Reaching the peak at Osmena Peak

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It was on a fine Monday afternoon -19th day of January when Carmela, my college friend and Minette, my brother's girlfriend reached the peak of Cebu, the Osmena Peak.


Minnette and I woke up a little bit late since we partied in the streets of Cebu prior to our trip in celebration of Sinulog Festival. Carmela, on the other hand will just meet us halfway as she was currently in her hometown, Oslob -she doesn't really like to be in a large crowd.


At exactly 9:45am, Minette and I arrived at Cebu South Bus Terminal and took the Ceres bus bound for Bato Oslob, we left the city at exactly 11:00am. We took the unairconditioned bus since a pile of people were lining in the air conditioned buses. It was an uneasy two-hour trip for me as I was sitting in the window side area and the heat of the sun was killing me. Luckily, I was able to suvive and arrived at Dalaguete intersection at exactly 1pm. Carmela was already there and have negotiated with a habal2x driver to bring us up to the Mantalungon Market.


It was a bit of a bumpy road on our 30-minute travel but I didn't mind it at all, as we reached nearer to our destination, the temperature became colder and I enjoyed the beautiful scene, the province ambiance that I was not able to see for the last two years since I started working in Dubai.


We stopped buy at the Mantalungon Market to buy some lunch and decided to eat at the peak to save time. Same driver who brought us up in the Market was the one brought us up to the foot of the mountain too. We didn't really like him that much because he was overpricing but in the end we took up his service.


After a 30-minute struggle in the town's unconstructed road, we arrived at the foot of the mountain around 4:00pm. Upon arrival, you need to sign the tourism's logbook before you start to climb. Numbers of children were also there to offer their services as your tour guide.


So, we decided to pick the 8-year old boy, I forgot his name, because he is super duper cute. And off we go, we started climbing to our 20-minutes plus journey. At first, we thought it would be as easy as 1,2,3 and as we were still on our 5minute hike, we already felt tired. "Di najud ko muusab" (I won't do this again) were the words that came out in our mouths. But still, we continued climbing.


After so much drama and complains, we finally reached the summit around 5:00pm. It was amazingly beautiful and we were all breathless upon seeing the magical scene right in front of us. Its just like the beautiful chocolate pile of hills in Bohol but the only thing, it lies in the bodies of water, the sea that surrounds the Badian area I meant for. It was definitely worth the climb.


We started eating our late lunch as there was a family who were taking pictures at the moment. After the family decided to head down and we have finished our lunch, we didn't waste our time and we started taking endless
selfies. Of course, I was the first one who posed for my
signature selfie. We took bunch of pictures from our not so professional cameras, but it ain't that bad at all.


Just before the sun sets down and darkness will eventually covers our magnificent view, we take our last look and bid our goodbyes to the beautiful scene in front of us. We head down around 6pm as we have plenty of trips lined up for us for the next couple of days.


Overall expenses:

Ceres south bus-dalaguete100/pax   200 php me&minette
habal2 to mantalungon market           150 me/carms&minette
I nasal lechon manok                           180 good for 3pax
puso 6php each 9x6                               54 good for 3pax
1.5 liter of soft drink                                45 phpgood for 3 pax
tour guide                                                  50 php
habal2 from market to osmena foot to dalaguete road proper
                                                                    400php
Ceres to oslob 30/pax                               90php
total                                                            1169php


Less than 400php for each person

A 1 day trip is good enough in order to climb the peak of the mountain, and after you head down to dalaguete road proper, plenty of buses are still available up to 11:00pm heading back to the city.

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Photos

lady x in Osmena Peak
Finally I'm at the Peak!!!