Northern Mindanao Adventure, day 2

Our day 2 of th Northern Mindanao Adventure started early. We took a 7AM bus from Cagayan de Oro City, bound for Iligan City in Lanao del Norte. Upon arrival we immediately took a hearty breakfast in one of the Bus terminal carinderia. In Fainress, Masarap ang fried chicken at fish kinilaw! Yes, early in the morning I was already devouring kinilaw. I’m notsure what Marc and Sinjin ordered.

From Iligan terminal, we took an L300 van thats bound for the Islamic City of Marawi in Lanao del Sur. Lanao del Sur is now the 46th province that I have been to. Travel time is approximately 45 minutes. Upon arrival at the town center, I immediately grabbed my backpack and started walking towards one of the mosques, when suddenly, Marc blurted “Shoot, I left my body bag inside the van!”

All of us panicked. Marc went back to the place where we disembarked, while Sinjin and I waited for him in front of the mosque. We really got worried. While waiting for Marc, sinjin and I just took some photos of the mosque.

When Marc got back, the bag’s not with him. So we decided to go to the van terminal. Apparently there are two van terminals in Marawi that service the Iligan/Cagayan de Oro route. The first terminal lead us to negative answers. The drivers told us to go to “Jimmy Terminal”.

so off we boarded a tricycle and went to “Jimmy Terminal”, only to find out that, it was actually GMA Terminal. Kaloka!

At the GMA Terminal Marc, recounted his story to the drivers. It was already past 1PM and we have not yet eaten our lunch. Marc, told us, that he’ll just stay at the terminal and told us to just explore the Mindanao state Universirt (MSU) while he’s waiting for any new about his bag.

so Sinjin and I left the terminal and took a tricycle and zoomed towards MSU. I asked the driver to bring us to the Aga Khan Museum.

Dark clouds were already hovering the skies when we arrived at the museum. Aga Khan Museum houses an impressive collection of artifacts featuring the Maranao culture. The Maranao art known as Okir is also present. And of course the Torogan, a traditional house of the Maranao people. Sad to say photo taking inside the museum is not allowed.

It was already raining when we left the museum. sinjin and I once again took another tricycle ride and this time, to the King Faisal Mosque. The mosque was named after the former King of Saudi Arabia who was instrumental in building the mosque as well as the Islamic Center inside the campus.

We took photos of the photos of the mosque then speed away back to the GMA Terminal. Looking from afar, Marc’s still not with his body bag. But moments later, he said, they had already traced the wehreabouts of the bag and is now on its way back to Marawi, the van is traveling from Iligan. A sigh of relief. After he got the bag, we all went back to Iligan. It was raining so hard, and dark already. It’s almost 5PM and the three of us has not eaten anything yet. Probably execpt for the Gatorade I drank before leaving Marawi. So upon arrival, we headed towards Dunkin donuts and buy some something to eat. Not more than 30 minutes later a bus bound for Ozamis arrived. It was bye bye time for us in Iligan.

From there the bus would travel to Mukas Port in the town of Kolambungan in Lanao del Norte and will be loaded to a Roll on Roll off Barge (RORO). the RORO trip is approximately 30 minutes. We arrived late in Ozamis, at around 730PM. In fact the hotel front desk was already calling me if my reservation would be canceled or not.

Our next destination: Ozamis City

After check in, we just had dinner at Mang Inasal. It was Marc’s request to eat there since it’s his comfort food. Sige na nga, pagbigyan na ang naiwanan ng bag! Haha. I guess all of guess got stressed from the experience but in the end, we still had fun, and had stories to tell. I was really really hungry that night, I was able to consume two and a half cups of rice, a glass of buko juice and a glass of cola. Minsan lang ito.

We went back to the hotel and slept immediately. All of us were excited for our next day’s activity. Something that I have been looking forward to experience months before we actually flew.

The three of us stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel in Ozamis. Very nice hotel, with very good WiFi Signal. It’s located right in the heart of the city, so everything’s just withing the walking distance.

Part 2 of the Northern Mindanao Series