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| Iconic Bud Bongao |
I
must confess, climbing mountain is already beyond my “thing” or maybe it came
down with my progressing age. But seeing the grand icon of Tawi Tawi, the Bongao
Peak or locally known as Bud Bongao, is a temptation to any visitors to climb this majestic landmark in the province of
Tawi-Tawi. The regal view from a far
is quite a scenery that would enchants anyone who would lay their eyes on the majestic mountain.
Maybe
I am not the hardcore mountaineering type, but the moment I saw
this famous landmark, I have sworn that I shall never leave Tawi Tawi without eating dirt from this mountain.
To
accomplish my mission, I rode a motorcycle down to the foot of the mountain, just
fronting Sandbar Lepa Resort in Simandagit. I chose to start trekking at 7:00am when the temperature was still cool.
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| Common skink that dwells in Bud Bongao |
The fear
of climbing alone never occurred to me as I felt very safe roaming around the
vicinity. As I trek higher, I noticed that I was the sole hiker that day.
I started with a short
pace and got amazed with the flora and fauna I encountered along the way. The semi agri-forested area is home to
some unique avian and reptilian species that I have never seen in other places in the Philippines. Sad, I
wasn’t equipped with proper high edge camera to capture some images of the
raptors that crossed my path.
Discovering
some unique flora on the trail, I was reminded of my college mentor and friend
Dr. Melanie Medicilo who is a genius studying some of the noted Aroids in the Philippines.
I was in doubt identifying a beautiful ornamental Aroid that at first I
thought would be Alocasia heterophylla or Alocasia boyceana. But I bet Dr. Medicilo would be very happy
to take a look on my photos and identify it for me. I hope it's a new record.
The whole Bud Bongao is "infested" of such beautiful endemic Aroid. Wow! If this plant is another
unidentified species, as I suspect, this would add up to my list of scientific discoveries in Mindanao.
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| Some interesting flora in Bud Bongao: Cycad sp.,and Alocasia sp. (possibly new Philippine species) |
Reaching
the middle of the hill, I noticed that a lot of colorful plastics were tied on twigs, and I was thinking that it was just the traditional markings on the trail. But
these markings have different story as visitors purposely tie them on twigs
with the belief that
the plastics left in the mountain would also confine the peoples’ negativism in their lives likes sickness and
bad luck and would be left and lost forever in the heart of the mountain.
Halfway
through, there are human-made staircases to which according to a local was
commissioned by a Chinese businessman. The story tells that the shipment of the
Chinese trader was in the verge of sinking while sailing ward the Celebes Sea. The Chinese businessman prayed
and promised that if his shipments arrived safely in Bongao, he will construct
staircases in the mountain.
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| Long -tailed Macaque of Bud Bongao |
The
most revealing find in this climb was the existence of wild long-tailed macaque
naturally inhabiting the forested part of Bud Bongao. It was nice to see these
primates wandering and jumping from one tree to another. At first, I only saw a couple of monkeys walking along the concrete staircases. But I was surprised that their number
grew as the elevation increases.
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| At Bongao Peak |
After
an hour of trekking, I finally reached the peak of Bongao. From where I was
standing, the view was breath taking seeing the island of Sanga-Sanga and the
coastal areas of Bongao. There was a good cellular phone signal at the peak
since a cell site tower was erected at the top of Bud Bongao.
After
a couple of hours resting and updating my status on my FB , I hurried tracing my trail back down of the mountain. I
was fascinated to even saw some unexpected unidentified species of Cycad in
the thick bushes near the peak.
It was almost noon, and more and more packs of
monkeys appeared following me on my trail. There were individuals that were very
observant while sitting on trees and must be wondering on my presence in their territory.
According to a local, the monkeys were accustomed to the bananas being thrown at
them by the visitors of Bud Bongao.
I did not bring any bananas with me since
it was not my intention to feed the wild monkeys as suggested by the locals I met downtown. The monkeys aggregated and I
suspected that they must have sniffed the loaf of bread I had in my bag. I
threw slices of bread at them that lead them snatching the pieces on air. I have
never seen wild monkeys performing acrobatic stunts but what I had just
witnessed was way better than in the circus.
On my descend down to the foot of Bud Bongao, I finally met some visitors (a group of family and some group of
youngsters) who were about to start climbing towards the peak. They were awed
that I was climbing alone and had finished it before noon. They were carrying
some sodas and basket for some kind of family picnic tradition in the mountain.
I have never thought in my entire life that I would set foot solo in a place being feared by many. Climbing Bud Bongao have just proved that Tawi Tawi is just like any other peaceful places in the Philippines and sad to tell that this place was like character assassinated just because it is home to Filipino
Muslims. Fearing this place is not so different from the discrimination being thrown by most Filipinos to our Muslim brothers. A very unfair treatment and stereotyping and avoiding the whole community and its people just because of its association to ARMM.
Check my other article about Tawi Tawi
here.
Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it!
Don't forget to leave your comments in the box below. Good luck to your adventure :D
