⌛ Your Bukidnon Roadtrip

It is 2006 and you’re in a 4x4 driving through rough roads across a plantation of pineapples as far as they can see. You’re with a friend, maybe a lover. The sturdy truck kicks up a storm of dust as you pass, but the road ahead is clear. The sky is a wide expanse of blue, the sun on your faces and the wind is blowing fiercely through your hair. You are on an open road and this is Bukidnon.

On the way to Malaybalay

Malaybalay is located 91 kilometers south of Cagayan de Oro, a two-hour drive from the city. A great percentage of it is a classified as forestland, and being a landlocked area with an average elevation of 3,000 feet above sea level, it enjoys a cool climate and is far from the typhoons that visit the country each year.
Progress has arrived in Malaybalay, and what used to be a sparsely populated town is now at the tipping point of developing into a full-fledged city. Still, you could feel its raw nature when driving past trucks filled with sugarcane, jeepneys loaded with baggage inside and people on top, and fields upon fields of land.

Monastery of Transfiguration

Fifteen minutes away from the city is the Monastery of Transfiguration. Built by the famed architect Leandro V.Locsin, the pyramid-like edifice invokes an aura of serenity. It is a place where Benedictine monks spend their lives in prayer and contemplation. There is something about the place that makes you stay quiet, the simple structure belying an intensity that surrounds it. You walk around and feel a certain sense of peace and comfort.

Pineapples and Plantations

Thirty minutes from leaving Cagayan de Oro, you reach the town of Manolo Fortich, where the Del Monte Plantation and the Cawayanon Golf Course are found. Built in 1928, the par 72 course is carved out of a plateau and is surrounded by the Kitanglad mountain range, making it one of the most scenic golf courses in the country. The spreading trees and natural and man-made lakes also make it one of the challenging ones.
Now it’s time to go farther up and into the mountains. It was time to get off the road and into the land. Further into Malaybalay are the MKAVI and Celebrate Life Agriculture Plantations. The former has one of the most beautiful and scenic pineapple and banana plantations in the province. With the majestic Mount Kitanglad in the background and the Kalatungan mountain range on the other side, their plantations are awe-inspiring to behold.