Kagay White Water Rafting w/ Secret SEO
Another client came to town last week to visit our Philippines SEO Outsourcing business operations in Cagayan de Oro, and that meant a 2nd trip down the “advanced” course of the Cagayan de Oro River. We took four rafts for 20 people, plus we had two Filipino visitors from Sacramento, California, close to where my mother lives.
The basic course is the lowest part of the river and includes 14 rapids. The advanced course also covers the basic course but also includes 10 additional rapids further upstream. I have now been advised that there is also an “extreme” course, which ends at the point the advanced run begins and includes 10 rapids.
The advanced and basic runs do not require a lot of paddling, just enough to get your raft into the right trajectory to get the thrill of the rapids while also avoiding dangerous obstacles one might encourter along the route. The extreme course, from what I understand, requires near constant paddling to keep the raft on a safe course through the more treacherous rapids.
I have done the basic course four times now, the advanced course twice. I think it’s time for me to try the extreme course the next time. Any volunteers?
We again used the Kagay Rafting Company as our outfitters and guides. They are the largest rafting company in Cagayan and have some very skilled river guides. They also brought along a digital water proof camera, and I’ll be posting a 2nd photo gallery of the event after I get the set of photos they will provide us.
The cost of the Advanced course (without food, we provided our own food) was 1000 pesos per survivor.
See the full White Water Rafting Photo Gallery Here.
At one point Gus, the real “boss” at Sticky Media Solutions, fell in the water and it really spooked me because he was underwater for so long, taking about 10 to 12 seconds to surface. I think he got caught in a downward draft and it took him a while to get to the surface. He told me later he felt like he was being swept through a cave because the water was so dark he couldn’t see anything. With the relief I felt upon seeing him surface and okay, I began to rehearse how I would later berate him for falling out of the raft, only to find myself unceremoniously dumped into the river also.
Here’s a 2nd Photo-gallery, provided by the Kagay Rafting Company.
See the 10 minute, 10 MB video, mostling boring stuff, here.
Out of six trips down the river that was the first time I had fallen out of the raft.
Everyone but the guide fell out of one of the other rafts. There were no completely turned over rafts on this trip like happened on the last trip. In fact, it was widely rumored that on the previous trip when the raft was completely overturned that it had been done on purpose. So, when I tried to negotiate with the rafting guide who had been on the previous trip and in the raft that overturned if she could get the guides in the other boat to overturn the raft that our Secret SEO Visitor was in, she told me that the previous overturning was in fact an accident.
We saw some other rafters who appeared to be hauling bundles of firewood to maket on a disposable raft made from banana trees. The bundles of firewood, once dried out a bit would fetch about 5 pesos each and it looked like they had no more than 300 or 400 peso worth of fireword on board, but they bravely maneuvered through the rapids while standing, changing course by the use of long bamboo poles.
May 30th, 2011 at 18:40
Thanks for visiting here in Cagayan de Oro, we hope you enjoyed your stay here. There are lots of places to go here like ziplining, you guys should try it the next time you visit here.