Doing Davao

DAVAO CITY is spelled with an E, a BIG E, as in ecological immersion, ethnic pride, and extreme adventure.
At least that’s how eight Pampanga mediamen experienced the famed City of Blooms, that weekend of June 3-5.
At the foot of Mount Talomo is Eden Nature Park, an 80-hectare green sprawl that is literally and figuratively a Paradise regained from the greed of loggers, taking all of 30 years for the Ayalas – Davao’s not Makati’s – to reforest with no less than 100,000 pine trees as well as hardwoods like mahogany and narra, and the fruit-bearing variety – mangosteen, lanzones, chico, mabolo, cacao, chesa, and of course that which defines Davao itself, the ambrosiac durian.
At 3,000 feet above sea level and with all those pines, the Benguet species included, Eden Nature Park has that crisp, cool fresh mountain air that has long gone out of Baguio City. It makes the perfect weekend family getaway with cottages, mountain villas and log cabins, and for barkada nights at its campsites.
Flower gardens also abound at the park. A favourite spot for pre-nuptial photo ops, and for weddings but naturally, is the Rainbow Pass, a series of arched trellises that gives a magnificent view of the city and the gulf. For the more conservative, there’s the St. Michael chapel.
At Tinubdan – called the “heartland of indigenous wisdom” – one gets a sampling of ethnic Mindanao: the balay kalimudan, a datu’s house along with some others for the ordinary folk; langub sa kaalam, the cave of wisdom where we supposed the village medicine man and spiritual leader do their communing with the spirits; and at the pocket square of the village, a tana-tanaman or welcome garden. On hand with their gongs and other ethnic musical instruments are school kids to entertain visitors.
Thrill seekers find their spot at Eden Nature Park in the SkyRider zipline, and for the hyper kids, the “Indiana Jones” run. There’s also horseback riding, swimming pools, a football field.
It’s not Congress, folks, but at the Davao Crocodile Park, congressmen invariably
become the centrepiece of chit-chats. There idly rules the very embodiment of the tongressmen and representathieves – Pangil, the oldest and largest at over 10 feet long.
As the freshwater crocodylus mindorensis is a protected species, only the saltwater crocodylus porosus is bred here for meat and hide. As the wallet is too thin for the P8,000 croc-skin belt, we settled for the more affordable spicy croc stew at the Riverwalk Grill, earning us some bragging rights now: I eat congressmen for dinner, yeah!
A veritable zoo, Davao Crocodile Park has a decent number and variety of birds, pythons and some snakes, goats and sheep, and a couple of Bengal tigers.
A short walk from the crocs is the Tribu K Mindanawon cultural village where each of the island’s 13 tribal groups take their turn on a stage set among bamboo groves to present their signature dance, with the singkil just about the only one we can easily identify. After the dances, at an adjacent amphitheatre is a fireshow that is…scorching hot!
Which only whets the appetite for an even greater adventure offered from the crocodile park – Davao Wild Water Adventure.
Exactly 8 a.m. is the pre-departure briefing at the park itself which starts with the signing of a waiver dispensing the company from any responsibility for any injury or, God forbid!, death arising from the river rafting. Then a five minute video of the course: the 13-kilometer Tamugan-Lacson – now there’s a familiar name – run of Upper Davao River consisting of 25 rapids, usually finished from three to five hours, depending on the level of the water and the paddling capacity of the “adventurers.” And finally the do’s and don’t’s – Don’t attempt to swim. Do drift with the current feet front. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.
With that it’s off on board jeepneys loaded with all the gears – fully inflated rafts on the roof racks, helmets, life vests, paddles and packed lunch.
A 45-minute drive is the “put-in area” at the boulder-strewn bank just below the confluence of the Tamugan and Davao rivers.
Final instructions there, proper wearing of life vests and helmets, then a quick course in the water: paddling – easy, hard, back; high-five; saving one gone overboard; drifting, then again, Don’t panic.
Then off in a raft, river guide shouting “Drift” and everybody jumping into the water the raft and near-panicking when coming dangerously close to the first rapids before being taken back.
Swirls of brown water then cresting in continuous roil: easy paddling, then hard when the waves rise, and high-five – paddles raised – at each pass through the rapids.
Easy there, then a surge – the whole raft as though pushed out of the water and slammed sideways at sheer vine cluttered rock wall, so that’s what was called “kissing the wall.” Still, not one went overboard.
Passing by a cave, the waters again turned turbulent, in one swell, in one fell swoop, the left side of the raft was devoid of its four paddlers. Bobbing helmets, then laughing faces needed to be picked out the water, until the team of eight was whole again.
And that was the easy part. Let the imagination run wild with the succeeding rapids sporting monikers as “washing machine” with three cycles at maximum speed; the “rodeo” -- the water’s like a bucking bronco; “double drop” two successive free-falls into swirling water; and the piece de resistance – “drop and suck” – where the raft is maneuvered between two boulders to drop into an eddy at top spin.
Falling overboard twice – at the rodeo and the double drop – only maxxed the exhilaration. In less than three hours, the course was finished. So intense was the adrenaline rush that there was no tiredness at all. And really we wanted more, more, more.
As the seasoned traveller say: Don’t overdo it the first time. Else there’s nothing to look forward to the next time around.
Yes, the wild water adventure is enough reason to return to Davao City. And I’ve got to smell the waling-waling, and bond with the Philippine eagle yet. Plus, a climb up Mount Apo, for another extreme adventure. (Best and most convenient way to go to Davao is via Cebu Pacific)