Spending your daily life in a bustling metropolis, such as Metro Cebu, with all its traffic jams, vehicular smoke and urban pollution, horrendous long hours of commute that just takes a huge chunk of your day… Pretty stressful, right?
Do you long for a quiet, tranquil place to unwind? Do you want to commune with Mother Nature while appreciating the view of the Cebu skyline and the Mactan island across, all this just a mere few minutes drive from the city? Then Mt. Kan-irag is the perfect place for you.
Mt. Kan-irag, known to locals as Sirao Peak, is located in the upland area of Cebu City and it stands 720 MASL. This place is famous among Cebuano mountaineers and hiking enthusiasts because of its fairly moderate trek difficulty, accessibility from the city and the Instagrammable views you’ll get along the way.
HOW TO GET THERE
There are two well-known routes to Sirao Peak, the Kan-irag Nature Park (Backdoor) trail and the Budlaan-Malubog trail.
The Sirao Backdoor Trail is a fairly easy one. You just navigate to Ayala Heights Subdivision or to the access road going to Sirao Flower Garden, and from there, it’s just a 15-20 minutes uphill trek to the top.
But if you’re an adrenaline junkie craving for extreme challenges, then you can traverse the Budlaan-Malubog trail. This trek takes about 2 to as long as 8 hours (depending on your pace), passing through forests, boulders, rivers and waterfalls. Most trekkers opt for a dayhike, but you can also camp out at the peak for the amazing sunset and sunrise views of the city.
It is recommended that you go along with a mountaineering group that is familiar with the trail. But in our case (because one of us already tried the traverse before), we decided to have a DIY daytour trek (for added adrenaline and excitement haha lol).
BUDLAAN-MALUBOG TREK
From the city proper, we traveled to Sunny Hills Subdivision in Talamban, Cebu and we hitched a motorcycle taxi to Sitio Baugo, our jumpoff point. There is a sari-sari store here that sells bottled water, biscuits and other provisions in case you haven’t had the time to buy in advance.
We started our trek at around 9 AM. From the starting point, our first major stop is the base of the Budlaan river system. At first, the trail was very easy, as the walkways were either cemented or is pretty obvious to follow. But as we went along, the once obvious trail slowly vanishes and we slowly find ourselves lost among trees and thick forest canopies. Luckily, there were people living in the area whom we asked for directions to the river.
After a few minutes of trek, we reached the river. From here, the trek becomes easier, in the sense that you’ll just follow the river uphill to Kabang Falls, which is our 2nd major stop. But it also gets more strenuous, as we climbed on very large boulders and cross slippery portions of the river. Always stay safe and be mindful of your surroundings.
Upon hearing the thunderous sound of cascading waters, we knew we are approaching the base of Kabang Falls.
Kabang Falls is multi-tiered waterfall (about 5 levels), and its main drop, a classic horsetail-type of waterfall, is a thing of beauty. It is nestled by boulders of varying sizes, which you can leverage as vantage points for your photos. You can spend a longer time here, to wallow in the waterfalls’ cool, inviting waters or eat your lunch, as the large portion of the trek comes after this stop.
Up next was one of the most challenging part of the trek. To proceed further uphill, we had to literally climb the edge of Kabang Falls! On the right portion of the main cascade, there’s an array of rocks and shrubs uphill that we held on to. It is really nerve-racking, because one mistake can guarantee severe bruises as you fall downward. And there was nobody there to assist us, we have to do it all by ourselves! Thank God everything went well!
After the daredevil climb of Kabang Falls, we proceeded up the river system, latching unto gigantic boulders with nothing but our bare hands.
We trekked until we came to an apparent dead end. 
Left with no other choice, we backtracked our way for another half an hour until we met a group of people and asked for directions to the peak. They said it is on the right side of this dam-like structure below. Never, ever forget this marker!
From that point, the trail suddenly becomes very steep, that we have to stop every once in awhile just to catch our breaths. It also became harder as we don’t have a river to guide our way up, we just relied on any passable trail marks we saw. After a few minutes, we made it up on one of the mini-peaks, and we started seeing hints of Mt. Kan-irag!
We knew we were close, so we pushed on, while the ground became steeper with every step, the vegetation started to change from trees, to shrubs, to itchy grasses and the air felt thinner than before.
MT. KAN-IRAG SUMMIT
At around 2 PM, or 5 long hours from the start of our trek, we finally reached the summit of Mt. Kan-irag! It was truly breathtaking, seeing the entire metro from that perspective, and how everything seemed so small from up there. We even played name-and-point on the famous landmarks and buildings in the city.
We stayed for about an hour for our photo and ‘reflection’ sessions (since it was the Holy Thursday), then we started our trek downhill to Sirao Flower Farm. We passed by green, rolling hills, with grazing herds of cows and goats greeting us along the way.
SIRAO FLOWER FARM
About 20-30 minutes of trek, we made it to the famed Sirao Flower Farm. The garden takes its inspiration from the blooms of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, hence the moniker “Little Amsterdam”, with its wide variety of flowering plants, landscaped impressively in the backdrop of lush, verdant mountains. There are swings, benches, even cottages and function areas for rent scattered around the facility.
But honestly, we expected lots and lots of flowers in the area, but instead, there were lots and lots of people. It’s because the place has since became a hotspot for Cebu City tours, serving both local and foreign tourists. It is really a challenge finding an area and taking your photos without other people in the frame. We hope the LGU can regulate the number of people inside the park, maybe by implementing advance ticketing schemes? This can also aid in maintaining the orderliness of the area.
We didn’t stay that long in the area. After some snapshots, we had our late lunch + snacks in the food stalls outside the farm, selling native delicacies and even fresh fruits. Finally getting our fill, we hailed a motorcycle taxi ride to our last destination, the Terrazas de Flores Botanical Garden, a 30-45 minute downhill ride from Sirao.
TERRAZAS DE FLORES BOTANICAL GARDEN
The Terrazas de Flores, located in Brgy. Busay, Cebu City, is reminiscent of King Nebuchadnezzar’s Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It has a wide array of ornamental and flowering plants, neatly contrived in built terraces, or terrazas.
It has lots of Instagrammable spots like flower tunnels, pillars and benches all around. For the foodies, this place even has an in-house cafe in the upper bulwark serving food, drinks and frappes! One interesting feature here is that all the plants had signages bearing its common and scientific names. Talk about learning while having fun!
SAMPLE ITINERARY AND EXPENSES:
Here is a sample DIY itinerary and the expenses we incurred for the day. Our starting point is Cebu City downtown area (We didn’t include our food expenses because we bought our supplies beforehand.)
For a hassle-free experience on Cebu’s highlands, especially when you are travelling with your family and group of friends, you can avail of KLOOK‘s guided tours and other services.
BOOK A SIRAO FLOWER FARM + BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY TOUR.
BOOK A CEBU PANORAMIC SUNSET + DINNER TOUR.
BOOK A PRIVATE CAR CHARTER FOR CEBU HIGHLANDS TOUR.
PRO TIPS:
- Be sure to take your breakfast (and your morning rituals if you have)
- Bring lots and lots of water to keep yourselves hydrated
- Don’t forget your biscuits/chocolates/energy bars
- Practice the LNT (Leave No Trace) policy in the entire duration of your trek
- Wear proper trekking attire, bring gloves!
- There is no signal in almost the entire Budlaan-Malubog trail
NEARBY SIGHTS:
You can add these other famous spots in your Cebu Highlands tour.
- Temple of Leah
- Mountainview Nature Park & Resort
- Tops Lookout
- Jumalon Butterfly Sanctuary
- West 35 Eco Mountain Resort (Balamban, Cebu via Transcentral Highway)
- Mt. Manunggal (Balamban, Cebu via Transcentral Highway)
- Buwakan ni Alejandra (Balamban, Cebu via Transcentral Highway)
Comments
Post a Comment