I ♥ CEBU - Osmeña Peak

Our Iloilo - Cebu flight arrived at around 9am. Plan was to go to Osmeña Peak after lunch so we just stayed at SM City first to check some hiking gears and to have lunch. From the airport, we took a taxi cab going to SM which costed us PhP176.50 (I will provide a breakdown of all the expenses at the end of this post for reference). Since it was just past 9 yet, we stayed at Starbucks waiting for the mall to open. Starbucks frappuccino is one of my guilty pleasures so I couldn't resist the opportunity.lol

At around 1pm, we went to the south bus terminal near Elizabeth mall. We rode a jeepney going to "E-Mall" (short for Elizabeth Mall) with only PhP8.00 fare and walked our way going to the terminal. Just ask some vendors or security guards for a direction. You will have to pay for the terminal fee before going into the bus. The trip to Dalaguete is about 2 hours so we opted for an aircon Ceres bus. Just ask which bus is going to Dalaguete. The "konduktor" didn't know where Osmeña Peak is. He told us that there is NO Osmeña Peak in "Dalagit", only Ocean Bay. So I just told him to drop us at Dalaguete town proper. I don't know how to pronounce it actually but the "konduktor" pronounces it as "Dalagit".

As soon as we got off the bus, there are guides who would offer to take you to Osmeña Peak using a habal-habal or a motorcycle. The fare was PhP150 per person for a one-way trip. I wasn't sure if it was overpriced or not but we just accepted the offer. The winding road to Mantalongon was a bit scary especially when you're riding a habal-habal. All I did was trust the driver and the God above for our safety. When we finally got at the foot of the mountain that we were about to trek, there were two kids who served as our guide as we trekked our way at the peak. I think it took us 10-15 minutes to reach the peak and it was very tiring because we brought our bags with us. We actually told the driver to drop us at a nearby lodge at Dalaguete first to leave our bags but he though we wanted to stay at Mantalongon. 

There were only three tourists aside from us probably because it was Friday - Friday the 13th to be exact. ^^ When we went back, the habal-habal driver already smelled of Tanduay. He must had a few drinks when we went up at the peak. So that got us nervous because he had to drive us back to Dalaguete. Thankfully we had a safe trip back to Dalaguete and he dropped us at a lodge.

I forgot the name of the lodge - actually I don't know if it has a name.lol I just remember that it was painted in pink and it was near a school. The room rate was Php400/12 hrs. We checked-in at 6pm so it was already a good deal for us since we're planning to leave at 5am to go to Tan-awan for the whale watching. But I will cover that in my next post. :D

Summary of Expenses:

Taxi Fare (Airport to SM City Cebu - 176.50

Jeepney Fare (SM City Cebu to Elizabeth Mall) - 8/person

Southbus Terminal Fee - 5/person

Southbus Terminal to Dalaguete Town Proper (Via Aircon Ceres Bus) 105/person

Dalaguete to Osmeña Peak (via habal-habal)- 300/person (roundtrip)

Tourguide at Osmeña Peak (optional) - 100 (optional)

Dalaguete Lodge - 400/12hrs (for 2 persons)

Total Expenses for this trip: PhP756.25/person