✨It's Monday once again fellow Hivers!✨
It has been a rather occupied weekend for me - brunch and pamper date with my beloved, meet-up dinner and a little partying with fellow Hivers from Cebu, a PT session, an afternoon painting session at home with kids running and annoying me once in a while and a lot of rest and sleep! Lovely weekend, indeed! I hope you all got the same invigorating weekend. We all deserve it! ❤
So refreshing to the soul! I felt the same during my one and only day spent in Minalungao National Park. Previously, I have brought you to one of the many sites you'd see which is the pilgrim site on a mountain top.
Today, I'll bring you to the rest of Minalungao! Can I hear a loud "Let's go!" ? 😁
There's more to Minalungao
According to the official site of Minalungao National Park. The name of this protected area was derived from the words Mina and Lungao which when combined means gold mine in caves. Source
In 1967, Republic Act No. 5100 declared the total 2,018 hectares area as a National Park Source. I am not sure if the entire Park is open to tourists what I know though is that the park's main attraction is the found along the Peñaranda River surrounded on both sides with limestone walls that can go as high as 16-meters. Source
Before coming to the Park, all I wanted was to see the view from the hanging bridge. It offered both the view of the floating cottages on what seemed to be the end of the river and the view of the high-walled limestones bordering the rest of Peñaranda River.
I was very interested to see personally the floating cottages. It's nothing new; I've seen a few before. But it was my first time seeing more than 30 floating cottages in one area; some were parked near the entrance or opening of the river while others were stationed on the farther end of the river waiting for tourists to occupy them that way.
These cottages are rented out to tourists for the day and an assigned guide (I'm not certain if it's required tho) moves the cottage from one area to where the tourists wish to spend the rest of their tour. Both the cottage's raft and the shelter are all made from bamboo which allows it to float and navigate through the waters without difficulty. The capacity of the cottages depends on how huge it is. Small ones could house 8-10 pax while others are big enough for 12-15 pax.
It was still the start of summer when I visited Minalungao; there were only a few people on the site. But I heard it could be as crowded as a BTS concert during the mid of summer (end of March to April, especially during the week of Lent).
My tour guide and I moved towards the other side of the river where the limestone walls extended and saw for myself that Minalungao's more than worth it for the day I spared to visit it. The river's clean and crystal clear emerald waters suggested that I should not miss the swimming part. I wanted to explore the rest of Minalungao before plunging in the water. So I did!
I figured it was hard to explore the farthest end of Minalungao back in the day but right now, it's easy peasy as the Local Tourism and Government have done a few constructions on the site allowing tourists to tour the place safely and easily.
My guide would suggest spots where great photos could be taken. I set aside my shy self and pose whenever he asked me to. Here are the results:
I wasn't blogging then but I remember there was this group of teenagers who came to me and asked if I'm a blogger. They observed that I was taking a lot of photos! Who would have thought that a few years later, I could proudly say that I'm blogging my backpacking journeys and publishing them on such a magnificent platform called Hive! 😁
Moving forward
I left no stone unturned as I explored the last explorable part of Minalungao. Rock formations amazed my eyes. The occupied cottages were mostly parked at the other side of the river. I guess they were parked there for it's the part that ain't so hot and the water shallow perfect for swimming! Some cottages were already there while others were still on their way.
Lunchtime! Lunchtime!
I've been walking and trekking the entire morning; it came to a point where we had to go back to the entrance part and order food in one of the restaurants there. I ordered sinigang; their serving was enough for 4-5 pax but there were only two of us so I gave the rest to my guide for him to share with his family.
Swimming time
The day's ending real soon and I had to make sure I experience all that Minalungao could offer, but something's stopping me from finally taking an afternoon dip in the river. Maybe I just watched too many movies about snakes appearing on rivers while people are enjoying their time! haha! 😂
I had to take a closer look at the water and see if I could see the riverbed. The moment I've confirmed that it's indeed crystal clear and it's all sands at the bottom, I'm at peace that there's no snake or any other creature that will attack me. LOL! I overthink a lot! Told you! 🤣
Not to mention that my guide was there the entire time looking out for me. I felt like I'm his dear child and he's my father making sure I'm safe and enjoying all the time. It was shallow tho for a real swimming session! But nonetheless, it was refreshing after a hot day tour.
After swimming I immediately took a bath and changed into my dry clothes. We hurried back to Gapan City for me to catch a bus that will take me to the last Province on my list.
Minalungao might not be my favorite but it surely offered something unique and charming and refreshing. If you find yourself in Nueva Ecija or somewhere near it, you might want to consider touring here. A day will be just enough to have fun!
I'm afraid that's it for our #Project81PH featuring the Province of Nueva Ecija! I'm kinda at the crossroads as I choose the next trips that I'll share here, shall we go as far as Tawi-tawi? Or maybe we'll stay in Cebu for the month of April. Let's see what I can craft!
I'll see you in my next post, fella! Hope you enjoyed reading! 😁
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Let's go, girl! What an amazing post. The photos are awesome! And I enjoyed the way you narrate the trip and every interesting detail. I'm bookmarking this post because I have to remember to travel there someday. Thank you for sharing and see you around!
Hi @beautifulwreck! Come to the Philippines and I'll be your personal tour guide. I'm imagining it now and I'm sure we'll have a great time taking you around my humble country. I could only imagine the things we can talk about. We have so many stories that resonate with each other. 😁
Ohh, yes, I'm imagining it myself. It'd be pretty awesome, I'm sure! 😊
This is so beautiful!!!! I wish we would have something like that in this part of the world too. I'm such in love with wild and exotic parts of nature and colorful water ❤️
Hello there @gabrielatravels! You'd love Minalungao then. I hope you can come here one day. The entire protected area is definitely bigger than what you can see in my photos. Unfortunately, tourists are only allowed up to a certain point.
I think it's pretty fair considering that some parts of nature should be left untouched by tourists. But as little as I could see in your pictures, it convinced me to add this to my bucket list. So thanks for that! 😊
Beautiful pictures, it's always good to take a break and enjoy nature.
Indeed @gledys19! That's why I always find time to wander around.
Amazing post! What a wonderful place!!:D
Truly wonderful @belug! :)
Wooow Pat your adventures are amazing! This place is truly a gem in Nueva Ecija😍
Hi Era! It's truly a gem and worth the additional hour of a motorcycle ride. 😁
I'm sure that's a great place for chilling out a day. I love how Mother Nature arranges everything there: the river, the mountain, the cliff, the rock. And those little boats look like great chilling out places. The blue of the sky above and the water below and the green and gray of the trees and rocks in the middle make a perfect picture. I love the pano pic the most.
Your comment's on point @dodovietnam! Mother nature's prowess is beyond compare.
What a beautiful area, I think you had a very relaxing day, everything looks wow, and the color of the water is amazing, the ride on the river with those special boats, I have never seen that kind of boats before, I think they were like a bamboo raft.
You are correct @triplug, those are bamboo rafts only that a shelter (looking like an unwalled house) was added! We have all sorts of weird stuff in our country. I'm even surprised from time to time.
Thanks for being here fella! 😁
Wow nice
Thank you, @sucal! :)
Woow, what a place! is it heaven?
It might not be heaven but it was heavenly @arashthr! Appreciate you coming here!:)
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Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #1513.
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Oh wooooow!!! Thank you @lizanomadsoul for considering my entry. I'm deeply honored. 😍
:) kumusta!
Hey @chinito! I'm perfectly great, how about you? Not visiting here again any time soon?
:) yeah, probably not real soon, but hopefully it won't be too long.. how about u come visit hawaii?? :P
$WINE
Cheers @theguruasia 🥂
Nice to meet a Filipina explorer too.. Hello there hodophile, I guess you are 😅 ..