Some Kind of Wow in the Now

            Somewhere most Bohol tourists have never traveled, far from the madding, site-hopping crowd, lies a place where fun can be had in relative quiet. Nestled deep within the calamay heartland, where mornings break on a blanket of mist and tranquility is as pronounced as the inflection of the locals’ speech, Danao beckons to those who seek to break free from the tedium of going through the motions of everyday living.

            Here you leave behind the bustle of the big city. Here you banish for a while all the cares in the real world. Here time flows at a leisurely pace, giving you a respite from the rigors of the rat race. And here, too, you get to experience a plethora of adventures that only Danao can offer.

The Way to a Getaway

            There are a number of ways to get to Danao. The most convenient, albeit a bit expensive, is to hire a van or a car from Tagbilaran. The trip takes less than two hours. If you don’t mind going fast, you can ask the driver to speed up so you will have more time to try as many of the awaiting treats. If you are on a day trip, you should get in touch with the management beforehand so you can sort out and book your preferred adventures, especially the ones that require sufficient time.

Another way is to take any of the buses that ply the Tagbilaran-Danao route. This is a lot cheaper, especially if there are but a few of you. The downside is, the trip takes three hours, so you go early. The upside is, you get to savor the scenery and get an authentic experience of what it’s like to travel in the countryside. And since the final stop is at the poblacion, you get a bonus experience: a connecting ride to the site astride a habal-habal.

Danao makes things easy for guests by providing detailed information on almost everything on their website, including bus schedules and even habal-habal fares.

               

A View to a Thrill

            The first time my friends and I came to Danao, we rushed to the where the Plunge and the Suislide were. But when we saw how steep and deep was the drop to the canyon, our feet sprouted icicle roots, and it took us a few moments to gather our wits and decide what to do next. Unable to shake off their jitters, Angie and Kleng opted to just take photos and videos if I dared to be brave. Thinking I have gone far too far to wimp out, I stood on the edge of the viewing ledge, steeling my nerves, until my senses came to grips with my acrophobic streak. Still the Plunge seemed too intimidating, so I took the Suislide first.

Suising (swishing) slide, suicide slide, call it what you want, the Suislide is the closest you get to how Lois Lane must have felt when Superman took her for a ride across the sky for the very first time. Suspended horizontally, the wind in your face, the sensation of flying too palpable to resist, you fancy for a moment that you are a creature of flight and not a ground-dwelling biped. And in case you are an anterograde amnesiac extraordinaire, wont to forget something as soon as you have done it, you can re-experience that giddy feeling on your way back and hope this time around the memory sticks.

The Sky Ride may just be a lazy slide across two points, yet you take it for the spectacular view. It may not stir your adrenaline, nor sate your craving for calculated peril, but the vertical perspective it lends tricks your mind into thinking that this must be the way the ancient rulers of the sky used to watch over their domains. Cozy on a perch that resembles a park bench, you traverse the chasm as though it’s the most natural thing in the world to glide unperturbed through the air. All the while the Suisliders zip by and the screams of those who take the plunge switch in tone from sheer terror to nervous relief to utter glee.

The Plunge is a universe of scare unto itself. From the moment you are suspended in midair, waiting to be released, up to the instant you are dropped, questions race inside your head: Will the line hold? Will your feet get tangled in the rope? Or will you scrape the tree tops or get dashed on the rocks below? As you fall these thoughts collide in a dizzying swirl, blotting out everything else, even the need to breathe. Only when you reach the end of the descent, arching across the void with limbs still intact, that you remember to scream.

Where the Wild Things Used to Wander

weekend trekkers going caving

       What sets Danao apart from most adventure parks is its deft fusion of engineered delights and natural attractions. Now that ziplines are all the rage and thrill rides can be had almost anywhere, Danao’s nature adventures provide those who are weary of the usual fare a chance to connect with their primal roots. In Danao, hi-tech and primordial get equal billing.

Among the nature adventures, the easiest is river kayaking and the most popular is caving. The athletic gravitate toward wall climbing and rappelling, while the outdoorsy go for root climbing and river trekking. When the rains come and the water of the river rises just enough, those who relish childish mirth can do river (rubber) tubing.

colorful kayaks at the landing

In kayaking, you paddle, alone or in tandem, 150 meters upstream, 500 meters downstream, then upstream again on the way back to the landing. The guide rows along, giving prompts and directions, pointing out shallows and strong currents, describing bits and pieces of the river’s peculiarities. The upside is, you learn to steer a boat and get plenty of exercise from all the rowing and the hike to and from the river. The downside is, you are bound to get splashed and burnt, the murky water and the unrelenting sun conspiring to negate the effects of your whitening regimen.

 In caving, you choose between moderate (Ka Mira cave) and extreme (Baleho cave). As for me, when a bunch of day trippers from Cebu decided to explore Ka Mira, I simply tagged along. 

water dripping from nascent stalactites

Named after one of the revolutionaries of Danao, Ka Mira is ideal for beginners. Even young children and grandparents can make it all the way to the end, one of the guides declared just before we climbed the rock wall and navigated the drop that led the narrow entrance. Inside are stalactites and stalagmites in varying shapes, sizes and sheen, occasional fruit and insect bats clinging to the rocky ceiling, and a stream with clear, cold water flowing through most of the cave’s length. Here and there are patches of dark clay which, another guide told us, could be used as a facial. When we came across a stalactite that dripped pure mineral water like sudden summer shower, I knelt underneath and caught a mouthful. We got out two hours later.

scaling the tangled roots

Of all the exciting things that Danao has to offer, my favorite is root climbing. Aside from being such a novelty, it is something you can experience nowhere else. In addition, it is a combination of two experiences: to go up the massive boulder you scale the tangled roots of a balete tree, to go down you rappel. Most people find the climb easy enough, but quite a number find the 15-meter drop unnerving. When the guide told me to start my descent, it took me a few tentative attempts before I gained enough confidence to start swinging downward.

To Be or Not to Be

To lure more visitors and fend off competition, Danao is unfolding a slew of new attractions. These days they are conducting test flights for their newly-arrived paramotors, paratrike and ultralight, and the buzz in town is that their 1.5-km zipline is nearing completion and will be in operation pretty soon. There’s also talk of opening a paramotor flight school, a first in the country, to make Danao the paramotor and ultralight Mecca of local flight enthusiasts.

friendly staff at E.A.T. Danao

But more than the dazzle of its spectacles, more than the spell of its thrills, Danao’s ultimate allure is its people. Throughout my two-day stay, the Danaoans I met and talked to were ever kind and accommodating, amicable and unpretentious, courteous to a fault,  radiating a lightheartedness that is innate to sensibilities that are unsullied by the ways of the world. As I was packing my bag I hoped, as Joey Ayala did, that they continue to hold dear the things that are of real value, the very things that make their town worth visiting.

merry chatterboxes

I left Danao on a bus full of kids on their way back to school in neighboring towns. Their merry chatter suffused the air, carefree and unaffected, blithe as the breeze that blew through the open window, reminding me of my offhand banters with the adventure park's staff and guides. After a while their voices merged with the hum of the engine and the whine of the wheels. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.