Sikyop: Iligan’s other ‘hidden paradise’
ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews / 23 July) — Since the 1980s, Tinago Falls has been Iligan’s main attraction for those who love the outdoors. Situated amidst a lush tropical forest, it is a sight to behold but is not easy to visit, especially for the uninitiated as it will take 500 steps to go down, and an even more challenging 500 to go up.
I’ve brought visitors there over the decades, and everyone was awed by the beauty of Tinago, even though going back was “torture” for most.
If you want something more hard core, Iligan has something for you — Sikyop, a trek under the canopy of tall trees in the forest, through caves, crevices amid beautiful rock formations, waterfalls, and an underground river with walls so exquisitely carved by water probably for over millions of years.
“Sikyop” is situated in Sitio Lawlawon of Rogongon, in the hinterland part of Iligan, where the Higaonons live. It is about 30 kilometers from downtown, a drive through Iligan’s highlands for almost an hour.
The word “Sikyop” is Higaonon for “hidden paradise.”
I first visited the place in 2018, when the Sikyop Agricultural Cooperative had just started developing the place and training its guides from among its members and their children for what would later become the Sikyop Agri-Tourism Adventure.
After my first visit, the cooperative invited my running group, the Iligan Trail Runners, to explore the place and play around. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join the group at that time, but the video produced of that visit is among the earliest. (FB: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=185486668994361)
Sikyop was already in full commercial operation when I came back with visiting friends a year later.
Those visits were long ago, during the B.C. era (“before COVID”).
This year, I visited the place twice: in February, to accompany my wife’s colleagues, composed mostly of people with no or little exercise; and two weeks ago, to accompany some friends, mostly long distance runners, including balikbayans.
In its Facebook page, Sikyop management has this warning: “The road to get there is a bit challenging and pregnant women, people with heart problems, injuries and those who are not physically fit are strongly discouraged to go there.”
Please heed the warning. If you’re going, make sure you wear footwear with good enough traction to handle both mud and sharp rocks, like trekking sandals and trail shoes.
In my February visit, one in our group nearly fainted. But we were in the company of doctors, so no worries there. Because of that, our guide, Vering Cabasa, advised us to skip one destination—where the shallow caves and waterfalls are—because he’s so sure some of us could not handle the terrain.
During the recent visit, I have to agree, Vering was right.
From the entrance area where you’ll begin the trek, you’ll be walking downhill on a muddy trail (not “road” as mentioned), avoiding landslide areas, then uphill again under the shade of giant trees, with thick vines hanging you could do a Tarzan, as Rere did. It could take you anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour to get to the first destination: a camping area with bamboo and nipa cottages around. Of course you know which group got there faster.
Then you’ll pass by a shallow cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, which then opens into a passage as wide as a basketball court. The walls on both sides are rocks maybe five meters high. Looking up, you’ll see trees all over. Exiting this place is, again, through a shallow cave.
In my 2018 visit, we went down a bigger, deeper cave. But we had head gear with lamps. Sikyop management closed that part to visitors for now, maybe until they have the right equipment.
Not far from the passageway, we climbed down a narrow path holding on to a big rope with knots to keep us from sliding down. Below are a series of shallow caves and crevices, with flowing spring water below.
Yanyan immediately dipped into the cold, crystal clear water. “The water here is just so refreshing, unlike what they have in Texas,” she said.
Above us are all green.
Almost 30 minutes of negotiating the crevices and the strong currents, some of which are neck-deep, we arrived at Pagangon Falls. Now I understand why Vering skipped this part in my February visit. You need to be strong enough to walk against the current, and pull yourself up away from the water and climb the rocks.
I got minor bruises in the leg and in my hand on this path.
Pagangon Falls, maybe just five meters tall, is small compared to the other famous cascades of The City of Waterfalls, but it’s nice because of the rocks around it and the shallow swimming area below. Above is just all green.
The falls is a dead end, and thus we negotiated the same passage again to get out.
Now, the final destination: the underground river.
Just getting by the entrance is already, wow! Lorraine and Charlie immediately posed for pictures. I said, “Proceed, please. This is nothing compared to what’s up ahead.” They dutifully obliged, and were amply rewarded.
Yanyan, meanwhile, had a hard time which picture she’d post first on Facebook because she kept changing it in her mind the farther we got into the trek. “At least I already have a caption!” When I checked her wall the next day: “Havasu Arizona feels at Sikyop Iligan City, Philippines.” On a smaller scale, probably.
Technically, Sikyop’s main event is not an underground river; maybe a canyon? It’s more like there was a stream in the top soil long ago, and the flowing water gradually carved the earth and the stone below it over the years, millions maybe. But water is such a great artist as it carved the stone so beautifully, with curves of different shapes and sizes.
It’s more than 10 meters deep now.
The opening above is only two to three meters wide—again covered with the greenery, with some patches of sunlight passing through—then it widens to up to seven meters in the middle part, and narrows again at the bottom, where the water continuously flows.
We walked slowly upstream, negotiating the rocks once more. Sometimes the gushing water narrows to a meter, sometimes it calms down when it’s wide. That’s when we’d take a dip and enjoy the pristine water, and take pictures. Repeat … again … and again …
The underground river is only about 200 meters long, but it took us almost an hour to traverse the distance. Selfie galore!
Sometimes the water is only knee-deep, sometimes up to the neck. Thus, be careful with your electronic gadgets. Best to bring a phone with at least IP67 waterproof rating; otherwise, bring Ziplocs or those waterproof phone cases with clear plastic on the other side. Better yet, bring a GoPro or similar rugged waterproof action cameras.
Make sure you have an ultrawide lens, too, to capture the beauty of this place. I often hear Lorraine saying, “Set it to 0.5 please!” Yep, the ultrawide lens on her iPhone. Glad I have a similar setting on my cheap Samsung.
I brought a mirrorless camera in my previous visits. Your usual wide angle lens won’t cut it, you’ll have to bring an ultrawide, which will make your camera bulkier and heavier. Not easy to carry it in this kind of trek.
It was already 10:12 a.m. when we got out of the underground river. We started the trek from the main entrance around 7:10 a.m. And we still had to walk uphill.
Visitors are encouraged to arrive early, between 7 and 9 a.m., to be able to finish the trek early. They discourage going into the underground river in the afternoon as rain is common. When the water rises, there’s no escaping that place.
You can also opt to stay in one of the cottages and spend the night there, and explore some more.
Sikyop is managed not by rich families in a big corporation but a cooperative composed of farmers in the area, a mix of Higaonons and settlers from the lowlands, says Ombay Cabasa, head of the Sikyop Agricultural Cooperative.
I like the way they maintained the natural beauty and the cleanliness of the place, not introducing big development projects nearby that would be an eyesore. There are some facilities for those who want to stay overnight, but hidden from the usual visitors who would just love to trek.
Agnes Clerigo, former head of the city government’s Cooperative Development and Livelihood Office who oversaw Sikyop’s development in its early years, said they pushed to market the area’s natural attractions first before agriculture.
“Years back, when the road was bad, they would rather not mass produce vegetables because it was so expensive to bring their harvest to the market where they would fetch prices that are so low,” she said.
Now that the road is paved all the way from downtown, members of the cooperative have gone into high value crops like lettuce, broccoli, Chinese cabbage and carrots, which they also sell to visitors.
And the visitors have kept coming since. We visited it on a Tuesday, and there must have been five groups of visitors there. At P150 per head for the trek, and the lunch they serve to the hungry trekkers afterwards, the cooperative must be earning well for its members. (Bobby Timonera / MindaNews)
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