Pardon this very late post. I’ve been in trance between wakening and hibernation. No. I don’t do or call it beauty sleep — for the love of sleep, more than beauty, I call it hibernation! LOL! But there was a weekend intended to spend time with travel blogger friend Doc Wendell that took me out of my weekend bed covers. He delivered a talk during the Business Compendium for the MSU-IIT students. And ofcourse, we had to be there too, but was mostly looking forward to a Sunday off for Initao.

The Lasang Secret Adventure Park is located at Initao, Misamis Oriental and is part of the Initao-Libertad Landscape and Seascape Protected Area. My fond memories of this area was during our sampling days in Biology, armed with sampling bottles and canisters, and other quintessential stuff “biologists” would bring. This was a baby’s crib for us, we had a few overnight stays, spelunking adventures, and at lot of skin rashes for me — but we learned a lot in this fenced up sanctuary. 

Lasang Secret Adventure Park is Misamis Oriental’s adventure surprise for its’ visitors. The protected area is split by the national highway, as the road curves along with canopy of trees framing the highway. and despite the high speeding vehicles passing by, an adventure and commune with nature is a stop-by midway between both cities Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.

So we went into the adventure park that offered spiral staircase, a canopy walk, and a zipline to cap it off. Priced at 250Php, it was not bad. It was the virginal zipline for Doc Wendell, we were okay to not push through had he not wanted to. But he braved up and went for it. It was epic to see it in his face trying to push the idea out of his head until the harness and line faces him. Lasang Secret Adventure Park was fully operational last August 15, 2009 and is managed by the Region 10 Provincial Tourism office.  

There was a short trip through the protected forest. It was informative of the our guide to show and point out some interesting flora and facts about. And yes, Jam and I were, oh-ah — bio geeks alert. I would’ve liked it more if we were walking on the ground than on the walkway that leads up to the bottom of the spiral staircase. Then again, placing that walkway also helps in preserving and lessens visitors disturbing the area.

A few steps we came upon the brightly colored red spiral staircase. It was a nice sight as the foliage takes up most of the spaces around it and only pockets of sunlight would pass through. Doc Wendell went on ahead while I stalled Jam and Alex every once a while to take eye level shots. If you’re afraid of heights or easily get seasick, piece of advice: DO NOT STOP. If you do, you will actually feel the staircase move and sway with the movements you make and the wind hitting the structure.
The spiral staircase has 74 steps, five rounds, and lands on the first pad 100ft. above the ground. There are 5 suspended walkways, 3 of which goes to one direction which are 30, 60, 120 ft length. You have to walk  back on these 3 to the main pad, and off to another 2 walkways which are 60, and 100 feet in length to end up at the zipline launch pad. And yes, I stalled the group, yet again, as I would stop at the middle of the walkways to get some shots. Blogger mode turned ON — hmft! I was scared, truly was, but had some exhilarating moments of realizing how far up we were that I just had to take in the moment, and get some shots of it. Don’t we all do that? =)
The zipline was short but I always get jitters just before the lunge off the launch pad. I would have this constant battle of whether be pushed off or let myself jump off the pad or basta! I just hate that part. LOL! Before I took the zipline though, I did ask if the line can be controlled, and if it was okay that they give me a short stop midway. And they said, yes! So somewhere in between the launch pad and the landing area, the ground far from my feet, the canopy above my head, and dangling midair– I yelled, STOP! Just to get a few seconds or so or more for some shots! I knooooooooooooow!!! Ahahahahaha.. I don’t like suspended on a line, but the adrenaline and the excitement pushes you to do some crazy stuff.
This was a simple trip out that taught us to push fears away, get scared but face it still, laugh anxiety off, and take a bit more from the experience. Not all ziplines are the same, and not all experiences gives you the same level of adrenaline — this one taught me, it’s okay to get scared, and sometimes some crazy stuff pushes that fear off. 

TRAVEL NOTES:
+ Look for monkeys! We didn’t get to see one, but was told there are some on the premises.
+ Brave up! and take more from the experience!

_________________________________________________________

“People tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, 
something that will descend like fine weather if you’re fortunate.
 But happiness is the result of personal effort. 
You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, 
and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. 
You have to participate relentlessly.” 
~ Elizabeth Gilbert
_________________________________________________________