On our first day (Dakak tour), we asked a crew what else can be seen there. He told us that the view overlooking Dakak was great, but we need to climb 300 steps up until we get to the Globe cell site tower. That was in the afternoon, and night would befall soon, so we opted to go to that cell site early next morning.

Top view of Dakak beach resort

Next day, we asked some crew how to get there. There were lots of orchids along the area. We walked a bit further and finally found the stairs. We’re not sure if it’s our age or gravity that’s mocking us. We were tired and out of breath when we got there. But the view was fantastic. There was a little islet on one side. On the other side, there’s Dakak, and “another resort”. We never find out if what we saw was really a resort. But it was beautiful just the same. At that point, we agreed that we would not do the Dipolog’s, “walk the 3000 steps and get a good view” tourist spot. We were satisfied at our 300-steps expedition and we found a good view anyway.

With that bit of hiking, we were tired (are we getting old for such stuff??) and decided to have an early lunch. It was our first taste of fine dining (during this tour) and spent P1219. We ordered chicken and pork adobo, baked oyster, pinakbet, fried rice and buko juice. Btw, we make it a point to eat at least one very satisfying meal either to boost up our energy in the morning; or as a reward after a full-day tour in the evening. Frankly speaking, the food wasn’t worth our P1219. The serving wasn’t meant for sharing, and I think we ordered pork ‘fat’ and chicken adobo since there wasn’t any meat at all. Anyway, Dakak was decent enough to change all those fat to meat when we asked them to replace it.

We checked out and our Dakak tour was finally over. We asked our van to drop us somewhere where we could find a hotel. We ended up at Villa Pillar Pensionne at Sunset Blvd. The room was cheap, clean, and spacious enough so we didn’t look for another hotel. A room for 4ppl only costs P900/night. Armed with our maps and printed itinerary, we got out of the hotel and started our tour.

Rizal house replica

Instead of our usual “hire-a local-mode of transpo and ask driver to tour you all over the place” method, we decided to commute directly to the tourist spot so that we would just pay the normal fare. The tourist spots of Dapitan were few anyway. We saved a lot that day because of that. We started at the Rizal shrine. This was the infamous site where Rizal was exiled. The place doesn’t look anything like a prison cell at all. Rizal even taught children and cure patients in his “cell”. Unfortunately, only replicas of the Rizal house, kitchen, clinic, etc could be found. I haven’t checked the history yet and I don’t know when the original structures were destroyed. The Rizal shrine was well-maintained, thanks to the faithful Rizalistas who constantly clean the area. The Rizalista women wore white dresses so outsiders might find it a bit eccentric.

St. james church

Next we went to the Mindanao relief map made by Rizal. We were a bit disappointed when we learned that the “map” was simply some grass and cement shaped like Mindanao. We haven’t taken any picture of it. We then headed to St. James church which was built in 1871. It was different and beautiful. The ceiling looked like strawberry-striped candies. It was different from old churches I’ve been. We looked at our itinerary and found that there’s not much to do in Dapitan. Since it was still early (around 3pm I guess), we took a 30minutes-van ride to Dipolog city.

We looked like lost little girls in the Dipolog terminal. As usual, barkers surrounded us and asked where were going. We have hardly any idea where we’re going. We knew a cave in Dipolog (Libuton), and said we would like to go there. The barkers have no idea how to get there as well. In the end, a police told us to go to the tourism office in the city hall.

In the city hall, we learned that Sungkilaw falls, Situbo falls and Libuton cave were worth touring. We asked for directions on how to get there and learned that the 3 sites were far from each other. We decided that we’ll take Libuton first and if we have time, we could go to Sungkilaw falls before going to our next destination: Dumaguete City. The tourism officer gave us a leaflet of the lifestyle travel agency and said that we can contact them if we would like to tour Libuton. We asked if we could get there first and ask for local guides to accompany us in the caves. They’re not sure if that’s possible. We thought that since Libuton cave is a tourist spot, locals may be probably well-equipped to tour backpackers like us….. and so we thought we’ll do that….. (horror-movie theme playing in the background…hehehe…) [Our adventurous and “mentos moment” trip to Libuton cave on next post….]

Dipolog Cathedral

So we’re off and walked to Dipolog Cathedral which was built in 1896. It was said that Jose Rizal designed the main altar. I’m not sure if he designed the church itself. But before going to the church, we went to buy pasalubong in Zaragoza’s which is near the city hall. We bought some bagoong there. Afterwards, we took a tricycle and went to Montaño’s. Unfortunatey, their Spanish sardines were out of stock, so we bought their other products, which were also good.

Dipolog sunset

After that, we asked our tricycle driver to take us to the Sunset boulevard. The sand and the little crabs were black, but the sea was clean. The sunset boulevard is the “clean” version of Manila’s baywalk. Our timing was right. We’re just in time for the sunset…and it was beautiful. After some tambay-moments, we went to the barbeque stalls in the area for dinner. The rice is called a “puso”, perhaps because it was wrapped like a suman, and was supposedly shaped like a heart… I’m not sure. We ate our dinner compsed of “puso”, tiny barbecued longganisa and other barbecued products. The food tasted good, and it was cheap too. ?

After a hearty meal, we wanted a good dessert. We saw some blogs where a mocha frappe was a specialty in the Good times café, so we went there. We were surprised that the Good times café was not a restaurant at all. It was like Enigmata of Camiguin, a structure inspired by arts. The place was a mini-gallery of art works, and there was no Mocha frappe at all. We were disappointed that we haven’t tasted the Mocha frappe. It was about 8pm, so we headed back to Dapitan. Btw, our timing was right. We were able to get the promo fare where vans heading to Dapitan costs only P10/person.

Banana Split at Gloria de Dapitan

Our day doesn’t end there. Since we were unable to have dessert, we walked to Gloria de Dapitan (just outside our hotel), and checked the stores and amusement park. We ate banana split, before we finally went back to our hotel. Our looooong day, and this looooong blog is finally over.

Places of interest for the day:
Dapitan:
-    Dakak’s 300 steps
-    Rizal Shrine
-    Mindanao relief map
-    St. James church
-    Gloria de Dapitan

Dipolog:
-    Sunset Boulevard (and their bbq stalls)
-    Dipolog cathedral
-    Montaño’s
-    Zaragoza
-    Good times café

Tips:
-    For Dapitan tourist who wants to go to Dakak, you can hire  vans and habal-habals in the Rizal shrine
-    When going to Dapitan to Dipolog (or vice versa), vans are faster than buses. They cost a little more, but it’s worth it
-    There are “promo fares” for Dapitan-Dipolog vans and buses. They are usually offered at night.

Expense breakdown for Day 2:

More pics here: