Do you believe in magic?
Many people believe in magic, and some don’t. If we are talking about magic, we can think of somehow enchanted music, enchanted views, enchanted actions, etc.
As I keep on reading some travel reviews from social media and other sites, I also feel excited when I read or hear about Enchanted River. It came into my mind, why is it called Enchanted? Well, you will see and find out when you see it with your own eyes.
There are so many stories about this river and you can search for it on Google.
The HINATUAN ENCHANTED RIVER is a deep spring river on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. It flows into the Philippine Sea and the Pacific Ocean at Barangay Talisay, Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur. It is found between the boundaries of Barangays of Talisay and Cambatong.[1] It earned the moniker "enchanted river" from the diplomat Modesto Farolan who described the river in his poem entitled "Rio Encantado" -wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinatuan_Enchanted_RiverIf you want to know more about the history and facts of the river, you may refer to Wikipedia. Since you can see all the history through Wikipedia, what I am sharing here is the experience of how satisfying and breathtaking it is.
There are multiple ways to get there. I am from Cebu, so I tried by airplane and bus. I booked a flight from Cebu to Butuan through CebuPacificAir.com. I also mentioned from the reviews that I read that it is more convenient if you start from Butuan if you are not from Mindanao, rather than via Davao. I am not really a fan of getting tour packages from travel agencies, so I just let my instincts work. I am a commuter, so I just ask people where and what to do when I get to the place.
I arrived in the afternoon at the Butuan airport because of the delayed flight. Well, it was a promo ticket, so I don’t have much right to blame. Hehehe. I simply decided to spend the night in Butuan and leave early the next morning. There are many affordable lodging houses that you can check out, so no worries about that. It is a good thing that their airport has public jeeps, so if you are on a tight budget, a cab or taxi is not really necessary. I wasn’t able to roam around the place because I was tired and it was late when I found the place to stay. I decided to just rest in the room.
—Lights off—
When I left the Butuan bus terminal at 3:00 a.m., it was early in the morning. They have a Ceres liner bus that has a route to Hinatuan and vice versa. I traveled early in the morning so I could avoid any heavy traffic and peak hours on the river. It was roughly 3–4 hours of travel from Butuan to Hinatuan, so I still had time to take a nap during the trip.
