Tourist sites in south Cebu now thriving

CEBU, Philippines - After bearing the brunt of calamities that hit the province last year, tourism centers in southern Cebu are now back to normal and have noted of brisk business. 

This was evident to tourists during the second day of the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo 2015.

Foreign and local visitors who joined the southern trail took the opportunity to savor the cascading waters of the five-tier Aguinid Waterfalls in Samboan town.

All levels of the Aguinid falls were made accessible to tourists after incurring mild damage from the tro-pical depression Queenie in November last year.

The damage was aggravated during tropical storm Seniang in December.

Both the tropical cyclones hovered over southern Cebu and brought intense rain that caused massive flooding and overflowing of rivers.

The raging floodwaters brought by Queenie washed away the boulders used as “disaster mitigating” measures. This also prompted the management to temporarily close the area to visitors.

“Wa sa nato pasudli two days after Queenie kay wa ta kabalo basin mokalit lang og overflow,” said Marivic Calderon, tourism officer of Samboan municipality.

She, however, said it only took a week for the Aguinid Falls to recover with the number of visitors increasing again.

She added that the nearby residents, who earn by offering their services as tour guides, contributed a lot to the rehabilitation effort by helping out in the clearing operations, as well as the maintenance.

The participants of the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo were able to explore different levels of the Aguinid falls yesterday.

The Samboan government is eyeing to develop eight other waterfalls in the town.

Apart from the Aguinid Falls, the southern trail also headed to the “Mainit Springs” in Malabuyoc.

The Mainit Springs has three pools with varying temperature: 36.1 degree celsius, 35.8, and 42.6 being the warmest.

The Provincial Capitol extended P200,000 to the town for the development of the tourist site.

Mainit Spring and Aguinid Falls were the two new destinations for this year’s Suroy-Suroy Sugbo.

Further, cultural presentations entertained the participants in Oslob town which also ended the second day of the tour.

The southern trail caravan, being the first for this year, ends today.  (FREEMAN)