Spending time in Agusan del Sur (for work) last week for about five days, I made time to check out the local sights, food, products and anything that distinguishes said town from the other places in the country. For this particular trip however, I wasn’t on my usual traveler mode and didn’t prepare a schedule that allowed much sightseeing or food gorging. I was here for work i.e. interviews and footage for a documentary my organization is undertaking as part of our advocacy to address child labor in the Philippines. The days would be crammed with following our subjects as they go about their daily lives.
Happily it turned out that the workload was manageable. The members of the production team were veterans and knew exactly what they needed for the project. So that should have given me sufficient time and energy to explore right? Wrong.
I had with me the ultimate indoor-plaything: my 2-week-old netbook. Instead of exploring the real world outside the hotel, there I sat down in front of my monitor and basically spent all my free time on the Interwebs. It didn’t help that the place had super-fast Wifi.
It’s kinda sad because there were so many things I could’ve seen or experienced in Francisco and Butuan. Don’t believe me? Well here’s a list:
1.Attend a nearby town’s fiesta. Of course, by the time we found out about the festivities, it was too late. We only learned that that there was a gathering at a town near us (14 kilometers or so) via the late afternoon local news.
2.Visit Agusan Mars Wildlife Sanctuary. A protected area, Agusan Marsh is nearly 15 thousand hectares and is “vast complex of freshwater marshes and watercourses.” A great site for birdwatching, it counts among its prized inhabitants the threatened Philippine Hawk Eagle. I was warned though that one approaches Agusan Mash with utmost care and preparation. Its waters are home to some deadly parasites that cause death among humans by invading the liver.
3.Take a short hike along Mt. Diwata. I just settled for taking a good long look at it whenever I can. This wasn’t hard to do, as the mountain looms large over the town of San Francisco.
4.Visit the Balangay Shrine Museum in Butuan City. I am truly saddened I wasn’t able to do this. I would’ve loved to see the prehistoric boats called balanghai that date from the 4th and 13th AD.
It wasn’t a complete waste though. I did manage to indulge in some local activities—mainly eating and shopping. The minimum must-dos whenever I go to Mindanao.
1. Eat fresh durian fruit and its variants (e.g. shake, pie, durian cream). I also managed to bring home three kilos fresh durian.
2.Check out the ukay-ukay merchandise. Found a nice black leather bag for P250.00.
3.Eat seafood. In Butuan, we sampled this dish called Sinuglaw. It’s a combination of raw
4.Malasugi fish and grilled liempo ‘cooked” ala kinilaw with gata. Mmmm.
Next trip let’s hoping there’s no wifi in the hotel…
- Earnest Mangulabnan-Zabala
