Alegria Adventure - A Hidden Hotspring

It's not easy finding the time to break away from the mundane. It is even harder to look for that perfect little slice of paradise to get away from it all. So, if ever the universe provides an opportunity, you've got to be ready to charge head on and don't look back!

For our first trip, the wife and I thought long and hard on where to go and what to do. Then we thought, why not go somewhere we could relax? The first thing that popped in my head was "a hot spring would definitely be relaxing". We then scoured the internet for places that have a decent hot spring in Cebu. Two options came up, one in the north and the other in the south. We decided to go with the latter.  Mainit Hot Spring was the name of the place, "mainit" translates to "hot" in English so naturally it would be an obvious choice. The photos from other bloggers looked quite promising as well.

Once packed, we headed for Cebu's South Bus Terminal. Grabbed a quick lunch at Elizabeth Mall, which was conveniently near the terminal and hopped on a bus plying the Bato-Barili route. Normally, it would take you about 3-4 hours to reach Alegria, give or take traffic conditions.

After a hop skip and a bus ride away, we found ourselves in the reception area of D Alegre Traveller's Inn. This seemed to be the perfect focal point as there were a lot of tourist spots near the area.

We have already booked for a non-air conditioned room since the weather was quite cool, plus being away from the city means being away from all the dust and grime we encounter everyday on regular commutes.

The room was very quaint. Sheets were fresh, with complimentary toothpaste and soap. Bathroom was very clean, though it was situated outside of our room, meaning you have to go out of the room to go the the bathroom.






Later that evening, we decided to go out for dinner. We came upon a restaurant called Cosina Organica. The food looked good, and tasted even more so! After our nice leisurely walk back to the Inn, we decided to call it a day so we could get up and head on early to our main attraction, the hot springs.

After having breakfast, we hopped in a bus headed to the outer limits of Malabuyoc. After a few minutes, we arrived at a small crossroads with the green concrete sign (which was stated by other bloggers as the landmark).

Upon talking to the locals there, we discovered that the hot springs was closed (technically). Actually, it was closed earlier in the year due to disputes with the owner of the resort and the owner of the land of which you need to go through to get to the hot springs.









This looked like a dead end for our search for the hot springs. Well, we did not come all this way to just turn back. There seemed to be another way to get across to the hot springs. We're talking about the path less traveled, and by that we meant it literally.

We followed our guide through a swampy path around the disputed land. It was not an easy feat as the rains have made the path very slippery and the danger of slipping and hitting the large rocks were quite real.

At last! We've reached to hot springs. Upon closer inspection of the resort, signs of overgrowth and complete lack of maintenance were quite apparent. Our first thought was of how much of a shame it was to have left this place to rot just because of petty arguments. It had so much potential as a tourist destination, considering how little the number of hot springs were in Cebu.

Alas, all we can do now is enjoy the fleeting moment of relaxation in this nice little slice of paradise hidden away in the southern part of Cebu.

What we found was a running river that spanned the whole length of the resort, and then some. The hot springs were cemented pools that are located in points of the river itself. There were about 3 pools with varying temperatures. Unfortunately, due to lack of preservation, all the pools had collected sand and soot over the past months. One pool was so full of sand that it was unusable. 

After a few hours of relaxing in the hot springs, we felt refreshed and revitalized. We then decided to go back as it was time for us to return home. It was a shame, really. To look at the decrepit state of the resort. It looked like it had so much more to offer since the river leads to a small waterfall. People would have enjoyed trekking through the river and ending up relaxing in the hot spring pools. But instead, the resort was left in a state of decay and seemed to show no sign of getting back up. 










We went back through the path we came in. We may have gone through a different path this time as we found ourselves even further away from the main road. Best thing about being lost is you don't know what you would find. Our little detour gave us amazing scenery that made the long walk quite enjoyable. 

After a satisfying lunch at a local eatery, we made a quick stop at Alegria's public park where we found some ruins. We did not get the chance to get deeper into the ruin's history as the information center was closed on the account of that day being a holiday.

After checking out the sights, we hopped on the next bus going back to the city, thus ending our trip to the south. I can't wait for our next trip!