to the next level?

It’s not about how far you’ve traveled on a mountain bike in a day. It’s not just reaching the destination. It’s the experience on the road. The camaraderie, different people bond together on the highway, with amazing sceneries and challenges on both steep ascends and descends!

A couple of months ago, our klub thinks of something to do on the 4 non-working days in Holy Week. We’ve decided to cross-country, from Davao to Cagayan de Oro. I thought about – “am I ready?” Everybody seems so excited about it. I am excited! I am ready! My mind and heart are ready! But my legs aren’t. Mindset won’t work if I’m not physically set to such ride.

Butuan, epic training for Davao.

Epic rides training. There were still 4 remaining Saturdays for epic rides before the Davao trip. An epic ride is a long ride that sums up to more than a hundred kilometers. We have 4 epic rides lined up before Holy Week – Iligan, Butuan, Salay, and Talakag. Iligan has a total of about 160kms, Iligan-CDO-Iligan. We left CDO at 7AM and returned home around 7PM. There are cases that it’s impossible to complete a circuit in a day especially when riding in groups. Unlike Talakag (60kms+) and Salay(140kms+), from CDO going to Butuan City sums up to approximately 190kms already!

Butuan ride was tagged as “unfinished business”. We actually did not push to Butuan when we could still descend our way down to the city after a steep ascend in Magsaysay, a border between Caraga Region and Northern Mindanao. We got injured comrades and decided to halt in Carmen. We wanted to finished the course. I could still make it to Butuan aside from experiencing joint pain in my right knee that started in the mid-part of the ride. But we can’t leave men behind and we can have it next time. To me, Butuan ride was one of the most painful experience I had in mountain biking but it was priceless.

Testing out the walls

Side trips at Quezon, Bukidnon. We left CDO around 5AM. After 3 hours, we stopped at our klubmate’s place and went to our side trips – climbed on the white rock walls of Quezon and took a plunge on its cold spring from caves beneath. Then, we head back to the our klubmate’s place and took our lunch then rest for an hour. We left Quezon around 2PM and continued our trip to Davao City.

DAVAO CITY. We arrived in Davao around 5PM. We had our early dinner with these deep-fried fresh tilapias and then checked in a dormitory at Davao City. There we unhook our bikes from our sag vehicles, put on the tires and brakes for tomorrow’s epic ride. That night, we had a couple of beers just to cool down our gears.

My sleep that night restored me up to 100% health power – a good start for the epic cross-country mountain bike ride tomorrow.

Bike Ride in Baungon Bukidnon

Tonight, I will be preparing for our 3-day epic ride from Davao to Cagayan de Oro. Just got the klub decals, bought extra long valve CST interior, and got my salary! Deposited some cash then checking emails, updating some of my online events here in an internet cafe here in Divisoria before getting busy. I will be bringing some shirts, jerseys, bike gears, sleeping bag and keep ‘em all in my awesome black Nike bag bought from divisoria night market a year ago.

Tomorrow, we will be leaving before sunrise to Quezon, Bukidnon where Cocoy Neri, a klub comrade, will be expecting us and show us this place where we could do some wall climbing and swimming in a spring. We will be having lunch there too! Sheep yeah! *hopefully if buhi pa ang karnero or we’ll end up karne sa iro*

By night, we will be arriving Davao and spend our night there.

Friday, our bike journey begins.. Setting up some light reflectors for an early morning take off from Davao then at some point, I am thinking of the ascends before reaching the Overview. It’ll be awesome! We won’t be riding at night so we will have to stop at Cocoy’s place again for an overnight.

Saturday, bike ride to Cagayan de Oro. A route with more descends compare to Davao-Quezon. I’ve been to Malaybalay twice and biking from the city to Kisolon Terminal was actually no-sweat probably because of the cold wind from a 60kph bike speed. Thinking of the ascend in Mangima at noon would be one of the challenges in this epic ride. Traffic, buses, cars, smokes are expected.

Bukidnon as it’s one of my favorite biking/tripping/visiting place in the planet, have been a magical place and even before when I was a kid, I have been visiting these places with my late mom as she enjoys collecting some orchids from Bukidnon.

As a cross-country mountain biker who have been travelling for 9 months now with my Rina the Rincon Giant hard tail bike, this epic ride surely be something that I’ll be proud of. A story that I am gonna share to the whole world. A ride that will unveil paths and crossing different adventures in my life.

God speed!