CAGAYAN DE ORO | BUGSAY River Rafting Experience

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CAGAYAN DE ORO | As we all know, there are a variety of tourist spots in Cagayan De Oro that I am sure you are going to like and enjoy. And before we head on to the Cagayan De Oro Airport, we decided to do one more activity that is so well known in the area and that is the White Water Rafting.

Rafting is a challenging recreational outdoor activity that uses an inflatable raft to navigate different courses of water rapids which are called white water. While searching on the internet, I found Bugsay River Rafting!

Bugsay White Water Rafting in Cagaya De Oro City

As I was visiting relatives in Bukidnon, which is basically next to Cagayan De Oro, white water rafting was on my bucket list and it had been for a long time. I promised myself that I had to try this since I was already in Cagayan De Oro.

I immediately asked my Facebook friends for suggestions on whether they knew of a company that offered white water rafting tours and one friend referred me to BUGSAY White Water Rafting.

Bugsay which means PADDLE in Cebuano has been operating since 2010 and been serving its customers the ride of their lifetime.

We immediately phoned BUGSAY and made a reservation for 11:00 am since our flight was still at 4:30 pm. That gave us more time to enjoy the experience without rushing to catch our flight.

Bugsay White Water Rafting Rates
(as of 10/2018)

Php1200.00/ head

Php 1800.00/ head

We all met up at a central area in the city where the jeepney was waiting for us with the rafts on top of the jeepney. That looked so cool!

The staff who waited for us took us to their main office in the city for signing of waivers, payment and registration. After a few minutes, we hopped back on the jeepney and started our journey to Cagayan river where we started our rafting adventure.

After a 30 minute jeepney ride into the mountains, we finally arrived at the Bigaan River which is a very popular site for white water rafting and has been promoted by the Department of Tourism as the main tourist attraction in the city of Cagayan De Oro. This river also separates Bukidnon from Cagayan De Oro.

The rafts were being pumped up and prepared for action. But before that, Bugsay will make sure of the safety of everyone. So they provided us with life vest and helmets and ensured that the entire party was correctly kitted out for a safe but adventurous expedition.

For the beginner course, the entire distance would be 8kms long and would take approximately an hour. Over that distance we would be facing rapids of different levels. We just couldn’t wait to experience and face the rapids.

The most advanced and technical course would take 4 hours to complete with the total distance of 16kms. That we have to save to for our next visit. We were fortunate that it had rained in the days before despite it being the dry season which meant that the trip would be a little more exciting and the rapids a bit more technical. Apparently during the dry season the water in the river is blue but as you can see from the photographs the recent rains had muddied the water and made the rapids a little more challenging for us.

Before we went to our raft, the guide gave us a few tips on how to paddle and to make sure we were aware of the basic instructions. Aside from us on the boat, we were also accompanied by two other guides from Bugsay who did most of the maneuvering.

Now it’s time for us to practice how to paddle forward, back and to stop!

Adrenalin rush spiked as we encountered the first rapids – and more followed soon. It was so much fun! There were times that I was thrown off of the edge of the raft because of the huge rapids but I enjoyed that a lot!

In front us was their photographer who took pictures and videos of us while we were facing the rapids. It will be compiled on a CD which they will give you when you arrive at the office after your white water adventure.

It wasn’t rapids all the time, there were parts of the river where it’s calm. A great opportunity to look around and enjoy the scenic beauty surrounding the Bigaan River. We even saw some big lizards that of a variety that we had never seen before. That was amazing!

After an hour, we finally reached our final destination and what an amazing experience it was! Bugsay White Water Rafting really made sure we had fun and all of us were safe.

The whole staff were also very friendly and professional in what they do. We never had any dull moments with them. This will definitely not be the last time you will see us because we will be back and we promise that we will do the whole 16km course.

BUGSAY WHITE WATER RAFTING really made our trip to Cagayan De Oro worthwhile. The fun experience we had with them while rafting is good enough for us to go back and do more.