Hello everyone! I am sharing to you our experience in the City of Golden Friendship. If you are an adventure junkie in the Philippines and looking for some thrilling activities aside from whale shark watching and canyoneering in Cebu, scuba diving in Palawan, cliff diving in Siquijor, and surfing in Siargao, I surely recommend that you visit Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao for  their known water rafting activity. KAGAY Whitewater Rafting will help you discover the thrill of nature at its wildest!

Watch short clip below.

KAGAY Whitewater Rafting in Cagayan de Oro

Cagayan de Oro, which is also translated as river of gold, is known in the Philippines as “City of Golden Friendship”. However recently, the city has become popular as the country’s “Whitewater Rafting Capital”. Cagayan derived its name from Kagay which means river. In the city, the group KAGAY invites everyone to the challenge to conquer the river rapids. This group is where we trusted ourselves as we accepted the challenge!

The adventure has three sections: Lower, Mild and Upper. Since we are all beginners, we took the lower section at P1200/head. It has 14 rapids running approximately for 3 hrs (Class I-II minimum of 6 pax).

Why choose KAGAY Whitewater Rafting?

With KAGAY, safety is thetopmost priority. Whether you are experienced or amateur, the group made sure that all of us will be given all the safety gears first before the challenge. The company is using State of the Art Rafts (SOTAR), paddle and oar boats, helmets, paddles and HABAGAT lifejackets.

Your gadgets are safe!

Don’t worry as well if you have your gadgets with you because they have top-of-the-line Carlson & K-pumps Throw Bags with floating ropes, and SOTAR dry bags in varying sizes. During our time, they also have accessory so we can place our GoPro action cam on our helmets. Before the trip, we are all instructed of the do’s and don’ts especially in case of emergencies. We are obliged to follow rules of our leader which is a staff from KAGAY. Most importantly, the staff emphasized the value of team work so we will all be safe for the 3-hr fun-filled adventure.

Things to bring:

• a bottle of drinking water (Remember to manage your garbage please!)
• Leggings, Rash guard, or armband (At the start off place, they are selling these just in case you don’t have them)
• Sunblock (We didn’t need this that time because it was drizzling.)
• Waterproof camera (You also have the option to purchase your pictures. See below for more info.)

So, the adventure starts…

The adventure started with an orientation on the basic commands used by the guide.

One of the best parts of this adventure was our guides. The first was with us in the boat. His sense of humor was superb. We knew that we can trust him our state because he had the expertise in the rivers. The second was the one taking our pictures. Together with him was his dog, joining the adventure. Both of them are locals and they are well-trained in guiding and first aid.

The rapids are already starting to hype us! Look at the fog in the background.

The experience was really great. It was a bit scary but really worth it!

TRIP SCHEDULES

They have two schedules in a day: morning and afternoon. For the morning, pickup time is 7:30 AM, and for the afternoon, pick-up is 12 NN.

RATES

• Lower Section (P1200/head) –  (Approximately 3hrs River Run ) 14 Rapids,  Class I-II Minimum of 6 pax
• Mid Section (P1800/head) – ( Approximately 4hrs River Run ) 24 Rapids, Class II-IV Minimum of 6 pax
• Upper Section (P2000 / head) – ( Approximately 2hrs River Run ) 14 Rapids, Majority are Class III Minimum of 6 pax

INCLUSIONS

• Jeepney transfer from city proper to Put-in.
• From Take-out back to the city proper
• Helmets, life vests and paddles will be provided.

OPTIONAL ADD-ONS

• Pictures and Video: P500/CD, P700/USB
• Lunch – Plate-in: P200/head
• Caving/Spelunking: P1200/head minimum of 6 pax

CONTACT NO. & ADDRESS

• Address: Corrales Avenue, Corner Rivera St., Cagayan de Oro City, 9000 Philippines
  • (088) 852-1021
  • 0917-712-2442
  • 0908-869-9100
  • 0917-712-2323

Our adventure ended but we gained friendships. It seemed that the three-hour journey was still not enough for most of us because we wanted more. We went home filled with good and exciting memories.

Did you like this article? Let littlemisadvencha know in the comment section.

Cha Esper

Cha of Little Misadvencha is a Filipino Civil Engineer, researcher and a fur mom. She came from General Santos City and finds that everything in life teaches her a lesson. She is inspired to write about and out of her experiences, but later found out that it was her experiences that actually inspire her.