Cagayan de Oro: X-plorerboyz River Rafting Experience

by lakwatserong tatay

Cagayan De Oro is known as the "City of Golden Friendship", but this place is also became famous because of it's river, known now as "Whitewater Rafting Capital" of the country.  We had our 1st ever river rafting experience, and it was our day 4 of Northern Mindanao Escapades. Our schedule was late afternoon right after our Bukidnon Trip and Eat all you can package that we avail thru Kagay . We got the services of Kagay since there were so many good feedbacks and at the sametime this is not my first time to transact with them, actually 2 years ago, i was supposed to be in CDO trip too, but due to some reason i wasn't to join a group trip, and i was responsible with their own river rafting experience that time. And for that reason, i got some special discount for us 5 x-plorers.

photo opps first before getting on proper gear...^_^

Even though we just got from a adrenaline rush experience from Asia's Longest Dual Zipline and trip to Del Monte Pineapple Plantation and of course the package included a sumptous eat all you can lunch courtesy of Mindy's CDO. We're really excited to have this experience, infact right after we see the rubberboats, paddles, the gears and of course to jumpoff, the feeling of adrenaline rush starts again!....yahoooo...^_^

the jumpoff....

our jeepney ride together with our big rubberboats...^_^

Right after our lunch at Mindy's, we waited few minutes for the other jeepney that carrying other rubberboats to be used for this river rafting experience, it was around 1230pm when we left Mindy's proceed to our destination, at first we thought the first stop we had is the jumpoff, because we got some of the equipments to be used and loaded down to the jeepney, but it was not...

first photo opps while on our proper river rafting gear w/o paddles..^_^

We got the advanced course trip, a 4hrs actual river run, with 24 rapids to overcome and has the classification of II-IV rapid courses....as i tell this to my co-xplorers they are all excited to experience this exhalirating ride...with 24 rapids and 4hrs being in river...yahoooo....^_^

our river master guide & the advance rafters trippers...^_^

Right after placing the proper gears, we're assigned to each rubber boats, and we got our own paddles and we got one safety waterproof bag where we place our valuable things, that been handled by one of our river master guide....^_^...We had few discussions and Q&A portions before we got on our rides, of course it is better to ask queries while your in land....^_^

next photo opps....let's go and ride....^_^

Included in our package is availing of photo & video souvenir...which i got for free....thanks Sir Dan...^_^
So for now all of the pictures i used when we start our river rafting experience is courtesy of Kagay...for more photos you may visit my FBaccount and page....lakwatserong tatay...^_^

Here are some of my collated pictures...the bit calm river water of Cagayan de Oro river....^_^

And here are some of my favorite shots......the awesome river rapid shots.....panalo!..^_^

eto po yun pinakapanalo...^_^

Here is one of many photos that i created in continuous shot......galing nun kayaker/photographer/river guide master namin eh...^_^

Of course, after having the photos of the calm river, awesome shots while on rapids....we had also our group shots while in Cagayan de Oro river....while we paddling, lying around because were under rock cliffs...and specially during high "5's"........^_^

I would really like to thanks to kuya (?) forgot to get the name....for this awesome shots and awesome videos we got....astig to....nakakakuha pa ng pctures kahit nasa rapids....^_^

thanks to our awesome photographer...^_^

On this trip, we had one scenario that the Kagay's staff able to overcome, because on this trip we had a kid included, if im not mistaken, he was just 7-8 years old, because of the weather condition that time, we started quite sunny but mid-halfway our river rapid experience, the rain suddenly drops and the kid that was included on this journey felt really cold during that rainy ride...so our awesome kayaker, immediately go for the rescue, were in the middle in the river we had to do a quick stop and rest for a meanwhile but the Kagay crew decided to bring the kid on the end of the trip and rush to the clinic....i would really like to thank the crew and the kayaker above because he was the one who is responsible to bring the kid to safe...and now we just have one kayaker that taking the photos and videos for our remaining rapid ride....^_^

group photo while having our emergency stop...^_^

There are three things i wouldn't forget on this ride, first was, when our boat was on one of the rapids, our rubberboat got turndown, all of us were in the water but because of the discussion earlier our ride we got back to our boat safe...,although personally i got panicked but with my proper gear intact, we got back safe and just float thru the rapids and manage to get back.....and here is two of my experience on this Cagayan de Oro river, we were told to get down to river and just go with the flow of the calm river water, and the other one is for our own photo opps while standing infront of the rubberboat...^_^....promise sarap...yun iba takot pero since puro kami lalake nagtry kami...^_^

And right after we got to our boat...here is one of our shot....happy and fulfilled faces......we almost conquer Cagayan De Oro river....^_^

one of my buwis buhay shots...^_^

After being in river for more than 4 hours, we reach the end of the river raft ride...and happy to say that we are the first group....^_^....siyempre we did not forget to take a photo opps right after we got out from our boat...success!!!!!!

X-plorerboyz conquered CDO river...^_^

The resting and waiting area of the group, i forget how much is the used of the shower room and also forgot to ask how much is the price if you choose to dine on this restaurant...^_^

the other groups....^_^

so tara lets.....banlaw time nah...^_^

While others got refresh, we got the chance to have photo opps in the place and as our package includes vice versa transportation to and from our hotel. But we decided to go their office to get the official copies of photos and videos, because we will have another journey by the next day, trip to Iligan City.....

Here are some of our photo opps while on their office and waiting for our cd copy...^_^

The Cagayan De Oro River Map

X-plorerboyz @ Kagay Headquarters...^_^

For more informations, tour packages and contact details:

KAGAY (Cagayan de Oro's Premiere Whitewater Rafting)
#21 Pres. Aguinaldo St., Cagayan de Oro City
website: http://www.cdorafting-map.com/
email: dankaamino@yahoo.com
mobile nos.: 0917-712-2442 / 0917-712-2323
office nos.: 088-810-4402 / 088-852-1021

lakwatserong tatay's x-plored CDO river and Kagay's HQ....^_^

so watch out for the continuation of our Cagayan De Oro series.....RORO boat ride experience, food trips, bar trippin, and our accomodation....^_^

This is part of our 6-Days Northern Mindanao Escapades. Visited and X-plored 4 Provinces: Misamis Oriental, Camiguin Island, Bukidnon and Lanao Del Norte. Our first stop is the Capital City of Misamis Oriental, that is known as the "City of Golden Friendship", Cagayan De Oro City.

Food Trips:
Hammer Time Bar & Grill Restaurant (Bar Hoppin)
Mindy's (Eat All You Can Buffet Lunch)
Plaza Divisoria's (Weekend Night Street Food Dining)

Accomodation:
Victoria Suites

Activities:
Our Trip to City of Golden Friendship
Cagayan de Oro River (River Rafting Experience)
En Route to Camiguin (RORO Boat Transfer)