In Pursuit of Mt. Apo

When I went to Legaspi, Albay, I didn't have to look for Mt. Mayon ( see here) cos she's all over the place. Taal Volcano ( see here , here , here ) might be hiding sometimes cos she' so tiny but on the right time of the day she shows up below Tagaytay ridges. But Mt. Apo, our country's highest peak was nowhere in sight when I came to Davao City. Not that I haven't seen him? yet, but it had been 10 years ago since I last saw him and totally forgotten how he looked like. Resident cousins assured me it would definitely show up when the clouds cleared, not sounding very convincing.Then, three days had past, clouds had gone dark and clear , touristing around the province and seen a lot of generic mountains around but no Mt. Apo yet.

Then one time, while we were at the center of the city, cousin host invited us to have coffee at The Apo View Hotel.

Aha! Could it be ( my stupid me playing thoughts with my silly mind) that this hotel named after the possibly visible sight of the Mt. Apo from its location? No answer. .

We went inside the hotel and was surprised with an interesting tribal exhibit going on at the lobby.

I was pleasantly welcomed by a fellow blogger/hotel employee/event coordinator - Olan. This reminds me to check his card and visit his site ( I'm sure he's well known within /outside Davao blogosphere) later . He was so nice and very accommodating , he even introduced me to some people like the artist of the visual art exhibit.

Meet the artist - Mr. Ronald Tamfalan, a true member of Tiboli Tribe of Sarangani Province. The genius in him could be seen from the uniqueness of his works.

At the other parts of the lobby, there were trade exhibit, tribeswomen weaving on an authentic device and a parade of mannequins wearing beautiful handcrafted gowns.

After coffee, we went to the garden of the hotel and enjoyed Davao fruits-mangoosteen, durian,pomelo and marang.

Ofcourse, I hadn't forgotten yet my search for Mt. Apo sight. so we went up to the Top of the Apo (of the hotel) and found out...

Looking down , I realized that the city of Davao hadn't risen up yet in terms of tall building structures.There were only few high rise buildings and one of them was the Marco Polo Hotel.

We stayed for awhile until the sky started to get dark. Yet no Mt. Apo showed up. . .

On the way down the lobby, I took one glance up the ceiling and something was familiar. The brass coconut chandelier ! I've seen one before. .can't remember now where. We went home to rest for the following day's itinerary.

The following morning on our way to Cotabato, finally Mt. Apo gave us a glimpse of him. I was on a moving vehicle and it was confusing_ which of him was his on these interlapping mountains? I think the other one was of Mt. Eden and the bigger one was the Mt. Apo.
Case dismissed !!