What is Cagayan de Oro City?

I could give you the quickest rundown of Cagayan de Oro City (CDO) or I could give you the Wikipedia link. I should just probably keep this short since you should probably need to visit Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagayan_de_Oro) or the official Cagayan de Oro website (http://www.cagayandeoro.gov.ph/) if you want a clean, clear, and complete information about Cagayan de Oro.

Now, if you want to skip the methodical read in Wikipedia, here are all the important details about Cagayan de Oro you should know:

The City of Golden Friendship

The saying goes “If you do not have gold, you do not have friends.” holds true for most people. I’m kidding. Before you stop reading this blog post. I should tell you that if you are a Kagay-ananon, you do not need to read this (unless you are just reading this for fun). I am not at all affiliated with the city government, nor am I paid to promote Cagayan de Oro.

Kagay-anon

People who live in Cagayan de Oro City, people who are born in Cagayan de Oro City, and even tourist who like to call themselves Kagay-anons are considered Kagay-anaons. Heck, anyone who embraces the culture of Cagayan de Oro City has the right to call themselves Kagay-anon.

Cagayan de Oro City is located in Misamis Oriental

Misamis Oriental is a province in Mindanao, an island in the Philippines. It is, in fact, the biggest city in Northern Mindanao (this is the region that covers Bukidnon and Camiguin) and provides a wide array of places to be. It is accessible via land, air, sea, and time travel.

The language is Bisaya

Cebuano, Bisaya, however you want to call it, that is the dialect we speak in Cagayan de Oro City. Since I was raised in another province before arriving to Cagayan de Oro City in 2004, I had a difficult time understanding some of the words that Kagay-anons speak. If you are familiar with how Visayan dialects are split into hundreds of sub-dialects, the whole sentence construction is the same; there are just some words that are out of the blue. Aside from Cebuano/Bisaya, Tagalog, Maranao, and English are also spoken throughout the city. For a better understanding of how our dialect works, I will create another blog post regarding this.

Jeepney and Motorela

Jeepneys and Motorelas are the major form of transportation in Cagayan de Oro City. There are also taxi and vehicles for rent around the town. I will make another post detailing this since I know commuting in Cagayan de Oro City might be a mess.

Tourism

Cagayan de Oro City is very well-known for its white water rafting (although technically, this should be a joint recognition for Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City).  Hundreds (not really, 50 at most) of parks and historical places dot the city and all of them are easily accessible with a taxi. Cagayan de Oro City is also considered to be the “Gateway to Northern Mindanao” since from here, you will have access to the white island of Camiguin, the Dahilayan Adventure Park of Bukidnon, the Divine Mercy of El Salvador, and tons of places I will make another blog post for.

There is a lot to discover in this city, you should probably have an idea of most of them, but for thos of you who don’t, stay tuned.

--A




(image sources: Google search, let me know if you need anything removed.)