My friends, Rose and Norman, invited me to their wedding last year so I was able to visit some of the places in General Santos. The photos here were taken on December 2012 exactly on the 14th, two days after their wedding day. We drove from General Santos City to Lake Sebu. Both the bride's and the groom's family, young and old, joined the trip as well as the other bridesmaids including myself. I did not bring my son with me because he was only six months old by then and the thought of giving him to somebody else while I was walking down the isle, well as a bridesmaid that is, did not sound so appealing to me. After all everybody in my friends' families were very very busy. So I left my son at home with my parents again.
We arrived in the area after just about an hour. Lake Sebu is about 100 km from General Santos. Both places are in South Cotabato province and consequently part of SOCCSKSARGEN region. Lake Sebu is a natural lake located in the municipality also named after it. The municipality is composed also of the villages surrounding the lake. The place is an ecotourism spot. Ecotourism, as we know, is a kind of tourism that means visiting places where their natural features are undisturbed and is strictly maintained that way. Anyway, The T'boli and Ubu are the tribes that live in the place and the place is their ancestral domain.
We drove past some resorts along the way, that is uphill and downhill, but decided to stay for lunch and site-seeing in the most popular resort around, the Punta Isla Lake Resort. It has a floating restaurant and lake-side nipa huts.
Here are some photos taken in Punta Isla Resort. I took most of them except for the zipline shots of course.
Welcome!
Welcome again!
On our way down to our nipa hut to eat our lunch...
While doing downhill...
Felt like missing somebody, I took this shot...
Christmas tree in Lake Sebu!
Well, that's not me. That's a T'boli woman. :)
This is the view of the lake from the Resort.
And this side...
The lake taken from our motor boat.
The lake again!
After eating our lunch, we went to nearby place where the popular Seven Falls are. By the way, for our lunch we ate rice, then tilapia, you know, a famous fish here in the Philippines but not so famous in my province Northern Samar. We usually eat fish from the sea and not from fresh water. We ate chicharong tilapia, sweet and sour tilapia, mechado tilapia, afritada tilapia, you name it. I think they have all the menus for tilapia.
This was one shot by Rose, the bride. The three of us in the picture separated from the group, got lost for a while and went looking for the others and thought they were down the hill so we kind of took the excruciating 774 steps down. My knees were shaking when we got there and then found out later that there was a "habal-habal" or motorcycle that should have taken us down there. My legs were still shaking in this photo. And our friends were not there, they were waiting for us where we separated.
Now zipline! And I thought I could not do it at first. I was so scared to even put the zipline vest on. The "kuyas" there were telling us that it was actually a very safe ride and we did not need to worry and we should just enjoy and I thought I was going to back out but sayang naman pinunta ko kung hindi ko susubukan. So there, we prepared for the ride of our lives.
This is us, the three lost girls found a daring adventure, zipline! Ready!
Set!
Go!
Goooo!
Goooo!!!
Kuya, ayusin mo kuha namin ha? LOL!
The Lake Sebu Zipline is one of the tallest ziplines in Asia. There was a part 1 and part 2 ride so it was kind of satisfying. I could see the other of the seven falls from way above. I felt like I was flying like Peter Pan.
Here are some shots from the 7 Falls at Brgy. Lake Seloton which is still in Lake Sebu. That's right, we went everywhere until sundown. There are just so many amazing places to go and do in Lake Sebu.
This is the Falls 1 also called "Hikong Alo" in T'boli. This was taken before we got lost.
This is still in Falls 1. There is a concrete bridge nearby where you can take pictures and listen to the raging sound of the water flowing.
This is taken a few walks away from last step of the 774 steps. Yes, we made it down but so tired. This is Falls 2 or "Hikong Bente" in T'boli. It is 70 feet high. Nakakalula tumingin sa taas nito! I had the idea to rappel these walls but I left that to my imagination for that moment.
This is still in Falls 2. It was like raining here, I thought I should have brought an umbrella.
Falls 2...
The walls of Falls 2..
Still the walls of Falls 2... We were actually resting here since our knees were still very very tired and shaking.
The other falls are way out of our league so we did not dare to there. Well, some other time when I return, maybe I could visit the other five falls. Some of them I saw while on zipline above the mountains. Other ways to reach them were through trekking pro-like way. It would be a great adventure. The other five falls still to be conquered by me are Falls 3, Falls 4, Falls 5... Ok, Falls 3 or Hikong B'lebel (coil or zigzag), Falls 4 or Hikong Lowing (booth), Falls 5 or Hikong Ukol (wild flower), Falls 6 or Hikong K'Fo-I (short) and Falls 7 or Hikong Tonok (soil).
I just took this one, they're such a beauty.
And another one...
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