Oslob's Whale Shark and Dalaguete's Osmeña Peak

This blog entry is part of my Cebu-Masbate Adventure. After spending about 2 days in Malapascua, Cebu, I continued my travel to Oslob and this time, I have a travel buddy na pwede kong kulitin.hehe! After I arrived in Cebu City on a Thursday evening, I proceeded to Sugbutel. I chose Sugbutel since late evening na din ako dumating ng Cebu and I would just be spending 6 hours to sleep kasi I need to wake up early on Friday because I would be meeting my travel buddy who will be arriving in Cebu City from Manila. Sayang naman kasi kung maghohotel pa ako or magrerent pa ng room sa pension house.

Sugbutel is a dormitel. It’s cheap and it’s located near SM Cebu. The rate for the dorm type accommodation is 250 pesos only. They even have a 99 pesos per night promo, but you’ll need to reserve that dorm type accommodation at least 30 days before your intended stay. Anyway, to continue with my story, after I arrived at Sugbutel, naligo lang ako at natulog na. The next morning, I woke up early to meet my travel buddy who will be arriving from Manila. We met at SM Cebu at around 6am and then we immediately proceeded to Cebu South Bus terminal. It is a 30 minute jeepney ride from SM Cebu. After arriving at the terminal, we look for a bus bound for Oslob, Bato or Dumaguete. There are several bus companies plying the Cebu City-Dumaguete or Cebu City-Oslob or Bato route. We boarded the Ceres airconditioned bus since the price difference for an airconditioned bus and the non-airconditioned bus is only 5 pesos. The airconditioned bus fare from Cebu City to Barangay Tan-awan in Oslob is 155 pesos.  It was a long bus travel. The travel time from Cebu City to Oslob was about 3 hours long at dahil sobrang kulang ang tulog namin ng friend ko, natulog lang kami sa buong kahabaan ng byahe. My friend didn’t had enough sleep since she woke up early to catch the 4am flight from Manila to Cebu. At ako naman, gumising ako ng 5am since matagal akong maligo.hahaha! kaya I always have enough time allowance para hindi ako malate sa meeting time namin na 6:30am. 

Barangay Tan-awan, Oslob, Cebu

After almost 3 hours of bus travel, we finally arrived at Barangay Tan-awan in Oslob. This is the jump-off point for butanding encounter. Even from afar, you can already see some butanding or whale shark swimming near the shore of the jump-off point. We register at the registration and briefing area and paid 300 pesos for the whale shark encounter fee plus another 20 pesos for the life vest. We’ve brought our own snorkelling gear so we don’t need to rent but if you don’t have your own snorkelling gear, you can rent it from the registration and briefing area. It’s 100 pesos for snorkelling gear rental. After the briefing and all the do’s and don’ts stuff regarding swimming with the whale shark, we’ve finally boarded the small boat. We were so excited to swim with those gentle giants at ang mga ngiti namin ay hanggang tenga na.hahah! We were like kids who went on to a beach for the first time.hahaha! Anyway, after  a 5 minutes banca ride, we reached the site where we will be swimming with the butanding. We excitedly jump from our boat and swim like there’s no tomorrow. We dive, snorkel, swim, swim and swim while having that excited smile on our face. Ahhhhhhhhhh…this is it, we are finally swimming with the whale shark. It’s so huge! It’s almost the same size of a jeepney or let say, a mini bus. I was excitedly swimming with 3 whale sharks. Even though it’s tiring and the sea current is kinda strong and the sea is a little wavy, I continued swimming. I told myself that I should make the most out of the 30 minutes time limit that the Barangay Tan-awan officials had set as a rule for butanding encounter. Yes, that’s correct, you only have 30 minutes to swim and interact with the whale shark. We had some photo ops, videos and after swimming and snorkelling and diving, I finally got tired, but I still want to swim with those whale sharks, luckily, masyadong makulit ang travel buddy ko dahil kinulit nya pala yung bangkero na gawing 45 minutes ang pagswim namin with the whale shark. So dahil dun, naextend kami ng another 15minutes. And we maximize that precious minutes, that we swim, swim and swim with the whale shark. And daming swim na word dito.hahaha! So matapos ang 45minutes na swimming with the whale shark, bumalik na din kami sa dalampasigan and then we ate lunch. We ate at the carenderia inside the resort and then nagbanlaw na.

snail

Our next stop is Dalaguete. We plan to hike the highest point of Cebu province, the Osmeña Peak.  So after eating lunch, we then catch a bus bound for Cebu. We got off at Dalaguete junction. The travel time from Barangay Tan-awan, Oslob to Dalaguete junction is approximately around an hour. We looked for a habal habal for us to go to Osmeña Peak. The motorcycle ride from Dalaguete junction to Barangay Mantalongon is roughly about an hour.  Barangay Mantalongon is also considered as the summer capital and the vegetable basket of Cebu province. This is due to the cold weather in this area. On our way to Brgy. Mantalongon, we were greeted by thick fog, even though it was 2 in the afternoon, it feels like it was just 6 in the morning. Ang lamig sa lugar na yun. Ang kapal kapal ng fog na parang nasa ulap ka lang. After an hour of travel, we’ve finally reached the jump-off point of our trek to Osmeña Peak. The trail going to the peak is quite easy. There are lots of vegetable farm along the way. After hiking for 45 minutes, we’ve finally reached the peak. Sad to say, we didn’t enjoy the view at the top since the thick fog engulfed the area. It feels like we’re just on a piece of land somewhere in the clouds. We can’t see any interesting view. It doesn’t feel like we’re at the highest peak of Cebu island. It was kind of a disappointment but for sure we’re going back to that place so that we will see the view on our next hike to Osmeña Peak.

On our way to Osmeña Peak

One foggy Osmeña Peak

After spending 30 minutes resting at the peak, we decided to descend from the peak and go back to the jump-off point where our habal habal driver was waiting. We then proceeded back to Dalaguete town proper. By the way, if you don’t want to rent a motorcycle going to Osmeña Peak, you can also ride a bus or a jeepney. There are buses bound to Barangay Mantalongon from Cebu South Bus terminal. Jeepneys also ply the Mantalongon-Dalaguete route. But these public transportations travel up to Mantalongon public market only, so you’ll need to walk several kilometres from that market to Osmeña Peak. It would take around 2 to 3 hours of walk if you will start from Mantalongon public market or you can rent a motorcycle from the market to the jump off point of Osmeña Peak and cut your walking/hiking time to just 45 minutes or an hour.

Dalaguete tricycle

Anyway, continuing to my story. After we arrived at the Dalaguete town center, we decided to just roam the town center since it was kinda early to go back to Cebu City. We’ve walked around the town, visited their church, their park, and their market. We took some pictures, some photo ops and eat some native snacks and then nung mapagod na kami, that’s when we decided na sumakay na ng bus pabalik ng Cebu City. Ganun kami kalala pagdating sa gala, kahit na ang dami na naming napuntahan: lumangoy sa Oslob at umakyat sa Osmeña Peak, may energy pa rin kami para magikot ikot sa town.hehehe!  Anyway, at around 7pm, we boarded the bus bound for Cebu City. 3 hours later, we were in Cebu City. Our bus travel going back to Cebu was a little bit long due to traffic near Cebu City. 

San Guillermo de Aquitania Church

San Guillermo de Aquitania Church bell tower

San Guillermo de Aquitania Church

 After arriving in Cebu City, we ate our dinner at Larsian near Fuente Osmena. Okay kasi sa lugar na to kasi kakain ka na nakakamay lang and it’s a cheap place to eat. Most the food there are ihaw ihaw or grilled. You have a variety of choices, from local products, to meat, to poultry and seafood. So after dinner, we proceeded back to Sugbutel since, as usual, we are budget traveller and we just need a place to sleep because on the next day, we need to get up early for our Camotes Island adventure. I’ll write stories about Camotes, for the mean time, pagtyagaan nyo na lang munang basahin ang ibang blog entries ko.hahaha! Nakakapagod magsulat, inabot na nga ako ng more than 1 month bago ako nakapagsulat ng kwento ko tungkol sa adventure na to. Anyway, till next time chowtime!

Pinaypay (fried banana)

white flower