Cagayan de Oro: White Water Rafting

Sunday, February 19, 2017

White Water Rafting is an outdoor activity that is considered as the main tourist attraction in Cagayan de Oro City. The fast current and large rocks in Cagayan river makes its water rough yet ideal for rafting and kayaking activities. I was with my friends who have tried water rafting here before and they really came back for this. We availed the Long Course Raft + Zip Package with meals from Great White Water Tours Corp., one of the most popular professional adventure group in CDO.

Before we started, we wore our life vests and helmets and picked our paddles. I'm actually not an adventurous type of person and not a good swimmer too so at first I was so scared to try it. I listened attentively to the instructions of our guides just to be sure I will be safe. I've chosen to sit at the rear portion of the inflatable raft near our two guides.

The moment our raft started moving, we immediately encountered an obstacle and I keep a tight grip to avoid falling out. There were too many obstacles that I get used to it until I'm not scared anymore. There were some parts wherein our guides requested us all to stand to welcome the rapids. We enjoyed the rest of the activity, from beginner to advanced level. It was so much fun but more than that, listening to the sound of the rapids and chirping birds made me appreciate Mother Nature more. There were calm portions of the river wherein our guides allowed us to go down the raft to swim and relax for several minutes. We crossed the river for two hours under the heat of the sun, and yeah..we already expected our sunburns! After the activity, we had to go back to the Great White Water Tours headquarters to eat our sumptuous lunch.

Note: I have all these beautiful moments captured because we have a photographer with us which is included in every package. He was on a kayak alone and was always ahead of us encountering the rapids too. Take note also that he was not using a water-proof camera but a DSLR, amazing skills!