Mindanao Holiday Escapade

With the coming of the Holidays, I got a chance to travel to Iligan and celebrate the season with the Ana and her family. I was quite worried that the buses going outside the city would have a lot of passengers. And I was not wrong. The buses to Cagayan de Oro were fully booked and I had to wait at the terminal for quite sometime and fall in line for almost an hour just to get a ticket. The bus is overly crowded that the trip was very uncomfortable. 

Upon arrival in CDO, I went directly to the other terminal and started the trip to Iligan. I arrived around lunch and after I rested for a couple of hours, we started the trip again for the city of Tangub.

Tangub was Ana's hometown. We traveled 2 hours from Iligan via van, which in this case was also very full since everyone's also going home. We rode the van and after a couple of hours, we reached this wharf where we get to ride a pump boat going to the other island . The city is very small. You wont see any jeepneys, taxis or other modes of transportation except tricycles and trisikads.I have the privilege of being toured around the city by Ana's cousin and we managed to cover the entire city in 15 minutes. 

We went there to attend a birthday celebration of Ana's grandmother who turned 91 years old. The night after the celebration, we went to the plaza and watched the Christmas decorations. Tangub city is known as the Christmas Symbol Capital of the Philippines and this year they depicted well known monuments in the world. 

After staying there for 3 nights, we went back to Iligan again and while we are in the city, we tried the most expensive coffee in Kopi Luwak. This coffee was made from the beans pooped by civet cats grounded and brewed. I ordered the "Spirits of the Glass" which has civet cat coffee and whiskey. I did not enjoy the coffee because it was bitter and I got drunk.