Hiking the philippine islands

The Island of Mindanao is one of the largest islands of the Philippines. There are many many places to explore throughout the island. I hope you will enjoy some of the pictures i have taken throughout my trips. Above are some pictures taken from Davao the first row.. and the second row has pictures taken from Bukidnon near Malaybalay city. Below are pictures taken from the Valencia city /San Fernanado area of Bukidnon. Sometimes we walked, road our motorcycle or even a horse hehe.. The farmer in picture #8 is drying freshly picked coffee beans to sell.

Mindanao is covered with many different mountain ranges... hills... lowlands... rice fields... banana and pineapple plantations. Below are some pictures around Musuan/Maramag area of Bukidnon and also the Palangae river area of Lumbayao. Daily life is not an easy life in the mountains... washing clothes is a half day event at times.

As beautiful as the countryside is.. and even though I feel comfortable with the language to communicate with the locals... unfortunately as a foreigner I am very cautious to stay out of the mountain areas overnight. The island of Mindanao is full of communist rebels as well as muslim extremists. I know this as fact with first hand knowledge. So most of my hiking expeditions were limited to a 1 or 2 day hike in and back out. The Manobo tribe area of san fernando was probably the most dangerous region and i would recommend all foreigners not to visit there. Actually around most any major cities such as Valencia or Malaybalay definitely has a large enough rebel force to be dangerous. So please if you plan a trip, and are not familiar with where you are going try to stick to the main highways and travel by major bus lines.