My first glimpse of this hidden paradise in Bukidnon was truly unforgettable, as it deserves its own post and a special place in my heart. I went here on my first trip to Mindanao with close friends for their engagement session, with the location as a surprise. Going way past the marvelous, sunlit pine trees that hid the lush compound, Cawayanon unravelled lovely sprawling slopes, a romantic lakeside, and a wonderfully quiet post-war American village that served as a perfect haven, my friends’ pastures of youth.

Cawayanon surprisingly took me into an unexpected trip back to innocence – the idyllic provincial life in my childhood I realized too, I have not forgotten at all. Spending summers in a mellow, 50’s wooden bungalow, being wrapped in towering trees and sunkissed flowers in my late grandparents’ homegrown garden, running around fields against a mountain scenery – these vivid memories evoked by Cawayanon’s quiet wonder gave me a newfound light, a renewed optimism at a time I was coping from my hardest days.

Being with likewise sentimental friends on this memory lane trip, Cawayanon has that undeniable magic of binding people and memories together within its divinely peaceful backdrop. Until it welcomes us back into its arms again, thank you Cawayanon, for making me look back at life with such incredible joy and peace.