At 1013 meters above sea level,  Osmeña Peak is known to be the highest point in the island of Cebu, Philippines. It is situated in Mantalongon, Dalaguete which is in the southern part of the Cebu province. Dubbed as the “Vegetable Basket of Cebu” and “Little Baguio” because of it’s cold weather, it is sure to be in the bucket list of every travel travel junkie, shutterbugs and mountain climbers. It is a fairly easy and safe trek and good enough for beginners to no experience level.

We started our trip in South Bus Terminal on board a Ceres bus at 3:55AM and asked the steward to drop us off the corner to Mantalungon (P105 fare for air-conditioned bus). Based on several blogs the travel to Dalaguete from the city takes more or less 2 hours 30 minutes but swiftly we arrived at 5:40AM. That is 1 hour 45 minutes only thanks to traffic-less highway. We dropped off from the highway junction to Mantalungon and rode motorcycles (habal-habal) that will take us right to the base of the peak (P100/person, that’s P200 back-and-forth).

It was around a 30-40 minutes ride and you will notice along the way that they have been developing the road to the peak which makes it now faster and easier for visitors.

I have read blogs that start trekking from Mantalungon market and will take an hour or two to get to the peak. But in our case we passed by the Mantalungon Public Market and drove to a rocky road for a few more minutes that will take us closer and give us shorter trek time. Downside is we were not able to take pictures of plants and trees along the way that are not commonly seen. You can also see a lot of pine trees.

It was very cold along the way and I can feel my nose dripping when we arrived. The locals said that it is just 15-20 minutes trek to the peak from there so we got a tour guide which is a high school kid. As beginners and totally no experience in trekking mountains, we were catching our breath and immediately felt our knees. So we took a rest and a group shot. 🙂

And then we started taking pictures just to slow down the pace while our tour guide just simply walks in the park. Well it gave us more time to savor each step on the way and each beautiful plants and scenery worth the picture.

Along the way, you can see fresh vegetables that are really enjoying the cool breeze. You will also be welcomed with a wide stone wall that is really awesome when covered with fog.

Group shot from time to time to catch our breath, noobies! 🙂

Thanks to our talented tour guide slash carrier slash NatGeo photographer. Yeah he’s wearing a NatGeo shirt.

It was cold but we were sweating and now we are almost there. When we saw the peak, the race to the top has begun.

Hooray, we made it to the famous Osmeña peak and it feels like cloud 9 as we were literally covered with clouds. All the effort was worth it and you could just stop and stair at the breathtaking scenery. Time check 7:15AM.

We were greeted with strong winds and the fog just kept getting thinker but that didn’t stop us from getting a groupie shot. Yey where’s the background?

While waiting for the sky to clear out, we decided to pitch our tent just below to settle down and get some rest.

When the horizon started to show it was just picture perfect. You can see a beautiful panoramic view of the island and the chocolate-hills-like scenery from the top. You gotta love Mother Nature and it was an escape from reality and from the city.

getting high at Osmeña Peak cebu

Magnificent view from the Peak.

 

 

Unfortunately, we did not stay overnight in Osmeña Peak so by lunch time we went back to the town proper to check out other sites like the Obong Spring and Tingko Beach in Alcoy. We had a great time with nature, get to stretch some muscles, snap one-of-a-kind photos and get to breathe cool fresh air from this adventure. Surely I will go back to this place, stay overnight and traverse to Kawasan Falls next time. And don’t forget to try out their delicious Torta for only P10, perfect pasalubong. 🙂