vondraye: October 2016

I’m not a fan of trekking nor hiking. Period. However, I thank my friend Uday and her friend (which I found is a fellow blogger too) Mel(http://travelwhileucan.blogspot.com/) for inviting me to join their recent trip to Osmeña Peak. I’ve heard a lot of stories from my friends and that it was just a short hike, given that you will avail of the habal habal ride going up the hill, which will save you literally HOURS of hike from the highway. It was true. The habal habal ride going up there took around 45 minutes around 6:45pm in the evening. Yes, we went there in the evening up the hill which scared the hell out of us (me and Mel) because we’re both afraid of the dark, while the only girl that joined us was very brave going out alone in the dark, wilderness and all. The fact that we were ALONE camping at the top of the hill made it more eerie and scary.

They have the nice idea of having photoshoot with these cute socks!

Inside the tent shoot!

Shot by Uday and Mel!

Our tent! Good morning!

The trip starts at Cebu South Bus terminal and ride the bus going to Oslob. Advice the driver or conductor to drop you off at Dalaguete (pronounced as Dalaget), and you’re planning to go to Osmeña Peak ( The fare going there is 105 pesos as of October 2016). They will drop you off at their drop off station/point near 7-Eleven store and from there, habal habal rides are available going up to the foot of the mountain. Services are available 24/7 by the way, and if you don’t want to hike during the evening, there are inns where you can stay for overnight. The fare going to Osmeña Peak depends on how many motorcycles will be used. The three of us rode one motorcycle (yes, one motorcycle) and paid 100 pesos each. Upon reaching the bottom of the mountain, there are staff that will assist you and apparently, they are available to assist hikers, overnighters 24/7 and a guide was assigned to us going up the hill. Kuya Manong was nice enough to help us to set up our tent as well. There’s a minimal Environment Fee (I think it’s around 30php) to maintain the cleanliness of the place. It was that day that Cebu experienced heavy rainshower while we experienced heavy storytelling, eating and sleeping. Lucky for those two who were sleeping soundly, while I at the side of the tent, where strong winds would slap the tent to my face. I slept around 2am in the morning, woke up around 5 and don’t have the energy to go out, while Mel and Uday were having photoshoot.

Mel, Uday and ME!

Literally... Zero Visibility!

I decided to go out after I gained rest, wore around 5 clothes plus my jacket and mustered all my strength to go outside. It was indeed cold, really, really COLD, but it was also a beautiful scene. Zero Visibility because of the fog. It may look boring, but the beauty of nature (or Cebu) being covered in fog, not seeing anything else but fog is something new to those who came from those who haven’t seen such things (most specially me, who came from Manila, where SMOGS are the only ones available). We waited for a while, I took a nap and when the sun was up, that’s the time you can really appreciate EVERYTHING…. I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. You can describe it in any way you can, it was just like in the movies, it was like a postcard came to life, it was like a virtual reality, it was that feeling of being somewhere else, and the list goes on. Yep, it dawned on me; We were indeed at the Highest Peak of Cebu. We cleaned up, fixed the tent, and trekked down. We also paid 50php for the tent set up or overnight fee. Then, I also bought a shirt souvenir which was outrageously beautiful. It wasn’t like those cheap looking shirts! We then went to eat at Maria’s Batchoy, right across the 7-Eleven store. I wasn’t able to take a picture anymore of what we ate because we were all dead hungry.