Iligan – Cagayan De Oro (CDO) – 88 km
The horrendous traffic, narrow road, and drivers seemingly on a suicide mission
made it a stressful ride into CDO. One had to watch both oncoming traffic and
traffic coming up from behind. In addition, vehicles headed towards each other,
often occupying the same lane. As a result, I had to dive out of the way a few
times to avoid becoming roadkill. In the process, a metal pin firmly lodged in the
tyre – so tightly lodged was the pin, it took great effort getting it out. I don’t fix
punctures with any elegance and came away covered in grease.
Hot, sweaty, covered in grease and in a foul mood I cycled into large and busy
CDO. To make matters worse, fume-belching tricycles and Jeepneys were so
tightly gridlocked one couldn’t even get through by bicycle.
At least the congestion gave plenty of opportunities to enquire regarding directions
to a hotel, as no one was going anywhere. Directions were down a hotel-kind-of-
road where one could find hotels at inexpensive rates. The air-con didn’t work, and
after transferring to a different room I discovered the air-con no better. The toilet
kept running, and instead of lying in bed listening to a running toilet, I got up and
fixed the darn thing. Crawling into bed a final time, I laughed at how bizarre things
could be at times. Before finally falling asleep, a mouse ran across the floor, but I
just giggled, ignored the mouse and fell asleep.
The next day, I did laundry and bought two new inner tubes. Later, a river rafting
company caught my attention. This was precisely what I needed, and a trip was
booked for the coming day.
Being picked up by a Jeepney with the rafts strapped to the roof didn’t instil much
confidence. Still, the trip was great fun, the river scenic and the guides
professional. I believed the money was well spent, and I completely changed my
mind concerning CDO.