I love going to the beach but there's just something about the mountains and the greens that make me crave for it. The beach relaxes me and soothes me but the mountains give me serenity and peace of mind. Mountain therapy, that's what they call it. So whenever my hiking buddy, Nam, comes to Cebu, we'd always set a schedule for a day hike trip. We've hiked mountains in the southern part of Cebu so we thought, why not try the northern part this time? I suggested Mt. Mago since I heard that the trail was easy and I have also been longing to climb it since the fact that the mountain is the boundary of three towns—Carmen, Danao, and Tuburan—piqued my interest.
Nam and I met at Cebu North Bus Terminal around 4:30AM. We took the bus that was scheduled to leave the earliest since we were just going to drop off at the Carmen Public Market. At the public market, we hired a habal-habal going to Barangay Santican, the starting point for Mt. Mago. The habal-habal ride was quite long and the roads sometimes get rough but we didn't mind since we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes along the way. The habal-habal fare was Php 120 per person.
When we arrived at Barangay Santican, the habal-habal driver took care of hiring a guide for us. Our guide was a kid and without saying anything (maybe he's shy. Lol), he just started walking so we followed him. We didn't register our names or anything so it would be best that you do not hike alone in case of emergencies.
The trail was indeed very easy so I highly recommend Mt. Mago for beginners. I enjoyed every step of the way compared to our previous hike where I almost fainted and vomited. There were slightly difficult paths that made me lose my breath sometimes but stopping for a moment did the trick. And these quick breaks made me appreciate the beautiful view up in the mountains.
That's our guide right there. See how far he is from us? Haha.
The funny thing about our hike is that our kid guide didn't care that we took breaks as he just continued walking. Nam and I just laughed it out. I forgot how long it took us to get to the peak and we weren't even sure if it was really the peak because we couldn't find the famous boundary marker of the three towns. We asked our guide about it and he murmured something we couldn't understand. So we opted not to give a tinker's damn. We asked him again if he had classes and this time, he answered us and said yes. So we kindly told him to just leave us so he won't be late to school and gave him Php 150 as a fee. He hurriedly went back down and we went on with our own business.
We took each other's photos here and there and sat down for a while. When the sun was already high up, we decided to start hiking back down and find a shade. We found a large tree on our way down and sat there again for a moment. We were confident we knew the way back to the starting point.
Plot twist!!! We got lost several times. Haha! We were sure we passed through the same way but then we'd see houses and cornfields we didn't pass through on our way up so we started questioning ourselves. Haha. Good thing we were able to encounter a few locals and asked for the right way. That's the best part of the adventure, right? What's important was we arrived at the starting point in the end.
Mt. Mago was the second easiest (next to Osmeña Peak) hike for me by far. However, Mt. Mago gave me the best experience because of the unexpected plot twist. Haha. And it offered the most picturesque and breathtaking natural landscapes that you couldn't help yourself but stop and appreciate the simple beauty of Mother Earth. I would not think twice in climbing Mt. Mago over and over.
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